Creed: Rise to Glory is a 2018 Virtual Reality boxing game by Survios, based on the film Creed and the Rocky franchise.
The game is a Pragmatic Adaptation of the movie, where you play as Adonis (Donnie) "Hollywood" Creed as he trains and fights his way onto the world stage. It is set into a series of chapters, each of which distills the action of any Rocky movie - you do a Training Montage, then get into the ring and fight hard while "Gonna Fly Now" plays in the background. This being an active VR game, the training and the fight together provide a decent shadowboxing-esque workout.
The game also includes a multiplayer mode, allowing players to box each other.
The Rocky Legends update added four characters from the older films to play as - Apollo, Drago, Clubber and Rocky himself.
Creed: Rise to Glory provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Every opponent except Conlan is hyped up to be much more dangerous and important than they were in the film - including an unnamed bouncer from the club where Donnie punched out a performer.
- Bullet Time: Successfully slipping a punch may activate a temporary Slow Motion mode and give the player space to counter. Something similar happens can happen if the player triggers any Quick Time Event.
- Combo: Featured in both training and fights. Combos in this VR boxing game are enacted by hitting specific points on the opponent's body in a certain order.
- Continuity Nod: The boxing commentators on "The Distance" mention Tommy Gunn and Mason Dixon once Donnie and Rocky start officially working together.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the game, Donnie is introduced as "Hollywood" Creed in every match, long before he officially takes up that title. And he's wearing the American flag shorts and gloves in every match, too.
- There is an invisible referee who gives 10-count in the back-alley fight.
- On a meta-level - the player's stamina is artificially limited by the game's mechanics. Donnie's punches will stop having an impact after you've thrown 3-4 in a row, and you need to rest/defend while his stamina recharges. This prevents the player from overwhelming opponents with barrages of punches even if they are physically fit enough to perform Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs in real life.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The Conlan fight is an unusual case. The player can only knock down Conlan in the last round, and regardless of how the fight goes, the commentators on "The Distance" will say Donnie lost afterwards. But if the player doesn't go the distance and get that one knockdown, it's game over.
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Licensed Game - Pragmatic Adaptation: This game strips out almost everything from the film except the fights, adds more fights, and re-contextualizes the fights to make Donnie's development feel more like a steady climb to the top than a lucky underdog's story.
- Quick Time Event: This being VR, a QTE involves rapid arm movements rather than button-presses, but the principle is the same. Three kinds of quick time events can happen in a fight:
- The player manages to stun an opponent, triggering an event where the player can unleash a combo.
- The player gets stunned, and has to move their arms into certain position to regain control.
- The player gets knocked down, and has to arm-swing-run (as in Sprint Vector) to get back onto their feet before the end of a 10-count.
- Show Within a Show: "The Distance". The commentators contextualize most of the fights Donnie enters.
- Sports Game: Of the "arcade" variety.
- Training Montage: In classic Rocky style. "Training" is handled as a series of microgames that you aim to complete inside of a time limit. All together, the microgames challenge the player's speed, coordination, and situational awareness.
