jp
Home Talks and Slides My GameLog Research and Projects Publications Resume Teaching
Back  //   GameBreadth Project  //   Game Ontology Project  //   GameLog

Vader Immortal: Episode I (PS4)

Status: Finished playing
I started playing this game on Wednesday 17 November, 2021  //  I stopped playing this game on: Tuesday 23 November, 2021
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.

November 23, 2021 12:02:09 AM
I started off not knowing where to start or what to do. So, I loaded up the dojo (Jedi Dojo) assuming it was the tutorial. It's only SORT OF the tutorial - since it's a series of challenges you have to do that get increasingly harder but they also introduce new enemies and skills/things you can do. It was fun, albeit a little frustrating as I got used to the interface and swinging the lightsaber around to deflect blaster shots or block attacks. I played 15 levels before I realized that this was it's own mode of play and that what I really wanted to do was play the story!

I played the rest of the episode in one sitting and it was great. Length was perfect for me, I was starting to get a bit tired when, cue dramatic exit, and the credits started to roll. What I really like about the episode was that it has a variety of activities none of which really outstay their welcome. At one moment your deflecting storm trooper blaster shots, or you're opening doors and turning dials in, or you're fighting robots with electric swords, or you're climbing ladders and such.

The audio work is really important since I noticed that the enemies have certain sound cues that trigger to let you know they're about to fire/attack in case you're looking the wrong way. I also found that, in general, they avoided having enemies surround you or come at you at a really wide angle - you can always just barely see enemies on either end, forcing you to sort of look left and right and turn to face them only when they're attacking. Enemies also don't seem to attack all together in ways that would be unfair (e.g. can't block/deflect).

The game takes place on planet Mustafar (the one where Vader has his sort of fortress of solitude) and you learn about the planet's background (it wasn't always a lava fest) and wonder what's going on (the game start with your ship basically being kidnapped/forced to Mustafar by an imperial ship). The story is interesting (some maguffin magical device that blablabla) to me because it really is about Vader - he's trying to resurrect or talk to Padme! I feel that this is the first real acknowledgement of someone who was (supposedly) super important to Anakin/Vader but is never talked about again in the movies (AFAIK). Maybe it came up in the comics/animated shows/etc? Either way, this felt fresh and interesting to me.

There's only two more episodes and I wonder how things will play out - and hopefully they won't be that much shorter/longer?


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria