The second installment of Star Wars: Vader Immortal is here, the narrative-based VR adventure that tosses you back into Darth Vader’s mysterious Imperial fortress situated on the lava planet Mustafar. Like the first episode, which we gave a respectable [8/10] in our review, the second is pretty short but also includes a “Lightsaber Dojo II” where you can use your newly acquired force powers to battle waves of enemies for hours of frenetic fun. This episode is however shorter than the first, although the new Lightsaber Dojo is a welcome addition that puts both your dueling abilities and force powers to good use.

Star Wars: Vader Immortal – Episode II Details:

Official Site

Developer: ILMxLAB
Available On: Quest, Rift
Reviewed On: Rift
Release Date: September 25th, 2019

Gameplay

Word of advice: Vader Immortal serves up a unique narrative that’s particular to the VR experience, and although Star Wars super fans can probably guess what’s going on, you should really consider playing the first in the series before heading onto this one. Episode one is an awesome experience that’s really worth playing, and you won’t need to be a super fan to enjoy it either.

The same is very much true for the second episode; it’s a visually impressive and well realized experience that shows a mastery of the VR medium, but at only around 30 minutes of story it feels just a hair too thin to be considered a truly worthy followup as far as the narrative mode is concerned.

Image courtesy ILMxLab

You’ll certainly be able to find lesser experiences at the $10 mark, but look no further than the first episode for an example of a game that seems to be right on the money in terms of story and dojo-style replayability. Here, it seems ILMxLab is serving up a shorter story, but tries to make up for it with a more diverse training dojo.

In narrative part of the episode, you can basically forget your lightsaber tactics learned from before, as you’re introduced to new force powers, namely the ability to telekinetically grab and push certain items while in combat.

Although using the force to fling rocks and enemy droids felt noticeably less skill-based than the lightsaber duels from the first episode, the novelty alone was enough to keep the new game mechanic feeling fresh at every turn, as you use to force to lob projectiles at a four-armed Rancor, and force-grab and toss various enemies to their demise.

 

Using the force is easy; you simply point your open palm at an item to select it and pull the grip button to pull it closer to you. Making a throwing motion and releasing the grip sends it flying in your chosen direction. A small haptic buzz and an illuminated aura lets you know you’ve selected something.

Thankfully there’s also a fair bit of auto-aim here, so targeting and then tossing a rock at a baddie feels natural and not at all like a chore. I say ‘thankfully’ because the game gives you precious little time to practice your force powers before the narrative truly takes off and you quickly arrive at the story’s next cliffhanger and end credits, something that comes far too soon for my tastes.

Image courtesy ILMxLab

If you’re looking to polish those force skills and pair them with a measure of lightsaber dueling, Lightsaber Dojo II is where all of your moves are combined into an even more hectic battle. The dojo’s 50 levels not only test your ability to prioritize targets (all of which have handy audio and optional visual cues for easier location), but make the spit-second decision between a number of attack styles. You can not only use all of the saber dueling tactics from before, but now you can force-throw your lightsaber like a boomerang, activate strategically placed traps, force-grab enemies and toss them at one another for a double-kill, and mix and match all of these in the way you feel is most effective.

YouTuber ‘JackaldudeVR’ shows off just what sort of skills you’ll need in the final level:

Although the dojo includes only a single area, the enemy types and complexity of progressive levels is more than enough to make up for the lack of scenery change. So while the narrative may come up short, you’ll be able to spend hours on unlocking each level and chasing after cosmetic upgrades for your lightsaber and gloves. It can be difficult too, making you really hone your skills so you can accumulate enough credits so you can unlock later stages.

I found the dojo to be just as interesting as the first, if not more so thanks to the new ability to mix attack styles across a wider variety of land and air-based enemies.

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Immersion

Star Wars: Vader Immortal is optimized to run on Quest, but even still it’s one of the better-looking VR experiences out there, something you can chalk up to a keen understanding of resource management.

In this episode, excellent character animations and lively environments bring it a good measure of immersion that make up for the mostly dark, and at moments pretty drab-looking underground world of Mustafar.

Image courtesy ILMxLab

The second episode lacked some of the wow-factor of the first, which included a larger variety of environments, although there’s plenty of action-packed sequences to break up the monotony of what essentially plays out as a pretty predictable fetch quest.

Although you’re relegated to a single narrative path, ILMxLab still manages to make the world feel much larger than it really is, and does a commendable job at driving the user’s need to explore the dank dungeon-like caverns of Mustafar.

Comfort

Like the first, Episode II has plenty of comfort options, with teleportation and snap-turning set as a default. The same locomotion options apply, including smooth locomotion and smooth turning, and the ability to use instant or smooth teleportation.

Because it’s such a physical game, it’s best played standing up with plenty of room around you so you can make large sweeping movements. If you play seated, make sure there’s plenty of room in front of you so you can freely swing your arms. There is a seated mode toggle in the settings, so provided you have full use of both hands, you should find it extremely playable either standing or sitting.

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Overall
7.5
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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • The Bard

    Episode 2 was weak, static, boring.

    • Justos

      I disagree, it had a ton of Omg moments for me

      • Pablo C

        And also de Dojo. I´m finally using my left hand.

    • Gonzax

      I wouldn’t say boring, I liked it, but definitely a step backwards compared to the first. Let’s hope the final episode will be better and last a little longer. Also why separate the episodes as if they were two different games? I didn’t like that one bit, let me play both episodes in a row or just choose which one I want to play from the first menu, no need to have two different games in the library.

  • Gonzax

    I loved the first episode, this one was good too but almost unacceptably short. And length wasn’t the only problem, you don’t do much at all, there’s less climbing, less exploration, a little less of everything. Good but also diappointing at the same time.

    • The Bard

      Yes, so much worse! I was very pumped on EP2, but disappointed me totally.

  • Niklas Fritzell

    One foooourth of an hooour?!

    • asshat

      15 minutes jesus, most tech demos are longer then that.

      • Nicholas

        Nah it’s probably a bit longer, but felt like a modified angry joe quote was fitting.

        • asshat

          ahh gotchya!

      • Gonzax

        No, not that short, it took me 35′, first episode maybe 50′ or 55′. 15 minutes and I would have refunded it right away.

  • This sounds disappointing as far as story. Glad to hear the dojo continues to be good. The first episode was so well done that I was thinking they should go all the way with a huge Star Wars story told exclusively in VR. Perhaps these shorts are a warm-up for that.

  • Alextended

    So they improved on the first one’s formula? No more slow hand animations that don’t match your inputs, no more go stand on this exact spot to trigger progress, no more overall jankyness, no more lack of interactions between your hands/the might lightsaber and the environments/objects outside key progression items/objects? No? Then what’s with the hype? All that stuff showed a lack of game design know how, never mind a mastery of it, or VR. It was such a disappointment I managed to get a refund and never looked back. The dojo doesn’t provide enough variety either, it’s worse than all other horde/arena style games in terms of variety and playability. Maybe when all the episodes are sold as a bundle for peanuts I’ll bite, until then I’ll just shake my head at the wasted potential this had. If this didn’t have the Star Wars IP attached to it everybody would be trashing it. At best giving them a B for effort, but an F for the actual results of that effort.

  • Randy V.

    I had fun with it. It was worth my money.

  • Roger Bentley

    please ilm x labs if you are reading this please make the play area a lil more bigger and no more blacking out the FOV when u step out talk about immersion breaking.

    • Gonzax

      Yeah, that really sucks, it happened on Ep1 and it happens again on Episode 2. The thing is sometimes I am not even moving, just leaning forward and I get that stupid message nonetheless.
      Also quite unbelievable they didn’t even bother to fix the brightness for Rift S. If it wasn’t for the brightness fix available you wouldn’t see anything in certain areas, it’s pitch black.

  • Master E

    I really enjoyed the first one, knew it was going to be short, but was actually surprised by how short it was. To hear this is even shorter bums me out.

    • The Bard

      It is much worse and much less “wow” effect, if any.

  • VR4EVER

    It almost hurts to know that we probably wont see a full fledged Star Wars title in VR for many, many years. If ever. These teasers are nice, especially the Dojos, but come on, the playtime is ridiculous.

    • david vincent

      You can play a few old SW games in VR, like X-Wing Alliance, thanks to the modding community. And that’s pretty all.

      • VR4EVER

        Yes but with a franchise that big, a legacy so great, one would imagine that Disney or Lucasfilm is putting more effort into it. But who am I kidding, waiting year over year for a great Star Wars experience either on computers, consoles or now on VR.
        Wait: Republic Commando, KOTOR and the old Battlefront 2 got it right, imo.

    • KUKWES

      Many years to come…nah I bet we see one on PS5.

      • VR4EVER

        …I once was as optimistic. That began with the NES … ;)

  • Zachary Scott Dickerson

    Not as exciting as the first episode, but the dojo portion is very fun. You can throw your saber with one hand while pulling an enemy with the other. Quite a workout, makes you feel like a true Jedi Knight. Played it on the Index with Revive.