Shardfall: FitQuest VR Review [Gameplay and Workout Stats]

Shardfall: FitQuest VR is a high intensity full body VR Fitness game. Here’s my thoughts on the gameplay and how it holds up as a VR workout.

About

Release Date	07 Jan 2025
Developer	Quell Tech LTD
Genre	Fitness & Wellness, Sports
Time to beat main story	NA
Replayability	Extremely High

Quest

Gameplay

The core gameplay loop is you’ll be running on the spot for about 2-3 minutes and jumping and ducking over obstacles then you’ll have an encounter. These different enemies have unique mechanics so for example a blockade blocks different styles of attacks so you have to change up your punch combinations on the fly. Whereas a Thornling will occasionally jump backwards to launch some attacks you’ll have to duck or squat under it.

So essentially shadow boxing is the core combat mechanic with your straights, hooks and upper cuts but you also have a magic attack and heal which you can use in a tight spot.

After each encounter you’re given an upgrade choice called a blessing, bringing in a roguelike element into the game which will just last for that session and it might slightly change how you play.

This repeats 3 times and you can actually extend the session to keep going if you’ve still got some gas in the tank. Toward the end of session and you’ll be met with an enraged encounter, where all the bad dudes do more powerful attacks and if you’ve been playing well enough and earned enough rage you’ll also summon a shard guardian to take on. 

Once you’ve finished the session the world levels up and you’ll unlock stronger enemies but you’re also rewarded with Rage. Rage determines the quality of the rewards you receive at the end of your session, usually Gauntlet parts and upgrades via Fabricators that make you more powerful for your next session. This brings the RPG and progression system into the game.

Fitness Intensity

Level 1:

Here I attempted to turn it into a more mobility focused game so I enabled the auto run feature and instead of running stretched out my hip flexors or sat in a deep squat allowing my heart rate to come way down between each set. 

In 25 minutes I had an burnt 

Level 2:

In this run I’m using a resistance band set up to slightly increase the difficulty of the shadow boxing sections and also jogging on the spot, they do suggest to use this time as a bit of active recovery so I’m not really sprinting and instead focusing on the combat sections to be the working set. So here I had an average heart rate of 120, Sort of similar to what I get playing rhythm games like Audio Trip.

Level 3:

So then I decided to fully send it, once again using the resistance set up and really putting maximum effort in with the shadow boxing section, but instead of running, I did non-stop body weight squats. And not surprisingly, it absolutely kicked me around. Here I burned 305 calories in just 22 minutes and got into threshold training, that’s basically as tough of a VR Fitness gets. 

So just like any VR fitness game it really is what you put into and it does have quite a high ceiling if you make these adaptations. 

Video version

Overall