Who knew Jedi training could be so musically inspired?
Beat Saber is a virtual reality rhythm game made by independent game studio Hyperbolic Magnetism. Lead by founding developers Jan “Split” Ilavsky and Vladimir “Lokiman” Hrincar, the Prague-based team first found great success with their 2016 mobile game Chameleon Run.
Beat Saber is a unique VR rhythm game where your goal is to slash the beats (represented by small cubes) as they are coming at you. Every beat indicates which saber you need to use and also the direction you need to match. All the music is composed to perfectly fit the hand made levels. Our goal is to make players almost dance while cutting the cubes and avoiding obstacles. Each cut is strongly supported by great sound and visual effects to emphasize the rhythm.
Besides the obvious difference of VR control, Beat Saber seemingly acts as a spiritual successor to early rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution. Where it evolves the genre, though, is through its fluid mechanic of slicing and dicing inputs onto ever-changing cubes with advanced hit-box detection.
Although the game officially released on May 1, the developers have decidedly kept their Early Access Game status. Crediting their early release to highly positive initial feedback, the developers state:
All community feedback is dear to us and it will play an integral part in the development process. Community is welcomed to contribute by engaging in a discussion with us, for example by commenting on difficulty of levels, reporting issues or even help with creating new content. Also feel free to send us any suggestions you would like to see in the future version of the game.
Beat Saber also features original music from renowned composer Jaroslav Beck, who has worked on major projects including the Overwatch animated short “Alive” & StarCraft II Legacy of the Void intro cinematic. The game’s promising soundtrack includes gems like the following:
Beat Saber is currently available on Steam and the Oculus Store for $19.99. As mentioned in their Early Access notes, the game price may be raised as more content is added, so if this interests you, grab it now. The game requires VR gear and supports HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Check it out and perhaps you too can achieve high-score transcendence: