Of the many corporate fictional universes out there, Star Wars is the one I’m most emotionally invested in. But my fondness for George Lucas’ brainchild is less about the stories and characters, and more about the overall atmosphere of the galaxy itself. . I love its retro-futuristic johnpunk style, rusty spaceships, dusty planets and quirky aliens. This is why I love games like Dark Forces and KotOR more than any movies or TV shows, because they let me tackle places like Tatooine and Horde Mantell at my own pace.
So the idea of being properly immersed in Star Wars, being physically surrounded by it and being able to touch it is probably my ultimate VR fantasy. If Mark Zuckerberg really wanted to sell me the Metaverse, he’d build it all Mos Eisely and let me run my own virtual cantina selling NFT space drinks to legless people. bounty hunters and idiot Web3 searchers.
Unfortunately, the Meta has not yet reached the level of delusion necessary to create a VR Star Wars: Galaxies. But the galaxy far, far away can be seen in VR in a more fragmented form. And since there’s a big new Star Wars uniform Jedi Survivor (Rick’s column was supposed to come out last month but it ended up in my junk folder and I didn’t see it, not Rick’s fault – ed.), now seems like a good time to explore an interactive outdoor dining franchise. So sit next to me and block the auxiliary power as we take the leap into Hyp-VR space.
Star Wars: Vader the Immortal Episodes 1-3
Developed by LucasFilm’s own ILMxLAB, The Immortal Vader Trilogy tells an overarching story where you play as a force-sensitive smuggler captured by a dark Sith lord in his stronghold on the planet Mustafar. After escaping Vader’s clutches, you spend the rest of the game slowly unlocking your power potential by playing cat and mouse with Luke’s dead dad.
Both as a VR experience and as a Star Wars game, Vader Immortal is extremely good. The story is decent, set in that ever-useful gap between episodes 3 and 4. It’s also written by David S. Goyer, aka the man who wrote the story (not the screenplay) for Christopher Nolan’s superhero epic The Dark Knight. It’s a great idea to focus a VR game on getting to know Vader in person, and he’s extremely intimidating with it. However, as a game, Vader Immortal is almost a VR theme park ride where you wander between chains, staged lightsaber battles and stormtroopers. Compared to the flat screen Jedi experience, it’s very simple. But it really works as a Jedi VR experience and delivers enough of that fantasy to make it worth exploring.
Indeed, Vader Immortal shows its true strength not in the story, but in the “Jedi Dojo” mode, which allows you to use the game’s combat abilities more freely, fighting off waves of enemies. There are three versions of the Jedi Dojo in the trilogy, and Episode 3 is by far the best. This allows you to fight stormtroopers and wield a whole array of lightsabers, including multiple sabers and Kylo Ren’s cross saber. It’s a great little virtual reality sandbox that makes Episode 3 worth checking out even if you’re not really interested in experiencing the entire story.
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge
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ILMxLAB has followed up on Vader the Immortal’s Jedi roller coaster with a game based on a real amusement park ride. Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge begins in a strange way similar to Vader Immortal, with a malevolent entity forcing you to land your spaceship on an alien planet. However, instead of a fiery Mustafar, it’s a dusty Batuu, and instead of being hunted by the Emperor’s right-hand man, you’re being hunted by a magical group of guys known as the Guavian Death Gang.
Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge is both more and less of a game than Vader Immortal. Its combat is more open like a standard FPS, and it has more substantial secondary mechanics, such as a complex multi-tool that you use to solve puzzles. But the story he tells is more fragmented than the Vader trilogy, split between your own adventures with that pesky gang of death and the yarns spun by Black Spire Outpost’s best bartender, Sizzleslak. Which sees you step into the shoes of a bounty hunter and Jedi in training. They’re fun, but it still feels like Galaxy’s Edge is missing something.
That’s because Vanilla Galaxy’s Edge literally only tells half the story that continues in the Last Call DLC. This adds a second part to your own adventure on Batuu and adds a couple of additional Siezleslak stories, including one where you play as a stormtrooper. This effectively doubles the base game’s length and gives its ideas more room to breathe.
Star Wars: Squadrons
Squadrons is my favorite game that came out of EA’s shaky handling of the Star Wars license. While every other EA Star Wars game looked like Sensible Business, Squadrons is a truly passionate project, a sincere attempt to recapture the glory days of Totally Games’ X-Wing battle sim series.
As a flat screen experience, Squadrons is decent, but doesn’t quite recreate the magic of games like TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance. But Squadrons can do what the old war sims couldn’t, which is to physically put you in the cockpit of a Star Wars spaceship. In VR, Squadrons is incredible, allowing you to experience the scale and spectacle of a Star Wars space battle like never before. Traveling through the Rebel fleet and being able to appreciate the true size of the various spaceships is fantastic. And when the fight starts, oh man. Rushing into a Star Destroyer as its green lasers bounce off your shields, watching it grow before your eyes until its sheer bulk flies overhead is probably the most thrilling VR experience I’ve ever had.
VR also has a more practical purpose, giving you more information about what’s going on around you. Thanks to virtual reality, you can track the trajectory of enemy ships by eye, watching the TIE fighters through the cockpit of your X-Wing as you try to aim your weapons at them. In terms of VR experiences, I’d rank Squadrons behind only Superhot and Half-Life Alyx in terms of a device that gives me the experience I’ve always wanted.
Non-canonical Star Wars VR
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Given the widespread popularity of VR lightsaber wielding, there have been several attempts to make it happen outside of Disney’s industrial content farm. None of these games are official Star Wars VR games, but they’re worth checking out if those three games don’t whet your appetite.
First Outdoor dining, an impressive full conversion mod for the VR hack ‘n’ slash Blade & Sorcery. This mod adds blasters, stormtroopers, Star Wars-style combat inspired by Moss Aizeel and Black Hawk from the Knights of the Old Republic, and of course, a ton of lightsabers. There’s no structure to it—Blade & Sorcery is entertainment for you—but if you don’t mind your lightsaber combat being a lot bloodier than usual, it’s a pretty interesting Star Wars sandbox.
Arguably the best VR experience in Star Wars, though Jedi Outcast VR, a standalone VR port created by Team Beef. It completely reworks Jedi Outcast’s controls for VR, allowing you to properly master the best lightsaber combat system ever created for a game. Team Beef’s VR mod is an impressive transformation. Not only does it have full-featured lightsaber combat controls, but it also adapts all ranged weapons for use in VR, and adds VR features for menus and things like force power selection. However, accessing it is a bit tricky. You will need a copy of the game, either Meta Quest 2 or Pico 4, and a subscription to the Team Beefs Patreon. Team Beef plans to expand support for other headsets.