E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, has had lots of exciting VR gaming news this year. In the VR fitness realm, Survios is showcasing their boxing title Creed: Rise to Glory and it’s getting lots of face time with guests here are the expo.
In The Ring With VR Fitness Insider
We stepped inside a life-size boxing ring as Adonis Creed in Creed: Rise to Glory (CRTG) at this year’s GDC in San Francisco and got a sneak peek at what the game looked like in its earlier “Work In Progress” phase. We trained with Rocky Balboa to quickly and easily learn how to play the game with a familiar face, kept our gloves up, our footwork light and fast, and took advantage of our opponent’s guard dropping with some jab and hook shots. We even scored a T.K.O. on our virtual opponent while visiting the Survios and Intel booth at VRLA.
Our team learned that a new VR arm mechanic and fun game feature can exist with Phantom Melee Technology. On first listen, phantom melee sounds like a ghost weapon or a special move that gets activated to buff Adonis, but we quickly learned that CRTG is a full-on arm-swinging sprint towards a body you’ve been knocked out of. Survios already uses this sort of feature to a different degree with Sprint Vector and really dialed this in, making the game challenging physically without it being too hard or punishing to make people wonder why this is a thing.
In the time since getting a K.O. in the entertainment industry’s first studio-backed boxing title (Survios/MGM) at GDC and VRLA, we learned that PSVR headset owners got an exclusive treat — Rocky Balboa as a playable character! The Pride of Philadelphia made a cameo as a beloved trainer but will appear on PlayStation VR as the boxer that started it all. Fans of PSVR, boxing games, and the Rocky/Creed franchises have shared with us that they are excited to get a much-needed AAA boxing game added to the PSVR catalog.
The same fans added that they’d like more boxer customization and an addition of Rocky and Creed’s most aggressive roster of boxers to fight against. For now, CRTG is a single player game with rumors of becoming multiplayer at a later date. Adding in a hypothetical multiplayer where players face-off against each other in a PvP boxing match would definitely amplify the social competition, replayability, and fitness value of the game as a whole. No one’s done it yet, so the gloves are in your favor Survios.
Hands-On At E3
I stop by the Survios Creed demo area at E3 and got my chance to jump in the ring and give it a try. The demo was using Sony Playstation VR. I do have to say that the PSVR looks cool with all the lights in the headset and controllers.
After I made it through the training, the main fight started. Creed does feel similar to the VR boxing games The Thrill of the Fight and Knockout League. Though, once the fight beginnings Creed has it’s own game dynamics which makes it stand out from the rest. The most interesting feature is when you get knocked down. Everything becomes dark and you see the ring in the far distance with you and your opponent in it. You swing your arms like you do in Sprint Vector and your body races back to the ring to fight another round. It’s very effective to get a little extra cardio out of you after you’ve been fighting like crazy. All in all, I had fun playing this demo and started to work up a sweat in the 2 minutes of gameplay. I am looking forward to the game’s release which should be sometime this fall.
Where to Follow Survios and Creed: Rise to Glory
You can stay connected with Survios and Creed: Rise to Glory by visiting their websites, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages. The VR boxing game is expected to get a Fall 2018 release for all top headsets.
