Vader Immortal: Episode III Review

I finished the Darth Vader Immortal Trilogy today. I still feel pumped, but in a different way than when I left off at Episode II.

Those of you who have read my review for Episode II probably know why. At the end of that game, your destiny is sealed! You are now Darth Vader’s secret apprentice! Darth Vader no longer sees you as just “an instrument”, but someone dear to him. He may be evil and dangerous, but this was… all too real for me. The story ended on such an emotional note that it would be wrong to spoil it here in this review (even if most people will already know).

Instead, let’s talk about what it’s like to play through the game again in VR on the Oculus Quest. I started my second playthrough in “comfort mode” (you can change comfort settings at any time in the menu if you’re prone to motion sickness) and it worked perfectly fine. I was not feeling sick at all for the first half of the game, but halfway through it did get a bit harder to handle. I took a break, drank some water and moved around until I felt better again.

My advice: If you ever feel sick after playing something in VR, please don’t just tough it out and try to power through, because this will only make your nausea worse… take a break and move around for a little while! This way you will usually feel much better again after a few minutes.

At the end of Episode II, you are teleported onto an Imperial ship, which is now under attack by Rebel soldiers. You are told to move through the ship and take them down one by one. As soon as I started moving in VR though, it was hard not to think about how you couldn’t walk very far up or down in real life. Since your hands are still bound together this movement looks really odd at first, but that’s just what it would look like if someone needed to walk around with their hands tied behind their back (and no fancy force powers). It’s not very immersive, but it works well enough. Even so, it did feel a bit weird and I even got motion sick again a few times.

As you progress through the level, you will need to fight off waves of soldiers and then repel borders yourself by shooting at them with your blaster. This is very basic stuff, but it does work well enough. The combat system in this game is so-so, but most people shouldn’t have any problems here (as long as their stomach can handle it).

After killing all enemies on the ship, Vader congratulates you on your “accomplishment”. He tells you that he has no other students left, except for one… You are asked if you want to become his apprentice… But before it becomes clear what this means exactly, you are “interrupted” by a lightsaber attack from behind!

Your master isn’t so loyal after all… so you turn around and take revenge on the traitor – The Emperor’s former enforcer: Darth Maul!

(Yes, I know he probably wasn’t the emperor’s enforcer at that point in time, but it just sounds better than “Darth Sidious’ former apprentice”.)

And I gotta say: This fight is nothing short of epic! It was already cool enough to see Darth Vader and this figure appear for a moment at the end of Episode 2, but imagine how awesome it feels when they come back for an intense duel right in front of your face! Epic stuff. So much fun. Maul swings his sabre around, teleports around you and throws things at you. And well… he looks badass, just like in the movies! The level design really helps to capture the feel of this scene too. You are standing on a platform with an abyss below you (meaning that if your dodge system doesn’t work well enough, you may accidentally fall into it). Behind yourself is an open door that lets Darth Vader’s powerful red lightsaber light shine through. It all comes together perfectly.

This fight will be over pretty quickly if you know what to do (I say this because I wasn’t able to block or dodge anything at first), but it still took me several tries to figure out what was going on. I’m sure you can beat it with a bit of practice, but the problem is that once you die, your progress will be lost. This means that if it’s too frustrating for you to try it again, you won’t see any cool cut-scenes. But I think you should at least give it a few tries first because it is worth seeing!

After this fight, Darth Maul teleports away and Vader tells you not to pursue him, which leaves the door open for Episode IV (i.e. The game after this one). You then return back to yourself in VR and find yourself on some rocky planet… where Obi-Wan Kenobi greets you! Of course, it isn’t really Obi-Wan talking to you in your head, but this is another level and story entirely (which I will cover at the end of this article). I don’t want to spoil everything about it here.

Obi-Wan tells you that Vader may be interested in you because he fears losing his power. He also says that there is a new hope for the galaxy… And he asks if you can become a Jedi on your own, without him or anyone else guiding your path… But before he can do more than just tell you these things, Kylo Ren arrives with some Stormtroopers and shoots him down! Then they all leave again – taking Kenobi’s body with them. You are then left alone by yourself on some unknown planet.

At first glance , there is nothing particularly special about this planet. It just looks like a normal rocky landscape… But if you turn around and look back, you will see something that makes this little scene truly epic: A giant version of the “Do what must be done” quote from Revenge of the Sith painted on an otherwise completely black background! I was already satisfied with this level as it is, even though it’s not very long (and also easy) – but knowing that such a beautifully designed painting is hidden behind your back, makes it feel even better! This absolutely blew my mind.

And then the credits start to roll (without any music or anything). After the end, Obi-Wan appears again and tells you that he has “searched for you for years”. This is basically what the game meant by saying “Search your feelings, you know it to be true.”. And then, he fades away again…

And that’s pretty much how this game ends. There’s nothing else after this, it just ends. Slightly disappointing, but still epic! I can’t really say more about this scene without spoiling it completely since it wasn’t very long or intense at all (which makes me wonder why they even included it in the first place). But I must say, seeing something actually talking to me in VR was a new and awesome experience, one which I’m sure many people will enjoy.

That said though: Who knows what could have been if they had given this scene a bit more time to shine! I’m sure that there was no reason for them to cut it down so much, they just didn’t have enough time.

Overall though, this game is absolutely worth playing – not just because of its high-quality story and dialogue (which are both very good), but also because you get to experience the lightsaber battle with Maul. If you’ve never tried VR before, then now would be an awesome time to start!! And if you want to play all three episodes in order, you’ll need an Oculus Quest anyway. So why not try Vader Immortal now? It will give you something fun todo while waiting for Episode IV… 😉

The End ( For Now )!!!

Check out our reviews of Vadar Immortal: Episode 1 and Episode 2.

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