One of VR’s shining achievements in melee combat so far has been Blade and Sorcery. While tons of full, story-driven titles have shown off impressive physics and combat systems of their own, no other game has managed to match the physicality of Blade and Sorcery. A lot of titles think that flailing your arm weakly with a sword is enough to justify taking down an enemy. This is far from the case here. Although just a combat simulator, the fantastic modders of the world have transformed it into something else entirely. Whether you fancy Star Wars battles, Game of thrones weapon sets, flying around with Iron Man blasters, or taking down enemies with Samurai weapons, the modding world of Blade and Sorcery has you covered. Not only do these mods help make the game more fun to play, but they can also turn your gameplay sessions into quite the workout as well. These workouts are not for the faint of heart though, Blade and Sorcery is one of the most violent and brutal VR games around and this workout will involve some pretty gory scenes, continue accordingly
Sword and Shield with Sharp AI
Plenty of VR games have a sword and shield mechanic, but Blade and Sorcery is the only one that truly has any feel of physics and weight to it. How this workout goes is you equip a one-handed sword and shield and take on the hardest waves of the sharp AI mod. This mod changes the AI in the game to become far more aggressive than the jog up to you and die AI that the normal game tends to employ. While your newly aggressive opponents come at you, you must limit yourself to a defend, then attack mentality. With your shield, you can swat away incoming attacks. After you deflect, employ strictly horizontal and vertical sword swings. This swat away and attack mechanic works your triceps, forearms, and biceps depending on where you’re blocking from and you can select an endless mode with sharp AI and play this way until you tire out.
The Outer Rim, Force Power Workout
It’s been a dream of Star Wars fans for years to feel what’s it’s like to wield a lightsaber in real life. The Outer Rim does just this. While you’re wielding your lightsaber, you also have access to a force pull and push type of power. This is where our workout will begin. Using weighted gloves, enter an arena with no weapons equipped, and begin a round. Use only the force push and pull mechanic to fight. You’ll be hurling entire groups of enemies around like some kind of killer conductor and you’ll find the motions you use to pick opponents up and slam them down are identical to bicep curls and pulldown exercises that workout your entire upper body. It’s a bit of a violent way to get a muscle burn in but hey, throw on your best Darth Vader impression and use the Star Wars Battles mod to set the scene complete with music too, if you’re doing this workout, you’ve been turned to the dark side.
The Hammer Swing Workout
This one doesn’t require mods to act out, but there are some fantastic hammer based weapons available for mods too such as ones from Game of Thrones, Marvel etc. The basis of this workout is to utilize these blunt weapons’ sweep function. You see, when you attack an enemies legs with a blade, it just cuts right through. With a hammer though, you merely sweep them off their feet, priming them for the killing blow. That’s the movement we’re going to do here. As an enemy approaches, use two hands to hold the hammer and swing in a golf club like motion to knock an enemy off their feet. Once down, swing the hammer up and over your head then chop downward to finish them off. A brutal visual feast for sure, but this is a great way to get your core involved in Blade and Sorcery and works your arms and legs as well if you want to jump into your finishing blow.
The Avengers workout
Yup, you’re not just limited to medieval weaponry and Star Wars in Blade and Sorcery; Marvel comes to play as well. I’ll breakdown how each mod works for you.
Captain America’ Shield-
This nifty little mod gives you the iconic shield of Captain America to fight with, complete with the ability to call it back to you after you throw it. There are two ways to get a great workout using the shield. The first is through melee combat. Equipping the shield lets you bash anyone in your path as well as using your other hand to deal damage with your fists. We’re going to be using both here to get our sweat going. We’re going to alternate shield bashes with our punches for a full round against one of the many group options. The swinging motion with the shield is similar to chest flys with dumbells that workout both your chest and your arms and your other arm will be primarily punching and grabbing. Once you finish doing this, switch shield to your other arm and do the same thing so you get a balanced exercise
Iron Man-
This one is pretty simple but still effective. For the Iron Man suit to work for you, you have to hold your hands outward from your body to fire blasts at enemies. How we’re going to use this to create an exercise is by holding both hands in front of your body and then bending and them in and pushing them outward again. Think about what close grip bench press form looks like and you’ll get the idea here. Feel free to use whichever enemy groups to fight that you’d like as basically none of them will be a match for you and your futuristic weaponry.
Wolverine-
Don the claws of Marvel’s most popular superhero and not only will you feel power like you’ve never felt in VR, but you’ll get a hell of an arm workout after it as well. How this works is while you’re using the claws, have your hands up at all times in defensive mode much like you would have as a boxer. For your attacks, keep them structured with straight jabs, uppercuts, and crosses. No wild slashing like a maniac as much as you might feel compelled to. While fighting, you’re also going to be pumping your arms to use the game’s natural locomotion mechanic to run. This way we’re going to get the full-on immersive feel of the super speed and strength Wolverine possesses and we’re going to feel it.
Unarmed Combat Overhaul Workout-
This one is pretty self-explanatory, but this mod turns Blade and Sorcery into fight club. It adds several waves of unarmed foes, changes up melee combat sounds as well as damage and gives a perfectly realized depiction of VR hand to hand combat. With the sharp AI installed as well, the enemies come fast and furious and while you can block them, the blows are going to be coming from all sides. For this workout, we’re just going to be boxing. Hands up at all times covering your face and because Blade and Sorcery takes physics seriously, you’re going to have to really punch to do the damage needed to cause knockouts. You can also pick up and throw your enemies into each other as well. If you’ve ever wanted to be Bruce Lee, this is the mod to make that happen.
Pace AI workout-
The Pace AI mod is similar to Sharp AI, with the big difference being in how enemies try to attack you. Pace AI causes enemies to follow up their strikes at your and also has them attacking in groups rather than waiting their turn like they normally do. This means you better get ready to do a whole lot of parrying. I’ve found this works best with two-handed swords as you’ll really feel a good burn in your shoulders after 15 minutes or so. It also can turn in a solid workout for your legs as well because many of these follow up attacks the enemies now perform can be ducked, jumped over, or dodged by hopping side to side. Pace AI can also be used in combination with any of the above mods and can increase the physical limit you’ll be pushed to during your playtime.
Blade and Sorcery is available on Steam and Oculus and offers some of the best combat and most physically exhausting gameplay all while allowing you to live out famous battles and try out iconic weapons you’ve been dreaming about for years. These are just some of the mods that can help make your workout more fun and intense, but there are hundreds more that you can explore.
