Creed: Rise To Glory – a stealth fitness game (pic: Survios)

GameCentral takes on the new PSVR2 update of one of the best VR boxing games around and gets an unexpected workout at the same time.

Following the Rocky franchise’s distinctly variable success rate, the spin-off series of Creed movies has been much more consistent in its quality control. It’s these newer films that inspire Creed: Rise To Glory – Championship Edition, a sequel to the similarly titled 2018 original. Once again you’ll be heading into the ring as Adonis Creed, offspring of the famous Apollo Creed, with the mighty Rocky Balboa as your coach.

Starting in a humble L.A. gym, as no more than a boxing glove-wearing nepo baby, you need to begin with physical training, which in line with its cinematic inspiration is delivered in montage form. Running segues into punching a dummy or a hanging side of beef, then a medicine ball connected to long pieces of elastic, and finally sparring gently with Rocky. Completing training accurately and quickly gives you more stamina for your next bout.

That’s important because stamina governs how many punches you can throw with each arm before getting tired, your glove glowing red to warn you that any further blows with that hand will be ineffective at best. The best way to recover is to keep your fists together to block incoming punches to your face, while resisting the urge to hit back for a few seconds.

Land a series of solid blows and you’ll stagger your opponent, letting you move in for a knockdown. It feels pretty good when it happens but is also one of the most serious threats to TV integrity that VR has ever seen. We found it safer to reorientate the play area, so we were facing away from the telly, thereby lessening the risk of catastrophic accidental screen punching.

Your new OLED TV isn’t the only thing you’ll be nervous about damaging. Gamers who are perhaps a little out of shape will also find this dangerously close to actual exercise, with even the pre-match training leaving us breathless and sticky. Setting up a fan helped a bit, but it’s fair to say that your rise to glory will supply a fair amount of upper body cardiac conditioning along with the VR entertainment.

Fights themselves are satisfyingly tactical. Swinging like a madman might land the odd successful blow, but it also drains your stamina in short order, leaving you vulnerable and frustratingly unable to take advantage of any openings that might appear as your antagonist overreaches or you manage to duck a haymaker. Far better to bide your time, blocking and dodging punches, waiting for a moment to unleash a flurry of counters.

When your opponent (or practise medicine ball) lands a decent hit to your face, a ghost image of your boxer appears in front of you, giving you a few seconds to match the position of his outstretched gloves. Do it in time and you’ll recover; fail and you’ll be stunned. This will also be the part of the game that does the most damage to low hanging light fixtures, something else to be aware of while adapting your play area.

The final element is the power of your punches, with the speed and force of blows taken into account by the game to determine the damage they do. Even when stamina’s high, making lacklustre jabs will be little more than a distraction to your antagonist, while strong punches wear them down and eventually knock them out. It’s a feature of the game that tends to make it even more strenuous in its side hustle as stealth fitness coach.

Creed: Rise To Glory – that looks like it hurt (pic: Survios)

The combination of fast, physically demanding training and mildly tactical, equally kinetic fights is highly entertaining, interspersed as it is with radio reports of your victories and team talks from Rocky. There’s even a scandalous night when you beat up a bouncer, but despite the asides and training, you’ll find yourself heavyweight champion of the world in well under two hours, which feels distinctly stingy for the price tag.

Upping the difficulty will certainly extend that, making fights longer and more strategic. It also makes the whole process even more physically demanding, and if, like us, you’re not in the absolute best shape of your life, it’ll make days two and three of play feel as though you’ve genuinely gone a few rounds with a boxer. Naturally it’s a righteous pain, but one that’s not usually a hazard of playing video games.

The Championship Edition adds PvP and online matchmaking, which wasn’t overwhelmed with contenders when we tested it. There’s also a short-lived legacy mode, where you fight boxers from Creed III, and endurance mode that removes the game’s stamina meter, meaning you and your opponent can keep punching until your arms can’t punch any more in real life; a state that arrives with alarming rapidity.

There are occasional crashes, and for a game about being punched in the face, it’s weird that it makes no use of the PlayStation VR2 headset’s rumble effect, but despite its undoubted brevity it’s entertaining while it lasts. It also helps a bit with upper body fitness, which for many gamers will be a pleasant – if somewhat painful – side effect.

Formats: PlayStation VR2 (reviewed), PC VR, and Meta Quest 2
Price: £32.99
Developer: Survios
Publisher: Survios
Release Date: 4th April 2023
Age Rating: 16

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GameCentral takes on the new PSVR2 update of one of the best VR boxing games around and gets an unexpected workout at the same time.