Beat Saber

Beat Saber is a virtual reality rhythm game developed by Slovaks Ján Ilavský, Vladimír Hrinčár, and Peter Hrinčár. The game was published by Czech game developer Beat Games. It takes place in many different surrealistic neon environments and features the player slicing blocks representing musical beats with a pair of brightly-colored sabers. Following an early access release in May 2018, the game was officially released for PlayStation 4 and Windows on May 21, 2019 (supporting both Steam VR and Oculus VR APIs), and for the Meta Quest in standalone mode.

Gameplay
The player uses VR controllers to wield a pair of glowing sabers, which by default are colored red and blue for left and right respectively, although the colors are changeable to any color. In each song, the game presents the player with a stream of approaching blocks laid out in sync with the song's beats and notes, located in one of the 12 possible positions of a 4x3 grid. Each one may also be marked with an arrow indicating one of eight possible directions in which the block may be required to be cut through. There are also blocks with dots instead of arrows, which players may hit in any direction from the sides (not poked through the dot). When a block is properly cut by a saber, it is destroyed and a score is awarded, based on the length and angle of the swing and the accuracy of the cut. In addition, there are sometimes bombs that the player should not hit, and obstacles in the form of oncoming walls that the player's head should avoid. The term “map” refers to the layout of these blocks, walls, and bombs in a song.

Underneath the path where the blocks travel is a white “energy bar,” also called “battery”. At the beginning of every song, the bar is halfway full, slowly filling up as the player hits notes correctly. If the player makes mistakes, such as hitting a note in the incorrect direction or with the wrong saber, hitting a mine or running into a wall, the bar will decrease. If the bar becomes empty, the level will end.

Since the addition of Original Soundtrack (OST) 5, two new mechanics were introduced to the game. One of them features a new block called a Chain, which starts with a "slice" which indicates which direction to cut. After the lead slice, there are several smaller "slices" which can be cut. The other new mechanic is the Arc. An Arc is a line showing the recommended path for your saber to follow. It is connected to a block and continues on until it either connects to another block or stops altogether. Both of these new mechanics also calculate score differently than the original blocks.

Before the start of each song, the game offers the option to enable Modifiers. These are options that affect different aspects of gameplay, such as the presence of bombs, or the speed at which the song plays and in return these can either increase or lower the player's points depending on the impact on difficulty.

For example the "No Fail" modifier allows the player to complete the song without fail if the energy bar depletes but the final score will be lowered. The "Super Fast Song" modifier will increase the players score, but the song will progress at 150% speed.

In 2024, songs with explicit lyrics were added to the game. Players ages 13 and over may choose to remove or include uncensored explicit songs in the game settings. Players between the ages of 10 and 12 using a child account have explicit songs removed by default.

Game modes
Since its early access stages, the game included a single-player mode as well as a party mode. Single player sees scores being submitted to global leaderboards. Party mode features a leaderboard with the player's names, which are entered after each song is played. Additionally, the game includes a practice mode that allows the player to alter the song's speed, or start playing it from any point in time, and not just the beginning. The game added a multiplayer mode, called 'online', in which anywhere from two to five players can play a level together, with the person with the highest score winning. In online mode, the game awards the player with badges based on performance. Beat Saber shipped with ten songs, but has been expanded with several downloadable content packs and updates which include new songs. Several of these include original songs, but many more packages(often abbreviated to “packs”) are licensed songs featuring music and special stages from various artists and record labels. In addition, the community has created modifications for Beat Saber, allowing user-made songs and maps. Each song has five levels of difficulty: the easiest being Easy, then Normal, Hard, Expert, and the hardest being Expert+.

Points
Points are used to evaluate performance on a level, and thus placement on leaderboards. The better the swing is, the more points are awarded for the swing. One hundred points are awarded for a 100° approach to the note and a 60° follow-through. Up to 15 points are awarded for cutting the note more accurately. This means the maximum amount of points a player can score by cutting one note, before multipliers, is 115. If the player cuts multiple notes correctly in a row, they can create a combo which awards more points. The combo affects the score multiplier, which multiplies the point value awarded for each good cut by either 1, 2, 4, or 8.

The multiplier goes up to the next level when the player makes a sufficient amount of good cuts. After 2 good cuts, the multiplier goes up to 2. After four good cuts, the multiplier goes up to 4, and so on, capping at 8. Breaking the combo (making a bad cut) reduces the multiplier by one level.

Continuing a combo for the entirety of a level awards the player a Full Combo.

Development
Beat Saber began after the completion of Beat Games' (Hyperbolic Magnetism at the time) previous title, Chameleon Run. Vladimír Hrinčár and Ján Ilavský began creating demos and prototypes, and some of these were posted on Facebook. The composer, Jaroslav Beck saw some of these prototypes and met the team in Prague in order to convince them to let him create the soundtrack for the game. After around two years of development, the game was released in early access on May 1, 2018.

Release
The game was first released in early access on Windows on May 1, 2018. The game was released on PlayStation 4 on November 20, 2018. An editor was announced for release in May 2018, which would allow for the creation of custom user songs, but it was postponed, and added in May 2019.

In March 2019, Beat Games released its first paid song pack, featuring 10 songs from electronic music record label Monstercat. "Crab Rave" was added as a free update on April Fools' Day that year. On May 2, 2019, to celebrate the game's first anniversary, a prototype version created three years prior was released to the public as Beat Saber Origins. The game was fully released out of early access on PC on May 21, 2019. On January 29, 2020, the game received a free pack featuring three songs by Japanese artist Camellia. Many other songs and song packs, both paid and free, were released afterwards in updates.

Facebook via Oculus Studios acquired Beat Games in November 2019. The company stated that the purchase would not affect future development of Beat Saber on third-party VR platforms besides Oculus. Beat Games will continue to operate in Prague as an independent studio, although under the umbrella of Oculus Studios.

Reception
During its early access phase, Beat Saber received numerous positive reviews, becoming the highest rated game on Steam less than a week after its early access release. The game sold over a million copies by March 2019. By February 2021, the game had sold over 4 million copies and 40 million songs have been sold through paid DLC.

Edge thought the game was an excellent fit for VR as a medium, writing "At this point in virtual reality's development, it's still rare to encounter a game that feels native to the technology. Beat Saber is an exception." IGN noted that while the game "doesn't push the limits of [VR tech] too far", it is extremely effective at communicating the appeal of VR, and considered the game "a go-to for introducing anyone to virtual reality." GameSpot noted that at launch the supported song library was "slim", but nevertheless concluded that "Beat Saber is an exhilarating rush and an exhausting game to play in the best way."