Vader Immortal PSVR Review – Castle Vaderstein

Vader Immortal is a short but incredibly entertaining Star Wars VR experience that manages to perfectly emulate the feeling of wielding the Force and a lightsaber. The story is fairly inconsequential, but the characters and Lightsaber Dojo make Vader Immortal an excellent experience for Star Wars fans.

Vader Immortal
Developer: ILMxLAB
Price: $25
Platform: PSVR (reviewed)

Darth Vader is one of the most iconic villains in culture today. He’s imposing, frightening, and powerful– everybody knows this. But it’s rare for the average person to experience Vader’s terrifying presence personally. This changes with Vader Immortal, a VR experience that shows you just how scary the Sith Lord is in person, and how cool it is to use a lightsaber.

The story of Vader Immortal is straightforward. You’re a smuggler who escaped some Hutt debtors but ended up being pulled into the atmosphere of Mustafar– the lava planet where Anakin was defeated and turned into Darth Vader. The player is dragged into an Imperial Base on the planet, where they’re forced to help Darth Vader in his quest to revive Padmé Amidala. Alongside your snappy droid friend, you have to learn to use the Force and a lightsaber to survive Vader’s perilous quest and escape Mustafar in one piece. It’s by no means a necessary story, but seeing Darth Vader’s less composed side in relation to Padmé is always interesting.

Standing in front of Darth Vader is a remarkable and menacing feeling in VR, as he towered over me despite my own 6 ft stature. You feel slightly afraid when Vader steals your lightsaber or chokes you, which is a testament to how real and accurate Vader feels. The side-characters are great as well, with Maya Rudolph’s Z0-E3 droid serving as a strong sidekick to your silent smuggler. It all feels in-line with other Star Wars stories, making Vader Immortal quite immersive; a must for any VR game.

“Clashing sabers with foes gives a perfect amount of feedback, making you feel like a real Jedi.“

Vader Immortal’s gameplay primarily cycles between navigating environments through climbing and teleporting, and battling enemies using a lightsaber and the Force. Though I would have preferred smooth navigation to teleporting, the climbing feels fluid. Most importantly, using a lightsaber feels perfect. Clashing sabers with foes gives a perfect amount of feedback, making you feel like a real Jedi. Throwing Stormtroopers around and manipulating environmental objects like rocks and crystals with the Force is equally fun, as the Playstation Move controllers work quite well when it comes to controlling objects in the air.

Outside of the story, the biggest part of Vader Immortal is each episode’s lightsaber dojo. These stages let you use a variety of famous lightsabers and Force powers to fight Stormtroopers, training droids, and other foes. Doing well unlocks new lightsabers and gloves for your character, which drives you to aim for good scores. Throwing two lightsabers and calling them back, or slashing at foes with Kylo Ren’s unstable lightsaber feels incredible, and is enough to make any Star Wars fan’s day.

For some reason, the three episodes are split into three different applications on your PS4 rather than one application that includes all three episodes. It’s a strange inconvenience, as it makes Vader Immortal take up way more of your home screen than it needs to.

The Final Word
Though the story is fairly inconsequential and it has no smooth locomotion, Vader Immortal is a fun and atmospheric Star Wars VR game that fans of the franchise will love. The lightsaber dojo provides hours of fun with plenty to unlock, and wielding a lightsaber in VR is exactly as fun as one could hope for.

MonsterVine Review Score: 4 out of 5 – Good