Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series

What Vader Immortal excels at is showcasing really good Star Wars VR content of which there’s been far too little outside Battlefront’s Rogue One VR mission and the upcoming Star Wars Squadrons. The dojo sequences are worth the price of admission because they offer pure gameplay using a VR control setup that is so immersive and fun that it makes you feel cool as you cut down droids and toss training remotes at unlucky Imperial troops.

For a short time we feel like a true Jedi, with immersive lightsaber combat mechanics, use of the Force and great locations and characters. But Vader Immortal ends too soon, more like an experience than a complete game.

Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series succeeds in its goal of making you feel like a Jedi. With a high production value, intriguing plot, and excellent cinematics, the game will leave fans of the franchise in awe. However, with little gameplay and a short runtime, this is more of a VR experience than a game.

With Vader Immortal, ILMxLAB offers a nice VR experience that allow the player to really feel like the Dark Lord, with it's lightsaber and it's force powers. On the other hand it still feels like an experience more than a game, and is there fore very short, with a pricetag that seems a bit hefty.

Star Wars' universe is always fascinating, but Vader Immortal's gameplay feels lackluster and like a missed opportunity.

Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series is the first Oculus game to arrive on PlayStation VR. Divided into 3 episodes of approximately 45 minutes each, it offers an original story located between episodes 4 and 6 of the saga, in the presence of the Sith Lord Dark Vader on the planet Mustafar. On PS4 Pro, the experience displays very nice graphics, of course before the Oculus Rift version but quite similar to that of the Quest. Unfortunately, the teleportation and the angular rotation imposed in an unfair way, also spoil the immersion and some sequences in automatic movement allow to appreciate the environments at their true value. The proximity of the various characters is however pleasant; a handful of force fights are memorable but it all ends far too quickly. A scripted experience that will certainly appeal to die-hard fans of the Star Wars saga, but less so to others as many PS VR games have done much better before it.

It all comes down to the fact that, despite its immense budget and production value, Vader Immortal feels small. Players can peek behind the curtain far too much as they fiddle around with Wii-era controllers that were never designed for this level of precision. The Oculus Quest version doesn't fix the problem of the simplistic gameplay, but the free range of movement and improved fidelity could only improve what's available on the PlayStation 4. Star Wars fans looking for a neat distraction and theme park fans who miss Disney World will likely get their money's worth with Vader Immortal, but there are plenty of other VR experiences on PSVR that offer much more fulfilling distractions. In addition, even games offering the same cheap thrills are often doing it cheaper.

I honestly do not understand why this game is getting such hate. Its a vr game/experience and you're given plenty of control in it. As a star wars fan, i've never felt more as a jedi than I did when playing this game! They handled the lightsaber feel with a lot of respect and its epic! Meeting vader in this game for the first time, was reaally amazing! Its not a full price game at the moment and i cant recommend it enough to sw fans and cant thank the studio enough for respecting it so much. I guess that whats left to be desired is a most complex game with a lot more fighting mechanics and levels, but for now.. This is great!

It was an immersive experience with its stunning visuals and engaging lightsaber combat, but the short playtime and somewhat repetitive gameplay left me wanting more. While the story is intriguing, it sometimes feels limited by its reliance on VR mechanics, making it more of a cool demo than a fully fleshed-out adventure.

It feels like I can never be too far from the “Star Wars” series at this point. Even as someone that hasn’t been a massive fan of the films, I do appreciate some of the franchise’s games, notably the recently-released “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.” It seems like, when a developer really puts their heart into a “Star Wars” game, the result ends up being very memorable. So, when I first got a look at this new virtual reality “Star Wars” game “Vader Immortal,” I was pretty excited. The thought of playing a “Star Wars” gave in VR was cool enough in and of itself, and I was hopeful that this would be a memorable experience. And now that I’ve gotten to play it, I must say that I had a very fun time with it. “Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series” is very short, and it shouldn’t take you more than a day to beat it, but while it lasts…wow, is it something. Even if the visuals aren’t the most high-quality things out there, they do look pretty solid, and honestly, the simple feeling of being in VR and experiencing a “Star Wars” game is pretty incredible. At several points while playing, I felt like I was on the coolest amusement park ride ever, and it was just so captivating. The scenery and design of the game’s world is breathtaking and seeing it all in VR is just stunning. And gameplay-wise, the game does feel pretty fun. The lightsaber controls are mostly pretty good, and getting to control the force is pretty compelling, too. And while the story isn’t the deepest thing ever, it works very well for the “Star Wars” series, and it’s nice to see that they took it seriously, despite the game’s short length. In terms of my problems with the game, though, I wish there was more. Not just in terms of length, but in the gameplay as a whole. As great of an experience as it is, much of the game is spent watching, and the game does feel a bit light on the gameplay. The great thing is that, once you are in the gameplay, it’s extremely fun, but even still, I wish there was a little bit more interactivity to the gameplay. Also, this is a minor complaint, but holy moly, the gun controls that pop up in the game are atrocious. The other elements are so cool, but the shooting? I hope I never have to deal with shooting that bad in a VR game again. Even so, “Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series” is a compelling virtual adventure while it lasts. I know many have said that the game is more like an “experience” than a “game,” and sure, I feel that, but even so, it’s still an incredible experience and a pretty fun game, too. I may recommend waiting for a price drop if you are skeptical, but the PlayStation 4 version does come with all three episodes, and they are worth it, so if you are a “Star Wars” fan and you have a VR headset, I do recommend giving the game a shot. Final rating: 7 out of 10 “Good”

Vader Immortal, $40.95aud from PSN (for 3 episodes). I've completed Ep 1 and 2. Episode 1 was, maybe a bit over an hour, episode 2 was shorter. You have "Vader Dojo" (where the trophies are, there is no Platinum) but the dojo is pretty cheap and nasty. Story is fine, voice acting is fine. Visuals, if you play PSVR, you already know. Heaps of aliasing, nice enough character models, flat, barely textured environments. No character body, just hands. Light sabers glow, but do not cast convincing light or shadows. The game has frame hiccups and audio bugs. It's so short it doesn't hurt your eyes, but it's so short that's inexcusable. Tracking could be better, although I might have a dud move controller. It has been ported from Oculus which has very different tracking. It's had some of the worst issues of losing me in tracking. I play in a dark room, I have the ceiling cable hooks, camera is mounted to a highly adjustable camera tripod. Does not ask for a Facebook account, despite being Oculus branded throughout. Simply not worth the buy price. If nothing else, PSnow needs to come to Australia and every VR title needs to be on it. Has merit for any Star Wars Super Fan that will buy any Star Wars stuff at any price.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]