Beat Saber in the PSVR test (update)

Lots of adrenaline and not for untreated chicken-eyed feet: Beat Saber" by Hyperbolic Magnetism from the Czech Republic is a VR rhythm music game. Now the PSVR version has also been released, which comes up trumps with additional content and is extremely well implemented. Similar to "Audioshield", in "Beat Saber" you have to use two Star Wars light sticks to counter many light objects with the corresponding colour stick. But it gets even better. You also have to hit all the cuboids from above, below, right and left, depending on which directional arrow is displayed in the spherical object rain. And sometimes you just have to stab. But that's not all. While you are almost trance-like in the electro beats of the multi-layered original compositions, you sometimes have to dodge glowing walls or spiky balls.

A genre with a lot of VR potential

In terms of gameplay, "Beat Saber" is somewhere between "Audioshield", "Rock Band VR" and "Fruit Ninja VR". In contrast to other VR rhythm passions such as the Sega Dreamcast revival "REZ Infinite", where the polygon-poor and perfectly staged cyberspace world is said to have made some players almost cry emotionally at the time, "Beat Saber" suddenly brings much more movement into play. As far as the intensity of movement is concerned, sports fans need not worry. For example, you can choose whether you simply want to play a casual arcade game. And that's exactly what you get: a fun movement workout with lots of catchy sound and rhythmic beats - and of course lots of lightsaber volleys! Mostly only your two arms are required. But you'll still have to duck a few times and lean to the left and right. It's best to always match the beat. After all, that would only be half the fun.

Well balanced difficulty levels

By the way, those who just like to stab and have never wanted to sign up for a fencing course for this will also get something out of the spherical beduselung. For experts who really want to know what it's all about, there's an encore in the form of the hardest difficulty level. Similar to the arcade mode, however, as a self-proclaimed professional you have to be incredibly fast and sometimes eradicate a lot of objects one after the other with your Star Wars lightsabres. You should perhaps not choose this training as a last-minute workout before going to bed.

Update from 20 November, 2018

New content for the PSVR version

The developers created each level by hand and adapted the sections in detail to their own music. On Steam, the game is still in Early Access Mode for around CHF 20. The PSVR version costs a little more at Fr. 34.90. However, five new, groovy music tracks and an additional Campaign Mode have been added. The campaign mode is about mastering various challenges such as scores and levels with a variety of game modifiers. Also new to the console version is a practice mode that allows you to start at any point in a song and slow down to learn to master difficult parts. Like the PC version, PSVR doesn't require 360-degree tracking, but you'll absolutely need the PlayStation Move controllers to smash blocks in rhythm.

We tested the lightsaber rhythm game at the time of its initial release with an HTC Vive and an HP Mixed Reality headset. I was very surprised how well the title could be enjoyed even with the Windows glasses. Apart from the slightly tighter roomscaling limits, the inside-out tracking was never error-prone. Now it has been proven that the game also works excellently on the PSVR. With a total of 16 music tracks, the PSVR version seems more complete than the PC version. If only this music list were a little longer, the slightly higher price on the PlayStation Store would be more than justified. The exclusive content is also supposed to come to the PC version at some point.

By the way, the soundtrack to the game is available here for example at Spotify as a separate publication.