hey everybody it's norm from tested and i have a short episode of projections for you today because
today is the release of tales from the galaxy's edge the next vr game from ilm x lab and lucasfilm
set in the star wars universe it comes out today and i've had a chance to play it already so i want
to share some of my thoughts show you some of that gameplay and let you know if i think
it's worth it so if you recall last year vader immortal was released along with the release of
the first oculus quest and that was an episodic experience they called it kind of part narrative
part game you got to use lightsabers you got to go face to face with darth vader in this three-part
series um vr game made specifically for vr that told this untold story in uh darth vader's past
i really enjoyed the experience i thought it was a really interesting exercise in virtual reality
storytelling where this experience had a lot of elements of games and gameplay whether it
was using a lightsaber or learning force powers to just feeling like you were immersed in the
star wars universe and being shepherded almost like the vr equivalent of a disney ride lots
of incredible environments and great theming and really just great characters as well from vader to
uh the npcs that you meet and the droids and you really felt like you were on a base on mustafar
and exploring a part of the star wars universe well tales from the galaxy's edge is another part
of the star wars universe brought into vr and it differs from vader immortal in a couple of
different ways one it's not a episodic style game so as opposed to there being chapter one two and
three what they've designed is still narratively driven but a little bit more of an open world
style experience where you are on black spire outpost and batu that is the fictional world
doll fictional of course created for galaxy's edge at disneyland and walt disney world theme parks
and they've taken that part of the star wars universe and created their own corner of it
there's a cantina of course it's run by an alien named cecil slack and from there you go off into
different locales teleport over and warp into different parts of batu going into caverns
and even places that are familiar to people who may have visited the galaxy's edge theme park
there's mubo's droid repair shop but that's really where most of the connection to batu and
black spire outposts really concludes something i had kind of hoped for when i heard they were
making this game was an opportunity to explore galaxy's edge the theme park you know go through
the shopping district going to the restaurants the places i've seen in real life been and experience
those locales in vr but instead you do see that part of the world through the window of
the cantina you see the millennium falcon and yes they've worked with imagineering to canonically
put that cantina in black spire outpost but you're really not able to walk through that world kind
of like a vr theme park it really is more of its own corner of black spire outpost and it
is story driven as well so you are a droid repair technician and you do work for mubo start off on
a ship you are actually smuggling some droid parts for him and very quickly things go awry and that's
where the action begins and while invader immortal it was more uh being led through the world by ai
where those droids with imperial officers kind of sneaking through the imperial base
here there's a lot more gunslinging the action is more uh trying to make you feel like a smuggler
like a han solo type character and the action is oriented around fire duels and fire fights
where you have array of blasters and shotguns and different women's that all feel really good
and feel very much like they're in the star wars universe combined with things like thermal
detonators you have your back to spray to heal yourself as well as also training droids that
can be reprogrammed you can set off these droids in the air up to three of them and they'll attack
enemies and so while vader immortal really focused on the lightsaber aspect lightsaber
combat and using force powers here it's more about blaster fire hiding behind rocks and cover and
picking off pirates at a distance now the game's story takes you through mostly batu and batu's
outdoor environments that planet is kind of a a rocky planet there are mountains and caverns
um and it's i actually think it's a little bit generic um it doesn't really read as star wars
there are things littered in environments like drawer parts that you may recognize
and containers but it really doesn't stand out as something if someone was watching you play
this game you wouldn't immediately identify it as that's star wars now there are things to do
in that environment though and a lot of things i did like were the puzzle interactions you have
access to this new all tool or a multi tool which has three functionalities it can switch between
a screwdriver a blow and kind of energy charge that you can use to repair droids uh and there
are puzzles littered out in the world to unlock uh crates and get new access to weapons and inventory
and parts that you can collect and redeem for uh credits at mubo's shop uh and what's something i
really liked about this game is it feels like the development team at xlab has they really have now
a solid footing in developing for vr everything feels very comfortable locomotion is smooth in
fact i noticed that a lot of the kind of controls and interaction models that they are leaning on
are maybe influenced by some other vr games you've played this year things like half-life alex you
know you can do free locomotion but you can also pull back on the thumbstick to teleport there's a
hover pack mechanic to elevate you so you can climb essentially without having
to jump and even things like attaching inventory to your virtual body using inverse kinematics
where you can pick up an inventory and see your items or attach back to space spray to your wrists
or use two hands for weapons everything feels very comfortable intuitive and i'm actually happy that
the developers don't really hand hold you through a lot of this in fact some of the puzzles you have
to figure out how to actually to interact with these things on your own now they're not terribly
challenging as puzzles and they're only a handful of them but i did like
that there's a sense of discovery that they want the player to uncover as they explore the
world because the world themselves the battle itself like i said is a little bit uninspiring
now the things that do feel very much like star wars though are the characters you meet
and there's mubo there's seasonal slack and the voice acting is wonderful and animations
and characters are really great in the game and then there's some familiar characters as well
there's c-3po r2d2 as well as uh the episodic part of this game which they call the tail so you go to
seasonal slack at the bar at the cantina and if you've collected things in the outer wilds in the
caverns of that too you bring these ingredients and he concocts a drink and then he reminisces
about a different time a different part of story he's heard in the high republic era of
the star wars universe and that's where it then teleports you and transport you as a player to
like a 10 to 15 minute story vignette and this initial release of tales from the galaxies as has
one of those vignettes it's called temple of darkness and here you play a padawan named adi sun
zee and you go through this really effects heavy story that feels very much like the vader immortal
experience and it's also where you meet yoda voiced by frank oz and it's really cool to see
yoda in vr at small scale i immediately knelt down went to his level and listened to his
storytelling but i also felt that that part was maybe a little bit too short it really
is only about 15 minutes and that was maybe my favorite part of tales from the galaxy's edge
i think the idea as more of these tales will be unlocked and you'll be able to buy them in
the future as they develop them that's where i feel like there's an opportunity for developers
to to do more with this kind of world they've built um i do wish there was more of
black spire outpost to explore as well i mean we can't go to disneyland park right now can't go
to the actual galaxy's edge and i don't need to do the millennium falcon smugglers run in vr or
rise of the resistance that ride in vr but i would like to be able to kind of wander through i think
for people who have never been to that theme park it'd be really cool to see that in an oculus quest
headset and then when they go they can say oh i remember that thing or i have some familiarity
with the the geography and the placement of that maybe that's just more communication between x-lab
and disney imagineering to make that happen it is exclusive to the quest itself and they've
launched it at 25 so i'm a little disappointed there's no desktop version with vader moral you
could do cross buy and there was the rift version which offered higher fidelity graphics and i do
think that the game the scope of the game and the graphics while the theming all looks really
good they are hindered by the rendering even on the quest 2 because this game also has a run on
the first generation quest so maybe there's an opportunity for them to port this over to
the desktop rift side i'd love to be able to play and explore the world there and
you know something else that i really wish for as i was playing through this was some type of
social aspect i mean they've spent so much time and effort creating this star wars environment
the cantina mubo's droid repair shop and i want to hang out in there with other people and i know
that's beyond the scope of this single player narrative and story driven campaign that they've
made but maybe that's a place for them to look to in the future all in all the game is about
two and a half hours uh maybe three hours harder difficulty it's not super easy actually had to
turn down difficulty because i kept on dying in the blaster fights and the blaster fights are
where the action is there's no dojo like there was invader mortal so replayability is going to be
more limited here um and i would hope that maybe they find a way to to bring that kind of aspect
that replayability aspect in future releases uh tails from galaxies edge is out today it
is exclusive to the quest to mobile vr um and if you have a chance to check it out let
me know what you think but meantime thank you so much for watching and i'll see you next time bye