Creed Rise to Glory is a boxing movie tie-in title that originally launched back on PSVR in September 2018, and you can check out our original review through here. Now with the release of a new movie, Creed III, Rise to Glory has been upgraded to the Championship Edition which comes with a whole bunch of bells and whistles to entice newcomers to the franchise, including a brand new campaign, new fitness modes, new arenas, new fighters, and more.
The main addition is another short-lived, hour-long campaign called Legacy, which sees you follow a similar gameplay loop to the original story. You’ll train in a montage of minigames, running on a treadmill, beating up a dummy, hitting pads with your trainer, and striking and dodging what we can only assume is a ballbag. The faster and more accurately you complete these tasks the higher your stamina for the fight ahead. You’ll then be placed into the ring with an opponent from the new movie, with Rocky making a pleasant appearance, and punch it out until either one of you gets knocked out. After a fight you’ll then have to train again to determine your stamina for the next bout, and so the campaign goes on with very little deviation from this formula. Although enjoyably physical, it’s repetitive and exhausting, giving you very little respite.
Although the PSVR2 provides improved visuals, we still found ourselves having the occasional issue with its improved hand tracking. When throwing quick punches, our hands would get caught on the opponent or not return to their resting position in time for the next punch. Don’t get us wrong it is still a major improvement upon the old PS Move controller’s performance, but could be better. Another disappointment is the lack of headset haptics. In boxing you are constantly taking hits to the head and so would expect this feature to have been utilised, however it’s completely absent here.
Other than the two stories that’ll last you no more than three hours in total, there’s also Freeplay, where you can pick and choose opponents or training minigames as you desire. There’s also a competitive online option, as well as a Fitness Mode, where you can set yourself a time or calorie burn goal and put your body through its paces. This latter option is perfect for those that want to utilise Creed as a form of daily workout instead of just a form of entertainment.
With a punch of extra content, Creed Rise to Glory: Championship Edition builds upon its predecessor in all the right ways, improving on the controls, visuals, and spread of content. It’s just a shame that the short, repetitive campaigns, omission of any headset haptics, and occasional tracking issues still leave it short of a knockout blow.
