If you’re wanting something that shows off VR’s potential, HUMBLE. might not do the trick. Instead, it’ll push you feet first into feeling every single one of the track’s beats, which is worth the price of admission in and of itself. Beyond the Experience, HUMBLE. is one of the best-designed tracks for Synth Riders thus far. For $2.99, it’s a must have for a Synth Riders player wanting more music for their playlists.
Earlier this year, developer Kluge Interactive released a special Synth Riders Experience, Kendrick Lamar’s HUMBLE., only on the Apple Vision Pro. Fast forward to recently, HUMBLE. has now made its way to the rest of Synth Riders playerbase with the Kendrick Lamar – “HUMBLE” + Experience DLC pack.
This DLC pack is a simple one, it comes with one track – Kendrick Lamar’s “HUMBLE.” in a typical Synth Riders track and an “Experience” format. For those unfamiliar, an “Experience” is different from a typical Synth Riders song in that it features an immersive experience (hence the name, heh) which involves visuals and other elements that connect with the thematic of the music track. For HUMBLE., these are symbols and imagery from the music video.
I digress, an “Experience” is an elevated Synth Riders track. It’s one that takes the stage to the next level. The HUMBLE. experience does that, albeit to a smaller degree given the typical level’s existing high quality.
As a typical Synth Riders level, the HUMBLE. track (not Experience!) is incredibly well done. The note patterns excellently weave between the BPM of HUMBLE. and its punchy lyrics. Instead of wild note patterns, movements flow effortlessly between Lamar’s impactful statements to his lyrics. Regardless of difficulty, HUMBLE. easily transitions between musical elements and translates those shifts in natural fashions. HUMBLE. is powerful song beyond its lyrics – it’s a statement of the 2020s. For Synth Riders, HUMBLE. speaks to the game’s flexibility and position as a multiplatform rhythm game in VR.
It’s times like these where I wonder why Synth Riders hasn’t incorporated more hip hop and R&B tracks. These two genres have quite a bit of potential in translating their impact into a VR gameplay pattern. Hopefully, we see more of these genres in the future from Kluge Interactive – they did a phenomenal job in connecting VR inputs to HUMBLE.
The first time I played HUMBLE. on Hard difficulty, I got a perfect (667/667 notes) score. I don’t mean this to brag (while I am a smidge proud of myself), but to say that it was easy for me to find myself within the song and flow with the beats hurdling toward my face. Frankly, it should be easy to find the flow in a rhythm track, even at higher difficulties. This speaks quite well to HUMBLE.’s beat patterns – they link natural inputs to the music to make it fun to play and listen to.
Compared to some of the other Synth Riders Experiences, HUMBLE. plays less like a trippy VR experience (ala the Caravan Palace Wonderland Experience) and more like a celebration of Kendrick Lamar. This shouldn’t be seen as a negative, as some of Synth Riders’ other Experiences celebrate the artists, too. For instance, The Offspring’s Come Out and Play Experience is chock full of The Offspring’s motifs. HUMBLE. is a similar celebration, albeit less visually loud. Elements from HUMBLE.’s music video, like floating heads cityscapes, appear throughout the Experience without distracting from the beat markers. A handful of Lamar’s lyrics make their way into the background, as well.
If you’re wanting something that shows off VR’s potential, HUMBLE. might not do the trick. Instead, it’ll push you feet first into feeling every single one of the track’s beats, which is worth the price of admission in and of itself. Beyond the Experience, HUMBLE. is one of the best-designed tracks for Synth Riders thus far. For $2.99, it’s a must have for a Synth Riders player wanting more music for their playlists.
