The King of Virtual Rhythm, 5 Years Later
A Beat Saber Review from a Veteran Player
A Beat Saber Review from a Veteran Player
Beat Saber is a must own, must-play VR game. Out of all the VR titles I’ve ever played, I ALWAYS find reasons to come back to Beat Saber. It’s fun, thrilling, and has something for everyone. NameBrand
Beat Saber is a must own VR game. It’s a must-play VR game, even if you don’t have the equipment to play it, I encourage you to go out there to one of those overpriced joints that rent VR equipment, and try it for fifteen minutes. It’ll blow you away, some of you so much so, that you’ll be sold on getting VR equipment for yourself.
That’s what happened to me anyway, a few years back I had the opportunity to try Beat Saber, and I was hooked right from the start. The gameplay loop, no matter the difficulty, is really satisfying. It’s tapping into that “rhythm game” hype and madness that I haven’t felt rage within me since the highs of Guitar Hero and Rock Band many years ago. Since that moment, I purchased Beat Saber on 3 platforms, have earned all the achievements, and have plugged in a cumulative 200+ hours. What’s more, is I’ve burned over 30,000 calories in a year, just from playing Beat Saber. That’s insane!
From the lowly depths of “easy mode” I’ve built reflex after reflex from the scraps of my failures, and I slowly advanced through the difficulties' week by week and month by month. The patterns of the blocks start to emerge and instead of being disappointed by seeing a glimpse of what’s behind the curtain, it pushed me to go harder and further than ever. Now, I rank in the top 0.5% of players, at the hardest difficulty. Now, I play with modifiers that I could have never dreamed of using back when I started. The progress I’ve made is thrilling, and the sense of accomplishment I have for completing many of these songs dozens of times over like this, is something that I wear as a badge of honor. I hope that all the people who I recommend the game to, go through a similar experience. And, I always hope to see them at the top, because I always need more friends to play multiplayer with, paha.
But beyond the base game, the community is amazing. The mods are spectacular. I’ve made quite a few friends all across the globe just by playing this game and participating in the community. That’s cool.
The only gripe I have with this otherwise perfect game… the microtransactions, and now, the new block types.
I know I can play all of their songs, for free, with mods. I enjoy playing vanilla though. Less hassle. Still, I don’t think I should be paying more than $20 a year for DLC. They desperately need a season pass. Each new pack that comes out is 7–20$. For a measly 10 or so songs. That’s ridiculous. The packs are usually not worth what they cost, and I should know, I own 10 or more of them. Which certainly makes me part of the problem to an extent, but I can’t see myself buying any future packs, and for good reason.
The new block types have changed the meta of block patterns, and how song maps flow. I don’t listen to Lady Gaga, but that pack came out right before the new block types, and I thought the maps included were some of the most creative and fun maps in the entire game to date. Made me excited about the next pack, which was from one of my favorite bands, Fall Out Boy. But, disappointingly, some of my favorite songs were not fun to play… And it’s because the new block types have genetically changed how maps have to be patterned out. By forcing in these new blocks, it’s killed off some fun creativity with mapping, and this change goes in a direction that I’m not sure can be recovered from. Similarly, the electronic pack, had some incredible songs that I love. But playing those songs gives me the same icky feelings. That killed my desire for any and all future DLC packs.
Gripes aside, I have not been so enamored with a VR game EVER. It rivals even the experiences of normal flat screen games. As much as I love traditional VR games (like Boneworks), there’s something about Beat Saber that keeps pulling me back again and again and again… despite it all.
If you liked the video, check out my Case Study on it:
Beat Saber Review Video | Case Study
Encompassing my Creative Thoughts During June 2025medium.com
I also wrote about the campaign needing an overhaul:
The Beat Saber Campaign Needs a Complete Overhaul | Review & Thoughts
As it is, it’s Not Worth Your Time.thenamebrand.co
Thank you.
Originally published 27 May 2022 at https://backloggd.com.