Meta’s Biggest Quest Game Finally Gets Graphics Update Worthy of Quest 3

Asgard’s Wrath 2 is easily Meta’s biggest first-party Quest game to date. But when it launched almost six months ago it was clear it hadn’t been optimized for Quest 3, the company’s flagship headset. A newly released update finally changes that.

The Update

Asgard’s Wrath 2 finally got a meaty Quest 3 graphics update today. The latest version of the game, v5.0.1535650, brings several gigabytes worth of enhanced textures and shaders that make better use of Quest 3’s impressive resolution.

After downloading the upgrade, players can enable the improved assets by going to Settings → User Interface → Enhanced Rendering Features.

While this setting previously existed, it’s now the toggle for the new improvements as well.

Unfortunately the scope of these improvements means Enhanced Rendering Features can no longer be used at the same time as the game’s 90Hz framerate mode. Players will have to choose between the two, effectively giving  Asgard’s Wrath 2 a ‘Performance Mode’ and ‘Graphics Mode’, a common way for modern console games to let players choose between favoring framerate or visual fidelity.

Not only does the Quest 3 graphics upgrade for Asgard’s Wrath 2 add improved textures, it also features significantly better speculairty—small, bright highlights that give a more realistic look to the textures when seen from various angles. This makes textures look less like cardboard and also makes the game’s lighting overall appear more cohesive.

Quest 2 to Quest 3 Comparison

The Quest 3 graphics update for Asgard’s Wrath 2 shows new levels of detail compared to what players can see on Quest 2. Meta shared a comparison of improvements ranging from small changes in sharpness to completely transformed textures:

The Story

Quest 3 launched in late 2023, right in time to be Meta’s hot holiday product. Alongside the headset, the company prominently advertised its biggest first-party game, Asgard’s Wrath 2, apparently as a headset-seller. The company even bundled the game with Quest 3… or at least promised a free copy once it eventually launched.

It was understandably confusing for those that bought Quest 3 around its mid-October 2023 launch, when it became apparent that Asgard’s Wrath 2 wasn’t actually available to play when the headset hit the market. It would be another two months until the game actually launched, on December 15th, 2023.

But hey, at least it landed in time for Christmas. So those who had already bought it, and anyone lucky enough to open a Quest 3 for the holiday, would be ready to dive into this hot new Quest 3 seller… right?

Well, sure. But there was one problem. When Asgard’s Wrath 2 launched, the game’s visual presentation—though impressive compared to most Quest games—was clearly not tapping the potential of the brand new Quest 3. In fact, it looked very much like the game was primarily optimized with Quest 2 in mind… a headset which at that point was more than three years old.

For a game heavily advertised and directly bundled with Quest 3, this was understandably a let down to players hoping for a game that could really show what the new headset could do.

And ultimately this makes perfect sense. Marketing aside, Quest 2 remains one of the most popular VR headsets—still more popular than Quest 3 by all accounts—so Meta needed to ensure the game played great on Quest 2 as a baseline experience.

Alas, while first-party Meta studio Sanzaru Games did manage to add some Quest 3-specific improvements to Asgard’s Wrath 2 shortly after launch (like increased draw distance, higher resolution rendering, and a better framerate), it still felt like Quest 3 was nearly an afterthought.

While it was two months after Quest 3 launched until players could actually play Asgard’s Wrath 2, and then another five months until it finally got a serious visual enhancement for Quest 3, the game finally feels at home on the company’s flagship headset.