Though Oculus Quest still doesn’t launch until the 21st, Oculus has seen fit to give us full access to one of its biggest launch titles: Star Wars Vader Immortal – Episode 1. This “narrative virtual reality adventure” does a good job of immersing you in the Star Wars universe, but it feels all too brief. Thankfully there’s a surprisingly fun ‘Lightsaber Dojo’ that offers hours of engaging challenge. Star Wars Vader Immortal Details: Official Site Developer: ILMxLAB Available On: Quest, Rift (at a later date) Reviewed On: Quest Release Date: May 21st, 2019 Gameplay Let’s put this right up front: Star Wars Vader Immortal, at least its story portion, is more of a VR ‘experience’ than it is a outright game. At about 45 minutes for the entire story playthrough, it’s not as long or as deep as you might hope from a game proper. But hey, this is ‘Episode 1’, so they’ve clued us in ahead of time that there will be more to come eventually. Luckily Vader Immortal also has a ‘Lightsaber Dojo’—a standalone mode where you can engage in more extensive lightsaber combat than what you see in the story—which is worth a handful of extra hours of enjoyment. With a price tag of $10 for the whole thing, the two modes add up to what feels like a very fair value. The story is where you ought to start though. It’s a well paced and polished adventure set on the planet of Mustafar, where you’ll bump into Vader himself. It’s a pretty classic Star Wars scenario: you and your partner unexpectedly get tangled up in some serious trouble that you definitely weren’t looking for. Without spoiling the story, you’ll be with your droid partner ZOE3 as you work your way through Vader’s castle on Mustafar. ZOE3 is very believably voice acted, and works as both an expositor and a guide for what the player should be doing. You’ll use a tool to open some control panels and figure out how to fiddle with the insides to unlock some doors. You’ll climb ladders on you way from A to B, eventually get your hands on a lightsaber, and see the story unfold along your way. It’s a purely linear experience, but good pacing ensures things don’t feel dull or too constrained throughout. It also strikes a good balance between being friendly enough for novices while not being boring for veteran VR players. The only pacing problem is the sudden ending which comes just as it feels like things are getting started. It’s an entertaining and authentic experience, but you hate to see it end after just 45 minutes. Luckily the Lightsaber Dojo mode gave me more gameplay to sink my teeth into, and turned out to be quite a bit more expansive than I expected. In the Lightsaber Dojo you’ll face off with your energy sword against waves of enemies. It starts slow, but as you complete the waves, things get harder and you’ll be slowly introduced to more advanced lightsaber fighting techniques as you go. The lightsaber fighting and even the enemies you’ll encounter in this mode go a good bit deeper than I was initially expecting. You’ll see enemies that you never see in the story mode, new attacks and attack patterns, and advanced techniques like parrying and fending off lightsaber ‘clashes’. It’s actually a bit of a shame that they couldn’t bring combat seen in the Lightsaber Dojo into the story itself. I played the Lightsaber Dojo mode for at least three hours and I’m still just shy of the final stage. As far as wave-based VR content goes, I was surprised at how fun it was, and I can see myself pushing to make it to the last stage and sharing it with friends in the future. For the collectors among you, there’s a series of different lightsaber colors and hilts to be unlocked by scoring well on each wave. Immersion It’s clear that ILMxLAB spent a lot of time making Vader Immortal feel like an authentic story, and they’ve done a pretty good job. The whole experience plays out pretty seamlessly, mostly without loading screens. The graphics won’t blow you away, but it’s a pretty impressive achievement when you consider the mobile hardware that the game is running on, and there’s a few moments that play with scale very well and make you feel like you’re in front of something quite massive. Writing was engaging, with good voice-acting throughout (even when ZOE3 was telling you want you needed to do to move the game forward), which helped keep the world feeling cohesive. Art direction is cohesive throughout, and there’s even a cool technical cameo in the form of a Quill drawing (Oculus’ VR painting tool). There were a few cool moments of player-to-character interactions which are nice to see, like when a character hands you an object directly, or reaches a hand out to give you something to climb up on. I thought however there were a few missed opportunities to make the player ‘act’ as part of the scene. For instance, when a Stormtrooper ran up to me with his weapon drawn, it seemed like a great opportunity to tell the player “hands up!” and actually make them do it. I hope that we’ll see more stuff like this in Episode 2. On the Lightsaber Dojo side, there is a weird issue causing the lightsaber to jiggle as it swings through the air. For the most part it doesn’t impact the gameplay, but it’s annoying not to be able to swing a nice smooth arc through the air. It also would have been nice to have killing cuts on enemies slice right at (or close to) the point of impact, but instead they sort of just fall to pieces. Occasionally in the Lightsaber Dojo, it feels like sometimes enemies can hit you even though you successfully blocked, which can be frustrating. Because much of the game is dark scenery contrasted by fairly bright lights, the black-smearing caused by Quest’s OLED display can also be distracting at times. Comfort Star Wars Vader Immortal has a decent set of comfort options. Teleport is the default for locomotion, but smooth locomotion is an option too, including the ability to use instant or smooth teleportation. Snap turning is enabled by default, but smooth turning is an option. I found myself not needing any artificial turning, and just rotating in place as needed (thanks to Quest’s 360 tracking). I never felt uncomfortable throughout my time playing Vader Immortal. Because enemies in the Lightsaber Dojo rely so heavily on sound to telegraph their attacks, there’s also a ‘visual assist’ option which lights up the screen to alert you to the sounds of an enemy before they attack; a thoughtful option for those who are hard of hearing.<doc-sep>You’ve got to hand it to Oculus, when the company announced standalone headset Oculus Quest during its Connect event last year the device instantly generated millions of interested consumers thanks to Star Wars. Rather than creating another videogame Oculus and ILMxLAB went all out, focusing purely on everyone’s favourite villain Darth Vader for an interactive episodic experience called Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series. But is it worth the hype that the franchise always generates? Spoilers, spoilers everywhere… If you are a Star Wars fan then you might want to stop reading now as there will be spoilers in this review, not many, but enough that you may want to experience the entire first episode in all its glory fresh and untainted by the information in the following paragraphs. First and foremost what’s important to remember is that the story in Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series is canon, making it an integral part of the whole franchise. Set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, unfortunately, you don’t get to play as the Sith Lord himself. Instead, you play an unnamed smuggler pulled out of hyperspace and captured by the Empire. Vader is looking for an ancient artefact that could possibly bring his beloved Padmé back to life, and you just so happen to be a descendant of a very old bloodline that could facilitate its discovery. The are two main parts to the title itself. The main story campaign which can take 50-60 minutes to complete depending on how quickly certain sections are finished and Vader’s Dojo, which is all about practising those lightsaber skills. A third section will also open up once you’ve gone through the campaign, allowing you to jump to specific chapters of the story. Before diving into the story as with most VR titles it is worth jumping into the settings and playing around with the comfort controls. Teleportation is the default with smooth locomotion available for those that can handle it, as well as rotation options. Because Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series is a film of sorts the temptation is to enjoy the experience sat down, yet it is worth noting that the lightsaber sections do benefit from being stood up; both options are available depending on your ability. As soon as the experience starts it instantly draws you in with fantastic visuals and voice work by Maya Rudolph as ZOE3, your droid co-pilot. Flying over the volcanic planet of Mustafar evokes a sense of dread as your ship is flown towards Vader’s imposing stronghold. Once inside it’s not long before you get to meet the man himself, a tall dramatic figure who is just as awe-inspiring as you might expect. The story zips along at a decent pace, never feeling like any moment drags on for too long, keeping that interest with regular interactive moments. This interaction is highly important in Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series as it really helps ground you to the character and the role they have to play. These can involve simply climbing a ladder, or pulling components apart in a door mechanism to open it. Never too complicated so as to ruin the flow of the story – you wouldn’t want to get frustrated and stuck – you’re never more than a couple of minutes away from something new to play with. While these are all fun, the real joy of Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series is the lightsaber sections. With the freedom Oculus Quest presents you’ll want to spend all your time in Vader’s Dojo, fighting the little flying droids and repelling their laser bolts. On occasion the Oculus Insight tracking can be a little off when just the hands are displayed, however, there never seems to be an issue with the lightsaber. Combine the tracking with the design, accurate sound and feedback from the Oculus Touch controllers and Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series has the best representation of Star Wars lightsabers seen in VR. It was difficult to decide whether to fully review Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series as it was the first episode or wait for the other two. Quite honestly it was too enjoyable not to talk about it, achieving that one all-important factor in an episodic tale; suitably stopping at a point where you instantly want more. Oculus Quest may have over 50 titles to choose from on launch day, but Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series is one of the few that should be an instant download.<doc-sep>Until this week, I didn't know that having a conversation with Darth Vader was on my bucket list as a Star Wars fan. But ILMxLAB's new Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series gives you that seemingly impossible opportunity — and best of all, it puts you on his good side, so the experience manages to be immersive and thrilling without also feeling life-threatening. SYFY WIRE visited Oculus headquarters in Los Angeles earlier this week to experience the virtual reality adventure first hand using the company's forthcoming Oculus Quest headset. While there, we spoke with several members of the creative team who have brought users face-to-face with the Dark Lord of the Sith for the very first time. Set some time after the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Vader Immortal allows the user to play a smuggler who's recruited by the Empire to recover a rare artifact that Vader believes will give him eternal life. As the smuggler navigates the treacherous corridors of a Star Destroyer, and later, the shadowy hallways of Vader's castle on gloomy Mustafar, he or she acquires a lightsaber, learns how to use it, and gets to cut through steel and fend off robots en route to a climactic destination. Video of Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series - Episode I - Official Teaser "We started by talking with [screenwriter] David S. Goyer about telling a story within the Star Wars universe," Executive Producer Mark Miller told SYFY WIRE. "We pretty quickly [realized] that if we wanted to interact and see behind the mask, so to speak, of one of our big characters, that Darth Vader is the one that we all kind of wanted to explore. And this kind of fertile period between Episode III and Rogue One where you don't really know that much about what's going on with him seemed like a great place to set the story." Vader Immortal follows in the footsteps of dozens of Star Wars-inspired video games, including the 2017 Void experience Secrets of the Empire. Colum Slevin, Head of Media, AR/VR Experiences Group at Oculus, indicated that the goal with Vader Immortal was to create a story that VR users could live inside and invest themselves in emotionally. "Our team is charged with tackling the nascent emergence of narrative in VR," Slevin says. "Games are an arguably solved problem and it's a relatively mature medium in VR, but storytelling is a totally new frontier and this team is doing more than anyone I think to attack that problem head-on with really concentrated thought and creativity." Director Ben Snow, a longtime visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light and Magic, says the process of creating the experience involved experimenting with the amount of user interactivity — not just giving them something to do, but to make them feel like they're really part of what's happening. "This project started as a prototype where we were exploring different ways of storytelling," Snow says. "So we did some experiments which were much more passive and you were a fly on the wall, and we just felt like that wasn't working as well. But we did a test where we had Vader, instead of talking to someone else, came up and started addressing you. And everyone really had a good reaction to that." According to Snow, "directing" is a slightly different discipline in virtual reality, since the user is enveloped inside the world they're exploring, and at every moment they can control what they're looking at. "Mise-en-scene is really the biggest factor here," he said. "The lighting, the look of the sets, so that if I want the person to look where I want them to look, I'm going to light that appropriately and draw their attention to it. Skywalker Sound did a lot of great stuff to draw your attention with the audio." Credit: ILMxLAB While there are many opportunities to explore the space and even objects within a given environment — like, for instance, the cargo hold of your smuggler's vessel, Snow also said that the designers embed directional triggers to prompt interactivity with digital characters, delivering information and pushing that story forward. "We give you a moment to look around the ship and explore so you can have that joy of discovery and get used to the idea of being in VR," he said. "But then, for example, in the cell, when you appear there, there's a droid floating in front of you and you can look at, but if you happen to look over and notice the guy in the corner, then he'll start talking to you. So it was trying to have you understand we have a little indicator on the floor, so you get the idea that if you go over there, a story beat starts. It's like you're seeking the story — that's what we want you to feel." Although Goyer is credited as the writer of Vader Immortal, Miller said that team of people worked together brainstorming ideas for the quintessential if perhaps not ultimate immersive Star Wars experience. "We literally had whiteboards of lists of 'what's your Star Wars fantasy?' And a lightsaber was at the top," Miller said. "But also, having a droid companion who hangs out with you. Being on the bridge of your own ship. Making the jump to hyperspace." Close collaborations with Lucasfilm's own story teams resulted in including identifiable locales, characters and even mythology that appeared in previous Star Wars adventures that would tether users to the universe they've spent decades memorizing up on the screen. Credit: ILMxLAB "It was important to us that it was your character's story, so it couldn't really be part of another narrative," Snow said. "It was your story, and as we develop over the three episodes, you start to understand more about why you're key to this. But the Mustafarians, we'd seen glimpses of in Episode III. And we'd established Vader's castle in Rogue One, and we explored a little bit of Mustafar in Secrets of the Empire at The Void." Despite their efforts to avoid too much direct overlap, the Vader Immortal creators admitted that it would be fun to create an experience like this one that allowed users to witness the action in the existing films from a different perspective. "Part of the experiment that led to this was actually looking at it almost as Rashomon, or the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern approach," Snow said. Slevin added, "I guess if it mattered for the story, it would make sense. But that's one of the reasons the Star Wars universe is so conducive to this medium — is that since 1977, it's felt very tactile and lived in. "That's what I think is exciting for people," Slevin continued. "It's this sort of promise to your childhood self that you can go back to this place that you've only seen in the movies and go, oh, I'm standing in an Imperial hallway — and this is what it feels like!" As its title suggests, Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series - Episode I is part of a larger narrative that, as you might expect from this franchise, will be a trilogy. Snow said they've learned much during the making of this first installment that they are applying to the next two chapters, both in terms of technically enhancing the user experience and incorporating wish-list story ideas fans will be thrilled to try out. "In Episode I, you're using lightsabers, and in Episode II, you'll get to use the Force," Snow revealed. "Our story from the start was conceived as being across three episodes, so we sort of laid out the big picture in Episode I and then we get to sort of learn a lot more about the details in II and III." Vader Immortal launches on May 21 exclusively via Oculus' new Quest headset, to be followed sometime later on Oculus Rift. Slevin said that this experience was a perfect playground to utilize the Quest headset, combining the familiarity of the Star Wars universe with groundbreaking technology that, unlike previous VR equipment, you can take anywhere.<doc-sep>
Darth Vader was never scary to me. That is, I suppose, a product of growing up at a time where the original Star Wars’ special effects were starting to creak, and not long before we were introduced to the crookedly-toothed horned devil that is Darth Maul. I’ve always been jealous, though, of the people that felt the chill down their spine when he first stepped through the smoke of Tantive IV. That envy instantly subsided not long into Star Wars: Vader Immortal Episode 1. VR Immortal Facing down the dark lord is one of many incredible moments in Vader Immortal’s 45 minute run time. He emerges in similar fashion to his big screen debut, authoritatively strides over to you and then bathes you in his sinister shadow, a hulking mass of machine and muscle. You can’t see his eyes, but somehow those empty, soulless substitutes on his mask pierce through you all the same. It is, to be frank, utterly terrifying. Vader Immortal is all about bringing these kinds of iconic moments to life, and it does so with aplomb. Developer ILMxLAB has spoken of this as an immersion-driven experience, one that merges games and narrative in hopes of establishing new language for VR. Yes, it has cinematic lightsaber combat that’s (almost) as good as you’d hoped, but it’s just as concerned with place, interaction and, most importantly, connection. For starters, it’s a fan’s wildest dream come true. You play as a smuggler that’s taken captive in Vader’s castle, located on the fiery wastes of Mustafar. But you’re not here to be interrogated or frozen in carbonite; Vader needs you for something. One hasty escape attempt later and you’re led on a whirlwind tour of his indulgent domain and, interestingly, the origins of the planet it’s sitting on. A New Kind Of Star Wars Story For a universe that’s had every conceivable nook and cranny scrutinized over the past 42 years, Vader Immortal explores some surprisingly intriguing areas for Star Wars fans of varying dedication. Without spoiling anything, it carefully treads the line between the expanded universe the die-hards adore without ever distancing itself too far from the source material. We see a new side to the storied character, one that touches upon the tragedies that have made him who he is and the dangerously misguided emotions and decisions that have flourished from them. More importantly, though, ILMxLAB weaves a potent mix of character-driven exposition and involved role-playing. This being Star Wars, you’re accompanied by a sassy droid, ZO-E3, voiced by Saturday Night Live’s Maya Rudolph. She’s a great example of what makes Vader Immortal work, treating you as a living, breathing character in this world and never shying away from making eye-contact or getting close to you. Like every character you encounter, she makes you feel like a genuine part of the experience. She’s also incredibly funny. “I wasn’t programmed for this” she screams after watching one particularly harrowing sequence. Experience First Many of the things you do in Vader Immortal aren’t ‘gamey’ things, though. When Vader hands you an ancient artifact and tells you to open it, for example, there isn’t a progress-halting puzzle to figure out; you just open it. Ripping off wall panels to hotwire elevators and cell doors is much the same thing. It feels cool to twist knobs and flick switches, but the experience is mostly unconcerned with fail states and scoreboards. Its interaction is always in service to the experience and not a hurdle in front of it. It wants emotion with none of the barriers to entry. The same is true of the combat, which is a key highlight of Vader Immortal despite a few hiccups. Saber fights are stripped of complexity to channel the childish joy of walking out with a laser sword and facing down the Empire. Deflecting Stormtrooper blasts back at enemies is somewhat automated, for example, and blade combat is paced to help you keep your bearings. Think more Obi-Wan vs. Vader on the Death Star instead of their climactic battle in Revenge of the Sith. But, what it might lack in depth, it more than makes up for in authenticity. Holding a lightsaber in your hand and whirling it past your ears is one of the most compelling, empowering VR experiences you can have. Your saber isn’t just a weapon, though. You light up darkened paths and remove obstacles with it.