At E3 earlier this week, we saw Beat Games announce a new game mode that seemed like it was impossible. A 360° game mode that requires you to move your whole body to beat the level. Along with this announcement, we saw Image Dragons parter with Beat Saber for an announcement that we will not soon forget.
Many thought the new music from Beat Games would be their biggest reveal of the week, but they just don’t know how to stop. The studio is building their good ideas into great ideas at a rate that we have never seen before.
Beat Saber is my favorite game to play in virtual reality, regardless of the headset I am using. The simplicity of the game, mixed with the fast load times, makes this game a perfect toss-on-and-play title. This game was the first I ever bought in virtual reality, and its always the game I use to introduce people to virtual reality.
With that being said, the new 360° mode from Beat Saber is a new game in itself. Before playing this mode, you’d want to have your feet firmly set in a comfortable position, as all of the movement would be coming from your arms and upper body. The new feature is a game changer. Now instead of feeling like you are standing in front of your TC screen chopping blocks, you now feel like you are on the dance floor hitting the most lethal moves known to man.
This game mode won’t be available for a while, although it is expected to be ready to play before the end of the calendar year
Making tracks that are playable in this new feature will be a bit tricky, but nothing is out of Beat Games realm of possibilities. The way that they have made the songs playable is slowly guiding you from side to side. If you didn’t know where the blocks would be coming from, this could be a bit hectic. That’s not the case. Because this mode will be exclusive to the Quest, whipping your head and body side to side will be no problem, especially when doing it with the ease that Beat Saber has turned it into.
So far, we only know of the Quest being able to support this game mode. This is because of the versatility of the the Quest, being a true standalone, all-in-one headset that is not tethered to, tracked by, or read by any outside pieces of hardware or software. Although there is other powerful standalone headsets on the shelves and making their debut this year, we can expect the Quest to be the home for a 360° Beat Saber game mode for the time being.
