Vader Immortal
Year: 2019
Rating: T
Time Played: ~3 hours
One perk of virtual reality is the ability to experience universes different from our own. The ability to interact with the Star Wars universe fulfills the dreams of many who want to feel what it’s like to shoot a blaster or wield a lightsaber. In Vader Immortal, you get to experience exploring Mustafar while also using the Force in a few key moments. While the story is relatively shallow—far too shallow to split into three parts—it’s disappointing that this experience suffers from somewhat janky VR controls.
For a Star Wars game, the setting and characters are definitely the selling points of this experience. VR’s immersive nature made me feel like I was really there, even if the environment didn’t always react to my Force powers as consistently as I would have liked. What is most telling about Vader Immortal is that the lightsaber dojo (which is unlocked with only one part of this three-part game) is the most re-playable portion of the game. You don’t even need to play through the story to fight through a gauntlet of training droids, flinging your arm around wildly as you wield a simulated lightsaber.
Most people who get a VR headset will probably purchase this game just on the Star Wars name alone. It serves a purpose as a tech demo and as an easy entry point for anyone new to virtual reality. I wish that such VR games wouldn’t artificially include “breakpoints” by splitting them up into three separate applications—forcing the user to stop playing after about 45 minutes to reduce eyestrain and physical fatigue. This was also a sneaky way to make a relatively cheap $10 purchase balloon into $30 to experience the full game that clearly isn’t worth $30.
A visually immersive Star Wars game that lacks a solid story and VR controls, I give Vader Immortal 3.0 stars out of 5.
