Step into Del Phi Gym, train, and fight worthy opponents as the underdog Adonis “Hollywood” Creed. This long-awaited title is now finally released and is worth its weight in sweat and quality. Survios new single and multiplayer PvP boxing title Creed: Rise to Glory is a PS VR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift game that fit gamers will need to add to their gaming catalog and fitness routine.

Available On: Steam (Vive, Rift,), Oculus Store (Rift), PlayStation Store (PSVR)

Preparation

To start off, Creed: Rise to Glory or Creed from here on out, starts players off as Adonis Creed in the Del Phi Gym. Like real training, the coach starts by teaching how to block and defend with gloves up. Next, it goes over slow-motion, weaving, and then to practice what you’ve learned on dummies and boxing bags.

Training mode is to be done swiftly to determine your stamina (out of 5 stars) for the upcoming fight. You’ll be doing training throughout the game and in between fights, which is great for keeping the player’s heart rate up. The faster and more accurate you are in the training, the tougher the opponent in the fight.

Creed: Rise to Glory is a very active game, so I recommend that you have a:

Sweatband

Fitness Tracker

VR Cover

Controller safety straps secured around the wrists

Fight space that you can move around in and punch comfortably

Game Tips:

Gloves will blink red when your stamina is critically low

To recover stamina keep gloves up in a block position and don’t move them

Pay attention to your fighters breath for health cues

Opponents will bruise so punch at these spots

Give little jabs to open up your opponent

Once they are open, give them a couple good headshots (it won’t take long)

Intensity 9.5/10

When you head into the first fight, you’ll have to use buttons and arm swings to walk around the ring. Later you’ll earn advanced locomotion where pressing controller buttons while pretending to doggy paddle or speed bag punch in front of you to walk in the game. This on its own raises the heart rate significantly.

Take advantage of advanced locomotion movement when you train for it and unlock it. This will help you bound around the ring and away from being cornered. It also bides you time to collect your punch stamina.

Overall, the intensity of this game is high in athletic training, career mode, freestyle, and PvP boxing bouts. The cinematic location and event titles add a seriousness to the game while the crowd cheering around each ring adds to the intensity of the fight too. The stakes are high, you’re following Apollo Creed’s legacy after all.

With 7 other contenders aside from Adonis to unlock and fight, with tons of training in between fights — Creed’s intensity is off the hook. The intensity of the game and workout depends on your boxer’s training and personal stamina and effort in real life.

Consider the skill level of your opponent and size up what their strengths and weaknesses are. Practice how you identify when and where to throw a punch on that opponent. What works for one fighter might not work for another. Paying attention to these details will add intensity and street smarts behind punches.

For this game review, I played Creed: Rise To Glory for 36 minutes and tracked my workout with an Apple Watch. I started the game in the gym so I could warm up. I did the punching bag and boxing dummies for about 5 minutes, then I jumped into the fights. I played the freestyle mode so I could quickly cycle through fighters without a lot of downtime. Hint: The Philidelphia Back Alley ring starts each fight right away without the announcements before each fight.

Calories Burned: 385

Average Heart Rate: 144BPM

Max Heart Rate: 185BPM

Arms 10/10

Training and essentially shadowboxing a double bag, ducking and dodging the flurry bag use arms heavily. Punching the speed bag, dummies, and even pumping your arms on a treadmill (no legs needed!) is going to ignite your arms, back, shoulders, and chest. Going rounds with 7 fighters or 8 total if you’re including fighting Adonis Creed in PvP or Freeplay attacks the arms in a good way. You will feel the burn and the next day your upper body muscles will be sore.

Legs 7/10

The locomotion arm flurrying movement will get you around the ring and is great for the arms but not so much for the legs. Moving in room scale to duck away from headshots, stabilizing feet during blocks, and putting some force behind punches will keep the quads, thighs, and hamstrings involved. Even though I was using my arms to move around the ring, the amount of ducking and dodging is like doing air squats which adds to the intensity of the game.

Core and Balance 9/10

Standing in a boxer’s stance and staying tight but reactive in the core will keep punches swift and working abs and obliques to your benefit. The legs and the core work together to stabilize balance and footing in this game. Getting punched by other players and characters is disorienting at first and the out of body experience or ghosting effect with hard hits will test core strength and balance.

Time Perception 9/10

Time went by extremely fast. There are lots of training sessions to build up confidence for fights but those actually seemed to take up more time than the fights themselves. Getting a K.O. quickly decreases time perception and amps up confidence. Fighting against an especially scrappy contender or just having a great fight could make matches feel like their 10 minutes, but in reality, it was only 1 or 2. Everyone will perceive time differently, but overall Creed doesn’t feel like it drags on too long or is over before it starts.

Replayability 8/10

Creed: Rise to Glory is a game that you’ll want to keep coming back to. Training made me want to get higher star ratings to earn harder fights. The plethora of opponent strengths, weaknesses, and reactions during fights kept me curious about what I could do with more practice. And going glove to glove with other players online incentivized me to keep coming back. Learning about earned achievements like Grandstanding, Prince of Punch, and Stay on Your Feet also kept me intrigued. PvP is probably the biggest draw for me. Being able to play against a friend or random stranger is awesome and will keep me in the game longer.

Fitness Scalability 10/10

Hands down, this is a workout game. You will burn some serious calories while training in the virtual gym or fighting opponents in the ring. You will also have a blast if you can get your friends online so you can run around the ring, beat each other up and play round after round. I would try out all the different options the game has and try to keep downtime to a minimum if you want to keep your heart rate up.

Social Competition 10/10

The ability to play this game with online friends really makes for a great time. Being able to talk with each other during gameplay adds so much to the experience that you feel like your fighting a real opponent. This made the game for me and will keep me coming back for social VR workouts.

VRFI Final Fit Score 9/10

The Good

Creed: Rise to Glory is a fantastic and well polished VR boxing game with the awesome features like player vs. player. I had so much fun getting in the ring with co-workers while we got a chance to review the game. I also think the game mechanics are great and make the game realistic. Example: When you get knocked down and have to swing your arms wildly to get back to the ring, it’s exhausting. Honestly, this makes the game more realistic because if you were knocked down in a real fight you would be very fatigued getting back up.

Creed needs to be in your library if you take VR and Fitness seriously. Hands down, one of the best VR boxing games out right now.

The Bad

At the time of this review, there is no support for Microsoft Mix Reality headsets but I’m sure that will come at some point. I do wish there were more fighters to choose from. I ran through all of them pretty quickly. Other then that, I don’t have much constructive feedback on this game. I can say that watching your opponents run around the ring in PvP mode can be very amusing sometimes. Their arms can get out of wack while they are locomoting around the ring. This is not a negative but a funny observation. It will keep you laughing during your friendly fights.

VRFI Final Tip

Make sure your play space is totally clear of obstacles and furniture before jumping into the game. Put the pets away and make sure the little ones are not walking around your fighting area. No one wants to accidentally get punched in real life. Have a great workout!