The hilt in my hand is old, possibly ancient, its maker lost to time. Still it feels familiar, as if it were an extension of my own hand. As if in another place, another time, I’ve held one before.
It comes to life with a snap-hiss. Power thrumming as the energy forms a shining blade. And not a moment too soon…
In so many ways, it feels like I’ve been waiting for this moment forever.
When virtual reality became a thing again, I knew it was just a matter of time before I’d be holding a lightsaber and aiming to mix it up with the Dark Lord of the Sith. That day has come… from a certain point of view… in the form of Vader Immortal: Episode One which launches this month for the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S.
Vader Immortal is positioned as a system seller for the Quest, and ILMxLAB has delivered one of the most balanced, engrossing, and meaty interactive VR experiences yet.
The action unfolds in Darth Vader’s castle on the planet Mustafar, a spot that first showed up on film in Rogue One a few years ago, but has been part of the grander legend for decades. Concept art for a dark castle on a lava planet was glimpsed long ago, setting fire the imagination of Star Wars fans eager for any scrap of insight into the villain they love to hate.
The story jumps you into the middle of action, casting you as a smuggler looking to escape from a deal gone sideways with the help of your co-pilot, a droid named ZO-E3 (voiced by none other than Maya Rudolph). After making the jump to lightspeed out of a hectic scene the story … slows down to a livable pace. This isn’t a game that flips between action sequences and cut scenes, or even a cinematic experience. Instead Vader Immortal borrows elements of both, adds in some interactivity you’d find in an escape room, and grounds it all in a very “you are here” way.
Real life is filled with downtime, and Vader Immortal gives you a bit of that to explore. Thanks to the free-roaming nature of the Quest, that could mean literally walking around your spaceship if you have enough room to play in. Apartment dwellers like me will be able to walk around a small volume of space — like the living room style demo that was set up at Facebook’s Los Angeles campus — and rely on one of two systems for traversing the story’s world. One is a “teleport” mode that lets you zip around the playground, and the other uses the redesigned Touch controller’s thumb sticks to get around. The two modes can be swapped in a menu even mid-playthrough, something I did about halfway through my time.
However the really exciting prospect is getting a Quest in a space big enough to take full advantage of its range. The device lets you “paint” a space that’s 25’ x 25’ to play in. Which means that in, say the opening scene where you’re given time to explore your spaceship you could just walk around doing that instead of interacting with the controller. Because you’re gonna want to.
Part of the initial appeal of Star Wars when it first appeared in the culture is that it presented a view of a futuristic society that had a “lived in” look. Gone was the shiny silver spaceship aesthetic of 50’s sci-fi, replaced by the recognizably Middle-American bucket of bolts that was the Millennium Falcon. Comfortable messes held together with ingenuity and chewing gum is the mood, and that’s exactly what you walk into on your ship. Poke around and you’ll find mementos of adventures past that ZO-E3 comments on, turning what would be a lore-packed loot screen in a roleplaying game into a spot into a place that feels like home for your alter ego.
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Just don’t get too comfortable, because this is Star Wars, and you’re in the wrong place and the wrong time. The prerequisite in this zip code for being a hero.
After getting ripped out of hyperspace, the Empire forces you down onto the lava world, where Vader’s imposing castle juts out into the sky like an angry knife. Soon you’re boarded and captured, outgunned by the Imperial war machine. It’s the exact kind of scenario that have made up the daydreams of fans forever and a day. What’s impressive is the lengths that the team have gone to to make the transitions from space to space and scene to scene seamless.
Again, because this isn’t a film or a game, but a story rooted in your point of view, continuity of experience is key. The storytellers come up with a few clever solutions to get us from scene to scene at the beginning, establishing a grammar that lets us know they want us to buy in to the reality of the world they’re building as much as we’re willing to. This care pays off as the story unfolds, helping dramatic moments land with that much more weight as disbelief has been lulled asleep.
Which is why the times when a technical glitch broke that reality were that much more jarring.
A few times, usually during combat, either a glitch in the headset I was using or the movements I was making caused the Quest to blackout and move myself backwards until I was back in frame. I was told this was because I was putting myself into the geometry of the objects I was interacting with. It would seem that there’s a bit of a learning curve on how exactly to play with one’s whole body. Perhaps it requires a more modest set of motions than I was providing. But, damn it, if you’re going to untether me from a computer and hand me a lightsaber, I’m going to go full prequel fighting style. (No back flips, though. I never mastered those.)
This is the more frustrating of the three issues I had with the experience, all of which were about technical limitations. I’ve been assured that something was off with my session, but we had to race down to an interview (check out the podcast), before I could try on another headset and see if the problem persisted on different hardware. I’m eager — very, very eager — to get some serious time with a Quest to check if that issue goes away with a different room setup or if I have to tone down how much I throw myself into the action. I’m hoping its more the former than the later, because it’s so damn fun to go full Kenobi.
The second issue is a limitation that’s more of a “we’ll get there someday,” and that’s the fact that the characters can’t hear you. This is actually a good problem for Vader Immortal to have. If you’re anything like me, you can’t help but role play your way through the scenes, and the creative team has smartly given the dialogue just enough breathing room most of the time to account for the backtalk of nerfherders such as ourselves. But we’re a ways off from the characters being able to understand that you’re giving them sass. It’s a testament to what the team has built that you want to give them that sass. One day. One day.
The last thing is just a design decision on the Touch controller that could, and should, be patched through software as soon as possible. I kept accidentally hitting the menu button, especially during sequences involving manipulating things with my hands. This could be solved by giving us the option to set the menu button to a double tap and not a single push. Something for Oculus to consider implementing. Nothing sucks more than being really into a moment in VR, only to have a menu pop up out of nowhere.
Because we’ve reached the point where the uncanny valley has transitioned from a visual issue to an experiential one. Vader Immortal is the first long-form — the story runs about 40–60 minutes for the episode, depending on how you play — VR experience I’ve found that grounds me with a sense of presence that persists at length. I was there on Mustafar, meeting characters I’d known for years and others I had just read about in the comic books. I could have stayed for ages, and I feel very lucky that the story is an episodic one, so there’s more to come. Which means I get to go back.
So much of what ILMxLAB and Oculus have learned in the last few years is on display in Vader Immortal. I’m basically jealous of anyone who gets to have their first experience of VR be this experience, on a Quest. We’ve hit the point where consumer, at-home VR is finally where it needs to be in order to make a splash with the public. I just hope that the half decade worth of fits and starts that consumer VR has had doesn’t keep people at bay. This is something special.
The first episode of Vader Immortal VR will become available as the same date as the Oculus Quest: May 21, 2019. It will also be released for the Oculus Rift S at a later date.
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