Beat Saber is a VR rhythm game, developed by Hyperbolic Magnetism, a development studio known for their iOS hit, Chameleon Run. Originally released on Steam’s Early Access platform on the 1st May 2018, the game blends the popular music rhythm genre, with the experience of VR. With sabers in hands, the player is tasked with hitting the corresponding notes that come flying towards them; similar in a way to the Guitar Hero franchise.
How to Download Beat Saber
Click on the Download button at the end of the review and you will be on your way to download Beat Saber. The game is available on Steam or in the Oculus Store and its price is $19.99. The game runs only on Windows and at the time of writing there are no PS4 or Xbox One versions available but the developers promise more platforms to come soon.
The Game Review
Beat Saber is a game that while lacking a story, ensures to keep the player engaged from the moment they get used to the mechanics. The main mechanics in Beat Saber is to have the player swing their two VR controllers in correspondence to the notes. These notes fly toward the screen and require the player to hit them in several directions: up, down, left, and right. One of the sabers is blue and one of them is red, meaning the player must hit the red notes with the red saber. While the blue notes will need to be hit by the blue saber respectively. By constantly hitting the correct notes in succession, a multiplier will increase, along with the player’s score.
Occasionally, there will be a wall that comes the player’s way and has to be avoided. To avoid it, the player has to move in such a way as to miss it, such as crouching or moving to one side. Failing to do so will result will reset the multiplier and reduce the player’s overall energy meter. Once that energy meter reaches 0, the song immediately ends and is considered a fail.
Beat Saber is designed to be more about getting better with every subsequent try. At first, the hardest difficulty might come across as an impossible task, but with practice, it just becomes muscle memory for the player. The progression in the game isn’t about any sort of story but revolves around improving as a player. From the start of the game, players can pick and choose from a variety of songs. Many of these songs have a very bass-heavy influence and thus makes it easier to follow the beat and rhythm of the song.
Visually, the game has a very neon-inspired aesthetic to it. Everything that is player-interactable is either red or blue and is visibly easy to recognize. The background is rather minimalistic and consists of very little, except some moving shapes and colorful lasers. These objects though are designed to be out of the way to prevent the player from getting distracted in-game.
When it comes to comparisons, Beat Saber is effectively an amalgamation of Star Wars and Guitar Hero. Notes coming towards the player to time perfectly is something that Guitar Hero has done for years. With the inclusion of the Star Wars franchise, the player has some bright and glowing sabers to play around with as well.
Despite the obvious inspiration from Guitar Hero, Beat Saber manages to remain its own entity, without said comparisons getting in the way. With this in mind, Beat Saber creates a unique VR experience for the genre, that up until now just hadn’t been seen yet. And it definitely ddeservesMadDownload’s 10 out of 10 rating.
