Slice up the music with this VR game

Beat Saber is a fun single-player VR rhythm video game wherein you get to slice up glowing blocks to the beat of the music. Developed and published by Beat Games, this game is set in a futuristic neon world that lets you wield two differently-colored lightsabers on each hand, capable of slashing through passing musical cubes. Your goal is to slice as much of them up in the directions indicated on their faces. This game supports virtual reality headsets such as PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest.

A great intro to VR

Beat Saber is considered one of the best and most recommended VR games to play when you’re new to virtual reality gaming or are trying to introduce it to someone. While it only offers one type of gameplay element, it has a solid foundation that makes its replayability quite high. The whole premise is pretty simple: like other rhythm games, “attacking” the oncoming projectiles will reward you with a beat that should be in time with the background music. You get rewarded by how accurate you attack the beat. 

In Beat Saber, you slash open the cubes flying towards you rather than pressing buttons. By default, you use two colored sabers—red and blue, usually—and you have to slice the colored cubes with the corresponding colored saber. The cubes have directional arrows on them at times so you need to slice them in that direction. Some cubes, on the other hand, only have a dot on them and you can slice these in whatever direction. 

Aside from combo streaks, your points are based on how forceful and close to the center of the cube your slashes were so the game is not just about haphazardly flailing your sabers around. The levels can also be pretty dynamic despite you just being required to stand and face one direction most of the time. There are obstacles that will alongside the cubes. Translucent walls require you to avoid with your head and black spiky bombs that will explode and deduct your points upon contact with your sabers. 

Become a musical Jedi

To help you be accurate, the background environment pulses to the beat of the music and even changes in design depending on what’s happening to the soundtrack. If you’re having trouble adjusting to the gameplay, there are three solo mode selections available that can help you train. Standard focuses on coordination and places the colored cubes to which side of you its corresponding saber is being held. No Arrows lets you slice in whichever direction. Lastly, One Saber trains short but efficient slices with one hand.

There are 4 difficulty levels at the start—Easy, Normal, Hard, and Expert—and you can unlock Expert+ afterward. The sudden level jump from Hard to Expert can be jarring but the game can be challenging enough. Cubes can be found in 12 possible positions, and can even approach you at 90° or 360°, depending on the level design. The main campaign only has a small selection of songs but you can get more either via DLC or custom beatmaps created by other players—all thanks to the game’s level editor feature.

This is where this game truly shines, as you can design your own levels with the song of your choice and manually place cubes, walls, and bombs in time with the music. You can also change the color of the sabers used and the whole design of the stage to match the theme of your soundtrack. Cube hit sounds can be disabled or even changed using mods if the song sounds strange with the default hit sound. With an active community of players, there’s no shortage of fun here.

Exercise in VR

All in all, Beat Saber is a highly popular VR game for good reason. Its core gameplay can be easily expanded and experimented on. Plus, with map creators given leeway to design custom levels, you’ll be hard-pressed to be bored with this game. It will definitely keep you in shape with all of that air-slashing.