[h1] Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Touch controllers [/h1]
[i] Note for Oculus users; Roomscale setup strongly advised [/i]
So I got this on sale for $1.79 from the normal price of $1.99 USD, yeah I'm a cheapskate. Anyways, there's no comparing this game to Thrill of the Fight because this is a $2 game. I can say, without any shadow of the doubt, this is the best $2 boxing game on Steam VR. The question is would you rather spend more for the better Thrill of the Fight or spend less than $2 on this game and get a similar, but lesser, experience?
That's actually a close call believe it or not. This is a decently good game. There's not much bells or whistles to the game. No AAA production values here. The UI is clunky. The boxing AI is not the best, but it's decent enough. I was surprised. And you can block shots or dodge them. I think the description of pure dodgeplay mechanics is misleading by the dev, why he'd want to undersell it though it anyone's guess.
Best of all, I got beat up pretty good by a girl. Normally you'd have to pay a premium dollar for that experience, but not in this game. You will probably need to adjust the distance of the AI boxer. Some of them just fight too far away. So you need to be able to put a few steps forward to engage them. And that's my biggest complaint: if you can't step forward to engage them, they will box you from a distance which just looks silly. Nobody does that in real life. They throw boxes and kicks that have no chance of hitting you. Luckily, not all the AI boxers are that risk advese so it's only a few that you definitely need to be able to take big step forwards or re-arrange how far away they are from you which is in the options. So unless you have a big roomscale, I suggest you change the options so that they are closer to you from the start.
Other than that, I liked the different boxers. They all behaved differently. Some were obviously more into kicking you than punching you. Sadly, you're always boxing in the same environment. There's really no progression. You pick which boxer you want to box and that's it. You get graded afterwards on your effectiveness. I actually knocked out one guy and the ranking was that he bested me .. seriously? I landed more punches too ... who is judging these sparring matches, russian mobsters?
I digress. Most of the negative reviewers seem to be before the mid August 2017 update. Even if the game is abandoned, I'd still recommend it as is. This is a good deal for $2.
Rate 7/10.
