It’s a challenging time around the world with the ongoing global pandemic. However, if you’re feeling a bit frustrated, a new PC VR game might let you take out some of your anger in an unusual way.
Corona Kombat is a new PC VR game available now on Steam, in which you’ll travel through blood vessels while shooting at the virus. While the concept might seem a bit silly, the game was actually developed by a health tech startup, Reducept, with the help of a European grant both for the game development and accompanying clinical research.
While it might be fun to take your pandemic anger out in-game by shooting at the virus, Reducept is hoping that Corona Kombat might be able help people who are struggling with negative mental health effects stemming from the pandemic, with the game pitched as being “supported by the validated effectiveness of CBT [cognitive behavioral therapy], hypnotherapy and mindfulness.”
The basic idea is to release any negative emotions toward something by performing some kind of representative physical action, even if it seems silly. In this case, by traveling through the blood stream and shooting at strands of COVID-19, Reducept is aiming to help people release some of the anger or frustration they might be feeling toward the pandemic in an amusing game.
Whether the game actually helps in that regard is a whole other matter, and will probably depend on the person playing. There’s two modes in question, a relaxing ‘resistance’ mode and a more challenging ‘willpower’ mode.
The game is available now on Steam, and looks like it only supports Oculus Rift headset at the moment, with just keyboard and mouse support for controls. If you try the game out, let us know what you think in the comments below.
