Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series brings a galaxy far, far away to Oculus this year
He's not immortal though, is he?
Space! That ol’ final frontier. Not that you’ll be seeing much of it in Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series, if the Empire has their way. Locked up inside the Sith Lord’s fortress, you’ll be trying to escape back out in the open to see the stars once again. Easier said than done, because Vader has other plans, apparently involving fate and power and all those good space fantasy things. Lift the helmet on the trailer below.
Not sure those cinematic black bars accurately recreate the VR experience, but this is a Star War after all.
Sneaking through a monolith on a lava planet stalked by Stormtroopers and presumably Darth Vader himself sounds, frankly, terrifying. Colum Slevin, head of experiences at Oculus, says the game “captures the ultimate wish fulfilment,” for example “hearing Darth Vader’s breathing behind you.” This is not any wish I have ever had. On the other hand, I am in love with this droid, ZOE3, already, and I do want to go hang out in a spaceship among the stars very badly.
David S. Goyer, screenwriter behind movies like the Dark Night Trilogy and games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, is on board this ship to write the story. ZOE3 is voiced by comedy actress Maya Rudolph, who made her name on SNL, and frequent Vader-voicer Scott Lawrence will take on the role once again.
When you’re not sneaking or finding out you’re somehow important to the galaxy in the narrative bits, you’re whacking people with your big light stick, obviously. The combat looks very Beat Saber, except without the rhythm-o-musical backup and with more robot murder.
Do you know how disappointed I was when I found out that lightsabers are activated by a button? It seems so…mundane. When I was a baby teen I wrote Star Wars fanfic where they turned on by using the Force, and I stand by the idea that this is much cooler, even if it does ruin the scene in Episode V where Han cuts open the tauntuan on Hoth. Or does it? Maybe he was Force sensitive all along, and my fanfic proves it.
Vader Immortal will be a three-part series, with the first episode apparently “coming soon.”