Top 3 VR FPS games to shred the Kilo's

Getting yourself off the couch and exercising can be quite a challenge, no matter the time of year, or even your fitness level.

In wintertime, you’d much rather cosy up on the sofa and have a night in with Netflix, than get out and go for a run.

When it’s raining, you’d rather not get wet and drive to the gym.

In the heat of the summer, it’s much more fun to hang out with friends in the sunshine, than either exert yourself with an outdoor fitness sesh or lock yourself in at the gym.

Motivation to work out is often difficult to tap into – even when you know how good it is for you, and even when you do enjoy giving your body a workout.

However, there is a way to both get some exercise in and have a lot of fun in the process. In fact, there’s a way to work out and not realise you are working out at the same time.

You think I’m full of it right about now but stick with me on this one.

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of the latest development in the world of gaming: VR.

Virtual Reality transports you into a different world, let’s you travel to virtually anywhere, and forget your literal surrounding for a good long while.

And while it may take some getting used to, VR is a great way to have a lot of fun with friends, or even on your own.

What also makes VR great for our purposes is that in this reality you find yourself in, you need to move, jump, crouch, even run to accomplish your goal – in a nutshell, the game is forcing you to exercise, without you actually being aware of it.

Some of the most popular games on VR are First Person Shooter games (FPS for short), and we are about to examine three of them that are great for losing those pounds while shooting some virtual enemies when they least expect it.

Superhot VR

If you’ve ever wanted to feel like James Bond, this is the game for you.

Superhot VR transports you into a very simplified world, in which everything is white. Your own hands (the only thing you can see of yourself) are black, and the enemy is red.

What makes the game thrilling is the speed at which it moves: when you stand still, the game enters slow motion, and you can freely look around and examine your surroundings. Once you start moving or shooting, the game will resume normal speed.

One of the amazing features of the game is your ability to avoid bullets and other deadly objects in slow motion mode: you can literally swish and move around like Superman and avoid being hit.

This opens up an endless avenue of possibilities: and there are numerous ways to get rid of your opponents. You can shoot them, punch them with your fist, attack them with knives, throw your empty gun at them, or even throw hammers and shuriken at their heads.

Said opponents then shatter like glass all around you, leaving you to battle the next wave of attack.

The levels are dynamic and get progressively harder as you move through them, and everyone who’s played the game can testify how frustrating it is when you nearly get to the end of a difficult level and have to start all over again.

There is no health bar in the game, you die from one hit, which can make it annoying but highly enjoyable at the same time. You will have to wait a bit to respawn, but it won’t take too long.

What makes this game great in terms of shedding those pounds is the plethora of movement it demands – there you are, moving and twisting and spinning around to avoid bullets, jumping and crouching and trying to wrest a gun from your opponents' hands.

A great choice for first-time VR players and everyone who’s into challenging and fun FPS games. You can play Superhot VR on Oculus Rift.

Onward

Onward is a very realistic military shooter game. It is still in its early access stage, so we can only expect it to get even better as time moves on.

You can play both offline, as a single player, or play online in multiplayer. The sessions themselves are mostly objective-based, but there is also the option of going on a classic “eliminate all opponents” quest.

What makes this game special is how real it is: you will literally have to run, crouch, jump, sneak up, shoot and take cover yourself. It’s nothing like an FPS game played on a computer via keyboard and mouse: this is all your own movement.

If you want to use your mic, you’ll have to reach for your shoulder and hold it, if you want to reload your gun, you’ll have to reach for a pack at your belt and do it, you have to take aim (and potentially miss). You can also shoot without looking where you are shooting, throw your gun in the air and catch it, and basically, do anything you can think of in the real world.

When crouching behind cover, you’ll only have a field of vision you’d have in real life – and you will be just as exposed to enemy fire.

The game is extremely immersive: you’ll feel your heart pounding and your blood rushing from having just run across no man’s land through enemy fire. It is so good that you will feel your controller shaking as you fire or use a knife. And as in real life, there is no coming back – when you are dead, you are dead.

If you are looking for something more real and completely thrilling, or if you’ve always wanted to join the army but prefer to stay safe in your own home, Onward is a great choice. It is also available on Oculus Rift.

Contractors

Contractors is another military shooter, that takes it one step further than even Onward. It is also in its early access stage, and if this is it now, we can only imagine how good it will get.

The game invites you to engage in next-level warfare: you have to keep moving, find items across the board and is real enough to keep you awake at night.

You will once again have to do every action yourself: find your gun, find the right magazine, load, reload, and do all of this while under fire. It will take some getting used to, while you learn where you keep different items in your belt or strapped to your back, but once you do, the fun can be endless.

There is no jumping in this one, but you can slide across the floor, giving you an added edge against your enemies. You can, however, choose your own kit, which allows for plenty of options.

Depending on your choices, you will be weighed down by your armour and gun (if you choose something heavy) or will be light on your feet with lighter armour and gun.

What really sells this game though is the graphics. Contractors use an Unreal engine that makes it probably the best-looking VR game that has come out so far.

You can choose to battle bots or humans, and the immersive qualities of VR will instantly transport you to a battlefield, and keep you occupied for months on end. As strategy and precision are key, you will need to hone both in this game to stay alive.

The game is also available on Oculus Rift.

How to make your VR sessions even more powerful

From everything you’ve just read, you can already conclude that playing an FPS game on VR requires a lot of effort – movement, precision, and some actual training.

This alone is a workout in itself, but you can make it even more effective by adding a weight vest to it.

A weight vest is added to your core (not to say trunk) and will add weight to your body, and not your extremities. This means that you will need to exert a bit more effort each time you turn around, jump, crawl and generally move around to save your life.

When you squat with a weight vest, you instantly burn more calories due to the added weight, and you are also building shoulder strength at the same time. The added resistance of the vest will boost your fat- and calorie-burning instantly, and turn something you previously considered a fun relaxation sesh (though how relaxed you are under fire is questionable), into a proper workout.

Get yourself a weight vest to go with your VR gaming setup, and enjoy the added benefits of virtual reality – calorie burn.

Remember to start small and slow, and gradually increase the weight as time goes on – don’t put all of the weight on at once, and work your way up slowly.

Final word

Working out only needs to be as hard as you make it – and with a VR – weighted vest combo, it doesn’t need to be hard at all.

Well, it won’t be hard to get yourself to do it. It will be a bit hard to get used to the gameplay, and the added weight of your body, but all that will fade away very quickly, as you are faced with the first shots coming in your direction.

Remember: aim small, miss small, and keep your head down!