The popular rhythm game Beat Saber, available on virtual reality headsets like PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift, will introduce brand-new block varieties in a coming update. The VR experience, developed by Beat Games, immerses players in a neon environment and tasks them with using swords to slice blocks to the beat of a song. By February 2021 Beat Saber sold four million copies, likely making it the most popular virtual reality game on the market.
Beat Saber combines rhythm reaction and immersive combat, allowing players to slash flying blocks with a pair of swords. The red and blue blocks move to the beat of the chosen song, and the player must slice each block with the sword of the same color to create an intense dance routine. The popular title has also received post-launch support from Beat Games, with a song editor released about a year after launch. This tool lets players add custom songs to the rhythmic project, with one example being the addition of "Toss A Coin To Your Witcher" to Beat Saber by a fan of Netflix's Witcher series.
Revealed by Beat Saber via Twitter, an upcoming update will add brand-new block varieties to the VR rhythm experience. Usually players simply slice blocks once, but new types will add even more challenge to the experience. A long segmented block, called the Slider, seems to force gamers to follow through a strike in a certain direction in order to maintain the song's rhythm. Faint lines can also be seen leading into other blocks, which may be a new training mechanic or another new type of block that requires extreme precision to hit correctly. On Twitter Beat Saber's lead level designer, known as Freeek, revealed that the blocks will only be included in future maps rather than added to old maps.
While virtual reality headsets are still a relatively new technology, titles like Beat Saber demonstrate the amazing experiences that VR can provide. Further innovating upon the industry's previous immersive headsets, Sony revealed PlayStation VR 2 back in January 2022. The upcoming piece of hardware will reportedly make use of eye tracking technology in order to reflect players' smallest movements, and an OLED screen with 4K resolution will create photorealistic graphics for an even more immersive gaming experience.
As a pioneer of the VR gaming space, Beat Saber has only improved over time. The custom song editor opened up a world of possibilities for players to discover, and the new Slider block will no doubt bring drastic changes to the game once more. While the update has not been given a release date, PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift fans should start practicing for Beat Saber's next set of rhythmic challenges.
Beat Saber is available on PlayStation 4, PC and Oculus Quest.
Source: Beat Saber/Twitter, Freeek/Twitter