Are you tired of VR rhythm games looking and sounding like Beat Saber? Do you want to unleash your inner Viking and get a great workout at the same time? If you love metal and rock music, then Ragnarock may be the perfect VR fitness game for you.
In Ragnarock, you play as a Viking captain, drumming your way to victory. The gameplay is simple and similar to Guitar Hero. The more runes you correctly hit on time with your hammers, the further you and your bearded Viking crew will travel. The goal is to travel as far as possible.
Verdict
Table of Contents
About Ragnarock
| Release Date | 15 July 2021 |
| Developer | WanadevStudio |
| Rating on Oculus store with # of reviews | 4.7/5 (1,150) |
| % of upvotes on Steam with # of Reviews | 94% (2,437) |
| Genre | Music & Rhythm, Sports |
| Replayability | Extremely High |
Video Review
Gameplay
Forget story or campaign. Ragnarock offers two just game modes: solo and online multiplayer. In solo mode, you race against your previous personal best. While in multiplayer mode, you can compete against up to 5 other Viking captains. Each song has three different difficulty levels, with increasing complexity and more runes to hit. The more runes you hit, the further you go. As you successfully streak consecutive hammer strikes, the power bar fills up on your hammers. Once it reaches full power, you can slam the gong on either side of you and your crew will be motivated to power forward for a short burst of speed.
Players strive to achieve target distances and earn medals (bronze, silver, gold). There are also online leaderboards and challenging achievements for players to strive for.
You can customize your boat, character model, and hammers, but the main point is to pick a song and rock out.
Fitness Intensity
There are two different play styles that will impact how physically demanding this game is.
Progressing with difficult songs: The most common way to progress in rhythm games is to take on more difficult and faster songs as you improve. While this can feel like a great sense of progression, it’s not the best way to workout. As the runes get faster and faster, you will have to drastically limit your range of motion. Once you get to about level four and above, the notes will be coming at you so fast that you will only be using your wrist. While this can provide a good cardiovascular workout, the amount of muscle recruitment is limited, dampening the effects of a workout.
Slamming easy songs: The way that I prefer to play Ragnarock is to stick to songs on the easiest difficulty. Instead of worrying about my high score, all I focus on is absolutely destroying the drums in front of me with my hammers. The motion is almost like a battle rope exercise. I start by lifting my arms above my head then slamming down down all the way using a full range of motion while keeping my core tight. This makes for a great upper body workout.
How Many Calories can you Burn Playing Ragnarock?
In a 20 minute session of Ragnarock, I repeatedly played the Offspring on the easiest difficulty using the slamming method above. My stats were recording using a Garmin Forerunner smartwatch.
- Approximately, 10 calories per minute can be burned playing Ragnarock.
- Average heart rate of 136 BPM
- High Heart rate of 146 BPM
- 218 Total Calories burnt in 20:13 minutes
The game is massively upper body focused, and swinging down the mighty hammers will work out your shoulders, arms, and lats, all while keeping your core tight.
This is more intense that Beat Saber but less intense than Les Mills Body Combat.
Immersion
Perhaps I’m a bit biased here, the game is very immersive for me as I love the Viking genre. The base music is absolutely on theme and transports you to battle. My time perception goes completely out the window. When setting out to do a 20-minute workout, I often end up playing for 40 minutes later. If I had to pick one thing to improve it would be the graphics. Ragnarock has a very cartoony and cheap look which is probably what puts people off trying it in the first place.
Replayability: Is Ragnarock worth it?
Absolutely. It retails for about 20 bucks, but goes on sale all the time. Even with the base game alone, it is unique enough and offers such a good upper body workout that it deserves a space in your library. And, like all good rhythm games, it has music packs and the ability to include custom songs, giving it even more longevity.
How to get custom Songs into Ragnarock for Quest and Steam?
Head on over to Ragnacustoms. At the time of writing they have over 1000 custom songs to choose from. You can either use a one click installer or download the zip filers manually and put them in the correct folder.