Fitness is something we all hear about, but do we do enough of it ourselves to warrant the better health we all deserve and need? From anything from running to sports to just any type of movement, the things our bodies can put up with when you think about it is a great deal and most of us just need to find the time and mindset to get into it. But does developer FIT REALITY show us how to move and get us working towards us becoming better physically? Let’s find out with VIRO MOVE for PCVR.
Viro Move is an innovative adrenaline-pumping VR fitness experience that combines the excitement of VR gameplay with a real-life workout. Choose between high-intensity workouts or chillout motor skills training routines. Bringing results of training, but also in a fun engaging way that will adapt to your specific fitness needs, abilities, and current shape that over time, can help make you healthier, stronger, fitter, and happier about who you can become.
So before we get into everything there will be a few things that you will want to make sure of. First, clear some space as you will be moving, dodging, punching, and swinging. No need to hit anything or anyone (including pets). Second, stretch. I cannot say this enough. Before doing any activity regardless if you think you have it or not, stretch, you and your body will thank you later on. And finally, make sure your controllers are charged. You don’t want to be going for some record or a high score only to have your controllers die because you didn’t charge them or replace the batteries in them. With that said, let’s continue.
When you first start VIRO MOVE, you will need to pick a username. Sorry if you wanted to have spaces in your name or have a long name. You may have to abbreviate some, but it’s alright. There will also be a downloading content moment. It doesn’t take too long depending on your connection. At the main menu, you are given three choices. Do you want to do the challenges, start your career, or do you enter the playlists? At the very top right you will see the settings gear. Here is where you can unlock new gear and rewards, see your stats, calibration, along with any settings you need to adjust.
Before you can get into the challenges which are taken from the hardest in the game, you will need to finish Swords or Weapon Master level from the Career or Playlist Modes in order to enter them as well as a Hot Seat Mode. Entering Career Mode, there are only four different skills that you can do. You can select from Boxing, Shooting, Swords, and Weapon Master. Before you begin any of the different events, you will also need to put in your weight, height, and select your gender. Each mode has over 18 levels to try and get your highest score and after each level, you can see how well you did on the scoreboard against others. In the Hot Seat Mode, you can share your headset with other players to see who is the healthiest, fittest, and fastest of our party.
Boxing has you boxing and blocking different color orbs. Your left hand hits the orange orbs and your right hits the blue orbs. You will also need to dodge or sidestep the floating pieces of rock that come your way. Remember to try and hit the orbs as hard as you can as you will earn more points.
Shooting will have you shooting targets (drones) as well as dodging any fire that the target sends your way. Shooting the targets is pretty straightforward as you need to wait for the marker to appear around the target in order to shoot it. Any drones you don’t destroy will take away some of your health. But the good thing is when you earn points, some of your health recovers. There will also be some orbs floating towards you that you can hit to help with your health as well.
In Swords, you will have two blades to slice the orbs as they come towards you. Like in Shooting, if you miss an orb, some of your health will go away, but every time you earn points, some of your health is gained back. As in Boxing, you will receive more points for slicing harder. But you also want to avoid any walls that you can to try and keep your score as high as possible.
In Weapon Master, you will need to switch between Boxing, Shooting, and Swords depending on the target. Place both hands behind your back and pull both triggers to activate the boxing gloves, stretch out your arms in front of your chest and pull both triggers to activate the guns, and reach over your shoulders to switch to the swords. This may be my favorite mode to play out of them all because of the challenge it forces to switch weapons. It’s just remembering those actions of how to switch weapons that can get a little frustrating, but once you have it, you can become a weapon master in no time.
Let’s talk about the graphics and sound. I did really enjoy the different environments that came about. Probably one of my favorites is seeing the hot air balloon in the sky and just seeing the sun rising just enough over the mountains. The videos above do not do justice to how well VIRO MOVE looks in VR. Everything looked clean and sharp almost like how it would be if you were actually in these places. Reading the scores or even the names on the leaderboards were very clear and very easy to read which I appreciate. With the sound, the music was pumping and got me moving. There is a voice that encourages you to keep moving as trying to keep you motivated. Nothing was too loud or off balance to distract you from the goal of it all.
There are some things that I hope get addressed. For one, I hope that there will be different events that come along. Not saying any of these are bad, but for some, they may feel that they have done these before. FIT REALITY has done a very good job of adding some things in here to enhance your VR fitness routine, but it would be nice to see some different events come along. Second, I really did enjoy the music that is presented here. But everyone has different music tastes. If there was a way to incorporate our own music into the mix or having a choice of music genres would be beneficial here for some. And finally, I love the leaderboards as well as seeing your score and calories being burned in each level of the different modes as it gives you a chance to better yourself and claim that top spot. Maybe adding a way to work out with a friend in multiplayer would add even more motivation for others. Is it needed, no, but adding more options is always a good thing.
VIRO MOVE gives us the opportunity to work to try and become a better person while allowing us to move. There are times in our life when we are mentally not up for the challenge, but we can all become a better version of ourselves if we just take that necessary step both physically and mentally in the right direction.
VIRO MOVE is out now on Steam along with a free demo and coming soon to Oculus Store and Viveport. A review code was provided.
To learn more about FIT REALITY, please visit the site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I have some of my personal scores to try and beat.
