Since it was released on to Steam Early access, Beat Saber has become something of a phenomenon. The online leader boards are filled with players striving to reach those high scores, and of course VRFocus staff have been practising and bring you a bit of gameplay in Hard mode.
Bringing the same kind of fluid, satisfying gameplay as rhythm games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, Beat Saber is an action-rhythm virtual reality (VR) title where the player wields a pair of lightsaber-like swords and slices up blocks.
Of course, it isn’t quite that simple. Each block has an arrow, so the player needs to slice in that direction, and keep the the beat of the music. If successful, you are rewarded with a more beautiful and complex form of the playing music, which makes for a very satisfying playing experience.
That’s not all, though, for more experienced players there is ‘No Arrow’ mode. This means that all the arrows on the blocks go away, so the player is free to choose whichever direction cut is most efficient. Don’t think that learning the block layout in regular mode will help, though, since the No Arrow mode offers a different beat chart to add to the difficulty.
VRFocus were lucky enough to try the title for a preview, and said: “Beat Saber works excellently at everything it sets out to do. It can easily eat vast amounts of your time without you even realising it as you fight to get a perfect score. The gameplay is extremely satisfying while still being very simple and is the sort of thing that would serve as a great introduction to VR.”
Developer Hyperbolic Magnetism are regularly updating Beat Saber with new tracks in the various modes. You can also check out our previous Beat Saber gameplay video. VRFocus will bring you updates on Beat Saber as it becomes available.