ILMxLAB has been experimenting with VR experiences for a few years now and each one has been magical in their own right, but this upcoming Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series – Episode 1, with the help of a new Oculus VR device, the Oculus Quest, looks to be the next and most freaky step yet. More details below, including my thoughts on how it connects to the previous VR experience, Secrets of the Empire!
Vader Immortal was teased as far back as Celebration Europe 2016, with the simple announcement a Vader-centric VR experience was coming from screenwriter David S. Goyer. Today, that all changed when the series was announced alongside a new piece of VR tech, Oculus Quest. The new Oculus will launch in 2019 for $399, is wireless, and is the company’s first standalone device, meaning you won’t need a high-end PC or mobile device to use it, which is pretty awesome, especially considering the price. While it won’t allow for Secrets of the Empire levels of gameplay, it’ll definitely give more freedom of movement to experiences like Vader Immortal, opening up gameplay possibilities for VR. The team at the Verge got to try out Quest and their impressions of the technology is pretty promising!
As for what Vader Immortal actually entails, it’s a canon story set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, set just after the events of Secrets of the Empire. I was lucky enough to experience SotE earlier this year when visiting friends in London, which has you and your friends as rebel operatives going undercover as Stormtroopers on Mustafar, a mission from Cassian Andor himself to retrieve a mysterious new weapon from the Empire. The weapon turned out to be an ancient lightsaber with a bizarre design, which the team behind SotE has teased will be seen once again. SotE ends with Vader keeping the weapon, though the rebels sneak away with the schematic, so I’m betting Vader Immortal could look into Vader’s plans for the weapon, and I would really love it if they sneak in some references to the “Fortress Vader” arc from Charles Soule’s current Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith comic series, itself set on Mustafar and dealing with the Dark Lord building his Castle. The trailer seems to hint players will be some type of hero character, potentially Force-sensitive, who has been pulled out of hyperspace above Mustafar because Vader wants to experiment with them. The creep factor just went to 9000 as I think I’d rather have Vader kill me than experiment on me, as a lightsaber swing would be a nice mercy to whatever dark plans a Dark Lord would have. There aren’t many details beyond that, besides players will get to investigate Vader’s castle on Mustafar and deal with the Sith Lord directly, but Goyer did have this to say: “We came up with the concept, and then we had a conversation about where in the timeline it would fit. Everyone felt very strongly that it’s a legitimate Vader story and that it advances the ball in terms of who he is and what his goals are.”
If the trailer above doesn’t give you chills about seeing Vader in VR, that’s because you haven’t experienced the true horror of it yourself, as Secrets of the Empire let me and my friends discover. That VR journey ends with Vader trapping you against a wall, with no hope of escape, crushing your blasters, and it was one of the most chilling gaming moments I’ve ever been through…it’s basically what it would’ve felt like to have been in the Rogue One scene. The sense of his imposing scale, his breathing, the slow, methodical approach, while intimidating on screen all these years, was absolutely terrifying in VR, and the terror it made me feel is something every horror movie would be jealous of. As Goyer puts it: “I can tell you that the first time we did tests with Vader approaching you — it’s just incredibly intimidating,” That’s not even the half of it, folks. Not even close.
As exciting as this is, considering it’s only going to be on VR, as they, “… were also determined to make sure that it’s a story you can only experience in VR. There aren’t any other plans to port this into any other medium. We wanted to design it specifically for VR,” I do wonder if and when I’d ever be able to play the 3-part VR series. The Oculus Quest does make it a little less daunting, even with the $400 price tag, due to it not needing even more expensive equipment to run (besides the Touch controllers), but that’s a little out of my budget for the moment. I hope there will be some pop-up displays, like how Secrets of the Empire is, for people to go out and experience Vader Immortal because it has some great potential to be a memorable game, and as ILMxLAB have proved before, an amazing, immersive new way to experience the Saga.
No matter what, it’s probably going to be better than my idea to use Vader’s Castle setting as a minigolf hole.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
SEE ALSO:
Review: Secrets of the Empire Hyper-Reality Experience
Review: Trials on Tatooine (ILMxLAB VR Experience)
Star Wars VR Experiences from ILMxLAB Teased