Beat Saber VR gets 360-degree play, but only for Oculus Quest

One of VR’s best games just got better

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If you’ve been following the steady release of VR games over the past few years, you’ve probably heard of Beat Saber: a frenetic, rhythm-based lightsaber game that mixes up Guitar Hero-style gameplay with VR motion controls, giving us the Kylo Ren teen rocker simulator we never knew we wanted.

Beat Saber launched to Early Access in May 2018, and quickly gained a following for its fast-paced gameplay, awesome soundtrack, and lightsabers (people love lightsabers, ok?). Players wield a ‘saber’ in each hand and whack incoming blocks to the beat of the music, though until now it’s only been head on.

As reported byRoadtoVR, anyone who’s purchased Beat Saber onOculus Quest, the latest wirelessVR headsetfromOculus, will be able to play the game in 360 Mode – which sends blocks towards you in random directions for a more challenging and chaotic experience. Already worried you were flailing your arms around like a maniac? That’s about to get worse.

The reason it’s come to the Oculus Quest first is the headset’s six degrees of freedom (6DOF), which allows you to more fluidly control your perspective inside VR environments – compared to 3DOF, which doesn’t allow for full rotation. 6DOF is a feature available in the likes of theOculus RiftandHTC Vivealready, though it’s something that really comes to fruition in standalone headsets, without trailing cables potentially limiting your movement.

While many VR headsets get by just fine without this functionality – and you’re still able to play Beat Saber without it – the update showcases the kinds of expanded VR experiences becoming possible as enhanced tracking technology becomes more widely available.

Beat Games has said that they plan to bring a version of the mode to other headsets, though it will likely be limited to 180-degree play with those incapable of 6DOF.

You can see a gameplay trailer for 360 Mode above: so as not to completely screw you over, it seems to throw blocks from points generally in your eyeline, rather than having to continually spin back and forth to catch everything coming your way.

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While the game is already included in our guide to thebest VR games, its latest update has shown just what developers can achieve when growing a game’s offering – even now that the game is technically out of Early Access.

Beat Saber is a multi-platform title, and can be accessed throughPlayStation VR,HTC Vive,Oculus Rift, andWindows Mixed Realityheadsets.

Henry is a freelance technology journalist, and former News & Features Editor for TechRadar, where he specialized in home entertainment gadgets such as TVs, projectors, soundbars, and smart speakers. Other bylines include Edge, T3, iMore, GamesRadar, NBC News, Healthline, and The Times.

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