FitXR VS BoxVR
Still Worth $30?
In-depth Game Review

This is what many BoxVR fans felt when their favorite BoxVR was untimely transformed into FitXR after the big update on July 30.

FitXR has been drastically changed, and not only in its visual presentation. FitXR is built on a brand new platform, and in fact, after the automatic update, players got another game instead of their go-to fitness game BoxVR.

Currently, the update affected Oculus Quest owners only, but in the future, it will be launched on Steam and PSVR platforms. The players who purchased BoxVR can update their game into FitXR for free; for others, it will cost $29.99. The same buck you would pay for the previous version.

Reviews on Oculus Quest store after 3 days since FitXR launch (02/08/2020):
32% are 5-star reviews
33% are 1-star reviews

As you see, the first reviews leave quite an ambiguous impression.

The 50/50 split means that many people felt frustrated with FitXR. 2 weeks later, as the developers started fixing all the small drawbacks and bugs in a hurry, we see that 53% of reviews are now 5-star reviews.

How has the game changed? Is FitXR still worth $30? Let's dive deeper and see all the pros and cons of the FitXR update.

Playlists are no more a perk of FitXR, but the game compensates it with other bonuses. Now you can filter the music class according to its music type - electronic, pop, rock, or mixed. Thanks to this filter, I have found many fantastic rock music tracks that I fell in love with, like Jay Ray - Paranormal.

Rock music makes me get the most out of my workout. With the fast-paced, a little bit aggressive rock music in FitXR, my punches are getting faster and harder. Say you are not a rock fun? No problem! With a handy class filter, you can easily find the tracks you love.

Multiplayer Mode (Or Is It?)

As FitXR claims on their official page:

Each time you play FitXR, you'll be competing against six other players and will be able to see your progress compared to theirs on the leaderboard. Throughout the game, the leaderboard will show the number of FitXR points each player has gained and their longest explosive streak.

Although the company claimed that FitXR would have the multiplayer function, there is one subtle detail that wasn't published by the company from the beginning.

So-called multiplayer mode is not real-time multiplayer in the sense players would understand it. Now multiplayer is just pre-recorded user sessions. Those ghosts you see around in the gym environment are just random people who have played this class in the past.

The first time I played, I noticed that the opponents stopped moving after the first round while I still was playing. At the end of every class I played, I turned out to be a winner. The first time I decided that the people may have been disconnected during the game. But eventually, the developers admitted on the Quest review board that the multiplayer mode is, in fact, an asynchronous multiplayer. There is a big chance you can meet an older version of yourself during the round, and even beat yourself (which I find weird).

One more drawback that I have also found in a multiplayer FitXR is that it doesn't have a global multiplayer leaderboard, which is not motivating as you cannot show your results to other people and compete with them real-time.

As developers claim, the buggy multiplayer mode will be fixed in the oncoming updates. It would be great because competing with other players makes the game much more vivacious and exciting. I had never made as many explosive strikes as when I knew I was not alone on the arena.

Intensity

The one thing I can say for sure - workouts in FitXR are overall more intense than in BoxVR. But if you need less intense workouts, you can specify it when you create the profile. When you define your level of physical activity, you can choose between the following options:

- "I rarely exercise"
- "I exercise once or twice a week"
- "I exercise regularly"

You will also specify your age and gender so that the game could provide you with the right workout intensity. If you are planning to play FitXR for fun, or you live a low physical activity lifestyle, choose "I rarely exercise" option. If you want a beast-mode challenge for your muscles, pick "I exercise regularly" and choose classes of Intense level. To do it, click "Intense" when you sort the intensity of classes via the filter.

I also think that the new system of strikes is what makes the game more intense. In BoxVR, it was enough to be precise with your punches. Vaguely hitting the orb was enough for getting points.

In FitXR, the strikes are based not only on your accuracy but also on the power of your punch. You should hit the balls harder and with big moves for a good score. When the orbs are quickly flying in a row, hitting them hard is a challenge for your arms and torso. If you want a power streak, be ready to get your clothes drenched!

Explosive Strikes In FitXR

FitXR features a system of explosive strikes. Each time you precisely hit the orb and do it fast enough, you will see an exploding glowing ring. If you do it many times in a row, you earn the explosive strikes. I can confirm that hunting for explosive strikes is the best way to increase heart rate and make some extra pounds fly off.

Classes In FitXR

In FitXR, you have access to both the new and old workouts that you played in BoxVR. To get access, update and open up FitXR, create your profile, and restart the app.

As it was in the previous version, in FitXR, you can choose the class based on length. You are also free to choose a class of a specific instructor, music genre, and decide whether to play it in a multiplayer mode (well, asynchronous multiplayer mode).

Each workout in FitXR has 10 levels. When you start exercising, you begin from the first. The more explosive strikes you make, the faster you reach the next level. I must admit that this system is incredibly motivating. Every punch you make fills the level circle. It makes you want to punch harder to make explosive strikes and reach a higher level.

Each FitXR class has 10 levels

As I played an intense level, I could only reach level 8, and it was very hard. To reach the 10-th level, you need to achieve no less than 90% of FitXR points.

How Are The Calories Calculated?

The calorie calculations within FitXR are based on your movements during exercising and the information you specify in your profile - your age, gender, and fitness level. For some reason, now the game doesn't ask your weight, which is very strange because this can be a decisive factor in the workout results.

While in BoxVR, you could see how many calories you have burned during the workout, now you can see it only when the class is finished. While some people think this is a drawback as it doesn't motivate you to hit harder, others think that not seeing the calories until the end is beneficial. So you get less distraction during the game.

You cannot detect how many calories you burned after a certain workout because now all the calories are summed together. You can only check the total calories you burned that day, week, or month. I think this game design is not very efficient, and the developers should work on it.

Regarding the accuracy of calorie counting - it doesn’t seem to be accurate. 500 calories for a 30-minute workout (this is how much FitXR usually gives for a played class) sounds too far optimistic. Probably, the developers don’t pursue the goal to make the counter realistic. The counter is aimed to help you compare the intensity between 2 different classes inside the game.

Can I Play FitXR Offline?

Yes, you can. To do it you should play these classes online to download them to your Oculus Quest headset. Once the classes are downloaded, you are free to play them offline from everywhere.