Now Playing: Beat Saber (VR)

Beat Saber is one of – if not the most – consistently popular VR game on Steam. I’ve enjoyed various rhythm games in the past, but I wasn’t too sure if I’d like Beat Saber. It appeared to me (like a number of other VR games I’ve covered) to be a little too reliant upon community created content. But I decided recently to pick it up and give it a spin. With more than twenty hours now clocked, I figured it was time to write my review.

And I’m pleased to say that Beat Saber is an excellent rhythm game – with or without player mods. I don’t really like factoring player content into my reviews. I prefer to review what’s on offer in the base game, even if player content significantly increases the quality or value. Because in my view, no game should rely upon community content.

And the thing I like most about Beat Saber is how it offers a pretty substantial and high quality level of content within the base game. There’s a challenging and enjoyable campaign mode that takes you through the difficulty settings from easy to expert in a way that eases you into each.

There’s a primary ‘path’ you can follow to reach the end, but there’s also side objectives to complete. And the missions aren’t just about beating songs – they may require specific objectives to be met, such as a minimum or maximum level of arm movement, or a minimum combo string. It can take multiple tries to beat some of the later levels, maybe even using the practice mode to slow down tracks and learn the note patterns.

But with enough persistence, patience and practice, you’ll get through it, and what initially seemed impossible, will suddenly be achievable. It can also give you a pretty good work out. I can’t remember the last time I felt such elation at beating a difficult stage, before sinking to my knees, utterly exhausted.

The core gameplay is pretty simple – cut through coloured notes in the direction indicated upon each note. The game begins with a sedate pace, but once you hit the expert levels, you’ll be slicing through notes at a rate of 3-4 or more a second. Some tracks are so fast, with such complex note arrangements that you won’t have time to ‘read’ the upcoming notes – you’ll be relying entirely upon muscle memory. And when you enter that ‘zone’ where your body is reacting faster than your brain can comprehend, it’s a pretty sweet feeling.

Beyond the campaign, Beat Saber offers a great solo mode where you can play through all of the tracks on any difficulty and using various modifiers. There’s options to customise the colour and style of the notes and your virtual environment. The practice mode is also very handy, allowing you to speed up or slow down tracks and even load into specific sections if there’s a tricky combo you can’t quite seem to hit.

Beat Saber, like so many rhythm games before it, also has song DLC, but I don’t see myself picking any up at £1.69 per track. It might not seem like much, but it adds up fast if you want to buy several tracks, especially if you only end up playing each track a couple of times.

But the question is, why waste money on tracks when you can build your own for free in the included level editor? I’ve had a lot of fun using it, even though I can’t say my custom tracks are quite up to the standard of the official ones.

And that leads me onto player mods, and more specifically – player custom songs. Beat Saber has been out for a few years now and there are hundreds of custom songs to download. Of course, the quality of player content will vary but fortunately, there’s a pretty good curation system in place on bsaber.com to help you select your tracks.

The only issue I really have with the player content is how a lot of tracks I’ve sampled seem less concerned with building a track arrangement that flows to the rhythm of the song, and more about making it as tricky as possible. Seriously, the song almost doesn’t matter because the notes aren’t in time to the beat at all.

But still, with hundreds of free tracks to try, it’s not like you won’t find a decent amount that you’ll like. And, as I’ve said, Beat Saber doesn’t rely upon this community content. The base content alone is well worth the price. The mods and custom songs simply increase the value.

Overall, Beat Saber is a great rhythm game and definitely worth checking out if you’ve got a VR set. It’s fun and it’s simple for new players, but there’s plenty of depth and scope to improve for those who really want to test their limits. And with the included editor and custom songs, you certainly won’t be short on content.

8/10