''MEESA REVIEW A GAME!''
Developed: ILMxLAB
Published: Disney Interactive Studios
Genre: VR/Adventure
Release Date: Feb 21st, 2033
Platforms: PS5/PSVR2
*Review copy provided to me by ILMxLAB*
Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy's Edge Enhanced Edition is an updated Star Wars VR title that is developed by ILMxLAB and published by Disney Interactive Studios. With the original title being well received on Oculus a few years back, ILMxLAB decided it was time to bring an updated version to Sony's PSVR 2 with new bells and whistles and improved controls. But was this the proper title to bring over to showcase what PSVR 2 can do? or should it have stayed over on Oculus and out of sight? Only one way to find out, so time to use the force!
STORY:
As a Droid Repair Technician who crash lands on Batuu, take on missions in the Batuu wilds, face off against the Guavian Death Gang, infiltrate a First Order facility and travel to other eras in the galaxy, in your own unforgettable Star Wars story.
''Kids used to play here. Until Anakin found them''
GAMEPLAY:
Taking place on the planet of Batuu, a location that is also featured in the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme park attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, which I've never been to. In the game, players take on the role of a droid repair technician who finds themselves caught up in an adventure involving the local inhabitants and the nefarious Guavian Death Gang. Sounds pretty promising so far, right? I mean heck, this is actually one of the few times that a Star Wars adventure game is made without having the main focus being on a Jedi, which is pretty refreshing, almost as refreshing as some good ol alien booby milk. Luke can vouch for that, right buddy?. Since this is a VR game, with these types of games usually not being more than a few hours long at best, unless they're an online only title like After Fall, which is awesome, or Cosmonious High which is a fun and silly high school alien game where you destroy everything and anything in your class room and be a complete jerk to the teacher - yes I know, I know, I'm a jerk a lot, but that's besides the point. My point here is that usually games are quick and easy and not much meat on their bones when it comes to VR, whether that be because of budget reasons or developers not wanting to go all in because of a game having a chance to under perform, whatever it may be, Galaxy's Edge here both meets that standard and at same time exceeds it. Confused? well don't worry, its not as confusing as trying to figure out who shot first, Han or Greedo. Your first run of Galaxy's Edge with you learning the controls, mechanics, gameplay styles, extras and all the story arcs you can partake in, will at the very least take you roughly 7 hours to complete in full, varying depending on the level of difficulty you play on. However, after beating the game once, should you go back to want to push through it another time as a more experienced player, well.. its only going to take you like 2 hours, tops. I know that's a bit of a bummer, but hey, it is what it is. But were not here to discuss only that are we? nope, were here to see how this game plays and works on PSVR2 and its UNLIMITED POWWAAAHHHHH!.
When starting your game, you will be able to adjust some major settings that will determine the way you'll be entertained by this title, whether it be standing up or in my lazy butt case, play sitting down. Choosing a sitting down option will allow you create a temporary play area enables you sit and play in your sort of ''bubble'', and this is the space your VR wands and headset will operate in. On top of this, settings and adjustments can also be made to your characters height and visuals, as well as the location of your pouch and belt, which are pivotal to your combat, survival and utility use for puzzles and doors, which we will get into shortly. Once that gets setup you're FINALLY able to start the dang game and if you're like me, instantly you get mesmerized by a hologram on your wrist communicator and I immediately start going SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH and try to poke and pet him while he talks to me about my first mission. What? Its not like he's the only guy I poke and pet in my playthrough. I SHALL DO IT AGAIN. After your introduction with Seezelslak, who is the resident story teller that keeps shop of the run down Cantina bar, you finally set out into the deserts of Batuu, that is now controlled and under the thumb of The First Order, the remnants of the now fallen Galactic Empire. Oh no, I'm just a droid technician, what am I supposed to do? oh man, I have a bad feeling about this. Using your right stick to teleport walk or free roam to walk like normal FPS games, which I strongly recommend against because my first time playing this title, under free roam, I got sick playing for a half hour and literally had to lay down afterwards do to the nausea it gave me. The level of nausea that you get from watching slimy Jabba The Hut eat. Oh ya, that level of gross, but.. at least he's not as nasty looking as Pizza The Hut, so that's a win there, I guess?. Once again, using teleport moving, you click with right or left stick to set up a waypoint and your character hops to that location, it works really well and gives you little to no motion sickness at all, perfect. As I walk around and take in all the scenery, I look down on the valley of Batuu from above and know this place is doomed if I don't do something... damn you First Order... damn you Galactic Empire...its all because of you... the true leader of The First Order.... KHAN!!!!!!. Wait... uh oh, that's the wrong lore. Yeah... Trekkies and Star Wars fans are gonna eat me alive for that one, my bad guys.
''The #1 assassin in the entire galaxy... and C3PO''
As you explore caverns, jedi temples, mountain sides, poisonous pits, crates, cantinas, you will become well adjusted to the further gameplay mechanics that you will need to master and adjust to, which are first and foremost, your main utility tool that is equipped to your belt. This little gadget is going to be used A LOT due to it having three modes, unscrewing, torching and electric shock. Using these three main tools with either your left or right hand as you grab it by pressing L1 or R1 on your wand controller, you can switch each mode with a flick of the joystick from your Impact driver to take out screws from crates or boxes in order to find new goodies like new weapons, health items that you can put in your inventory pouch or stick to the side of your right arm for quick use, droids that help you fight in battle, such as droids that seek out enemies to attack with lasers like the ones Luke trained with, red droids that seek out enemy targets and explode on impact, blue droids that offers you a shield from enemy fire, thermal bombs that you press, click, and throw before it blows up... which uhh, I may or may not have failed at a few times, which inadvertently killed some little Kowakian friends. What? why are you looking at me like that, I swear I didn't do it on purpose. Would I lie?. Much like the impact driver can find items, so too can your torch, which is used to burn off previously soldered materials to get special items or find collectibles such as R2 units or unlocking switches in order to advance through doors. Last but not least is your electricity tool that looks like a taser. Using this item will be both a defensive necessity and one that you will have to use a ton of times to power up engines, keypads for doors to give them juice, or when one of your flying droids gets injured, you may shock them and refuel their power to save them from death. Its easily your most important secondary tool of the game, next to being able to grab your chest pouch and display it on your screen to physically grab items items out of it and use them in quick succession in dire and deathly situations. Which if you're like me, you better collect everything you find because a lot of the extra parts and junk you find out in the open will either pertain to side quests later in the game or sellable for extra money towards upgrades, health items, bombs, gear at a shop you soon gain access to, etc. So yeah, hoard hoard hoard. Hoard so much that people will hate your room as much as Anakin hates sand. So to will your friends tell you ''I hate your cheeto sticks, they're course, rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
Pushing through your first mission, you will come across various soldier types of The First Order, Pirates and even Guavian Death Gang members, and you will have to learn to defend your yourself with everything you can, whether it be secondary usable items like grenades or droids as we stated previously, or the things that Obi Wan finds ''so uncivilized'', like blasters. Grabbing and picking up guns with R1 or L1, you can choose to have a sticky grip which auto-holds onto items for you until you double tap to release, or manual hold setting where you must keep the button pressed down the entire time to keep ahold of it. With each blaster, you can aim freely and with precise accuracy and movement as you aim at enemies and shoot using R2 or L2. Adding further to the immersion, you must always keep an eye out on your guns power meter and bullets because when its time to re-load, you must manually grab the slot on the weapon, pull it back and let it go in order to reload the next clip. This is actually extremely fun, especially when you're in an ambush against 4 to 5 enemies and trying to think on the spot what to do as you're going ''pew pew pew'', running out of ammo, dropping your weapon, reaching to your side to grab an extra gun you put on your right or left side and then get right back into the fight. Its super intense. As you push through the main narrative further, learning the different ways to fight and getting accustomed to the controls, you unlock another means of traversal, a hover pack. Using the hover pack in a strategic way, will allow you fly above your enemies out of their reach, or when upgraded further at Mubo's shop, allows you to hover even higher up to 3 times to get to REALLY high to reach places, so you too can get the high ground and chop off someone's limbs. Awesome. Just try not to get shot while hovering though, you don't want to end up in the stomach of a Sarlacc like Boba Fett, right? Yeah.. I didn't think so. But hold up, what if you get lost in your objective while you're on a mission, is there a way to get back to a hub starting area or even a journal that tells you where you're actually supposed to go? well yes, yes there is. Should you finish a mission and not want to walk all the way back to an area like the Cantina, you may press Options and click fast travel, or should you get lost during the mission itself and confused, use your left wrist communicator to press the location meter that tells you where your objective is, answer communications from quest givers via hologram, or even scan objects such as enemy bodies, ancient jedi texts, stormtroopers, etc. I told you, this game has some pretty serious depth. Still don't believe me and aren't sold though? giving me the ol Mace Windu ''if what you told me is true, then you will gained my trust''. Well you better decide pretty soon, otherwise you too will be blown out of a window with force lighting, I'm just saying. Watch yourself.
''All this work and I bet its empty''
Further exploring and completing objectives by manually grabbing levers to open doors, press buttons, spin wheels, freeing trapped birdies from their cages and being like FLY BIRD FLY and then trying to murder it, solving electric current puzzles, embarrassing yourself like me by fighting with a door to open and pulling my little heart out by trying to twist the handle and angrily talking out loud with ''Come on you stupid freaking door, OPEN, OPEN, OPEN!'' and then realizing, ohhhh, I have to push the door, not pull, oops. After going through that for awhile, you're finally ready to continue the story and get on with your next mission, aww yeah, what do you got for me this time Seezelslak, lets do this. Huh? are you serious? Greedo's brother drank my galactic space root beer? I paid like 200 credits for that! What a freaking jerk. You know what? I'm not even mad, Luke taught me all about how to center myself and not give in to anger, so were good, breathe in and breathe out. Perfect. After the first tutorial levels are passed you, this is when the game truly picks up and goes from being an ok game to an extremely fun one that's hard to put down. Upon talking to Dok-Ondar, you will be told to go find him some Jedi Relics that may have a connection to the dark side that should not, under any circumstance, fall into the hands of The First Order. Bro, of all the people in the galaxy, you're sending a droid technician? the odds of me succeeding are pretty slim, but hey, never tell me the odds. Heading out to the poisonous caverns for your mission, you will encounter flying enemies who's name escapes me at the moment, that you can shoot out of he sky, throw primed grenades and laugh as people scream and fly around from the explosion or from the explosions of your droids blowing people up, take the fight to heavy artillery by grabbing a mounted machine gun with both hands and aiming and firing to take down ships or waves of enemies, which feels absolutely awesome, blast away poor little kawakians who attack you out of nowhere and laughing back at them when they die, just like they did to people in Jabba's Palace, hear a strange voice and realize, holy crap, that's C3PO, and get hyped like a fangirl at the prospect of being able to hang out with him, which of course you do and in the most C3PO way... by re-attaching his limbs, such as bringing him his arm, hand and legs. Surprisingly enough it wasn't Chewy that ripped him apart, I know, I too was shocked.
Upon saving C3PO and seeing him slapstick kill an enemy and saying he meant to do that, you have two choices, either go to Mubo's shop to buy new droids, gloves for upgrades, cosmetics, health, check your wall collection that you've discovered, deposit excess junk in Mubo's junk machine to recycle parts for credits or do what I did, immediately go searching for R2-D2. Come on, I had to, I love R2-D2, so much that I even treat him like my little doggo every time I see him. Yes, even from the moment I first save him out of a crate and pet him on the head and yell at C3PO to LEAVE MY DOGGO ALONE, as he hits him for giving him a scare. Which immediately transitions to our boss fight against Tara Rashin, a female pirate of the Guavian Death Gang who pilots her custom AT-RT using force shields and projectile rockets. Even after that fun and intense fight of using a mounted machine gun against her and grenades, even when that hard fought battle is concluded and my doggo R2 manages to save the day by using barrels and other materials to knock her off a cliff to her death, I still have time to say, aww who's a good pupper? you are R2, you are. Such a good pupper, Bolt treats for him later. Now when you actually stop being ADHD like me and you know, moving onto the actual plot, you head to an ancient cavern for a colorful puzzle using levers and pillars to open an underground secret passage in order to view ancient hieroglyphs, get ambushed by The Baron's droid army that have strong blaster weapons and stick bombs that cling to your body that make you have to manually grab them and throw them away, gain the trust of Lens, a mercenary whos after Baron for killing her pet monster, no not like the 80s my pet monster, but a big boy named Ayuu, who is like a big hulk doggo. He's currently being mind controlled and its up to me and Lens to save the day. But you know me by now right? I screw everything up. Upon trying to escape with the relic, I jump down a hole where Lens is being held captive by Baron and his soldiers and he's like ''PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS'' but before he says anything further, my immediate response is DIE!!!, and oops, I shoot, game over. Oh well, I'll try again. This mission was awesome, it has you dodging temple traps, which I do rather unsuccessfully, awesome action scenes with monster doggo and Lens, scan Jedi Artifacts for R2-D2, and escape just in the nick of time. Now that were done being bad asses, its time to head back to the Cantina and get a new mission from my bro Seezelslak.
Hey guys, I'm back. I hope you don't mind that I clogged your toilet. Oh man, never mix Roasted Porg and blue milk, trust me. So what did I miss.. wait what? what happened to this place? the Cantina is trashed, where's my bro, Seezelslak!? that's my ride or die. Oh man The First Order kidnapped him because he told a story that was really really bad that they didn't like? well.. I guess I'm next then since my puns are even worse. I gotta Han it to him though, going Solo on his capture like that, you can Fett your butt that he's probably terrified right now, heck I bet they're even Tatooine a First Order symbol on him and... ok yeah I'll stop, sorry. Making a plan and breaking into the first order facility via crates, thanks to help of your buddy Hondo, is pretty awesome. Why? well because you get to gear up as a Stromtrooper. Oh yeah, its freaking awesome, total New Hope vibes, and much like New Hope, you have multiple ways to go about this mission. You can blast your way through like a maniac or blend in with stealth to lure troopers away from their posts by hijacking BB-8 units by short circuiting their units to make it run off, in which Stromtroopers give chase, and gives you time to access the control panel before they return. Second option? be like me, a person who tries to blend in but instead of playing it cool, I try to grab the gun from their hands, only to be shot at relentlessly. Oh no, I didn't even have a gun!, what do I have... what do I have... uhh.. my electric tool? zappppp. Oh wait, that worked? alright, nice, NOW I got a gun. But... that's also a problem, because that's STILL going to give me away. Why?, well because I'll be the only stormtrooper that can actually hit something. Ouch. Moving through the facility you find the target, a gigantic laser blowing up a mountain, discover Seezelslak is being re-programmed in a torture room, team up with R2 to find a way to destroy the facility using the death laser, end up being trash like me and getting captured, only to be saved by Lens and Ayuu doggo monster in a funny action scene that has him carrying big ol Seezelslak around like a baby, before ultimately culminating in the destruction of the facility itself by killing the main general in charge. ''Wow GameNChick, you saved us, we LOVE YOU!''. I know.
''Don't lie to us, you sent nudes of the emperor on Discord''
EXTRA STUFF:
After the main campaign is complete, there are still some things left to do, such as playing games of darts in the Cantina, listening to the various songs in the jukebox, completing ''Tales'' told by Seezelslak that lets you play during different era's of the Star Wars franchise, such as being able to play as a padawan Jedi under the guidance of Yoda, or my favorite Tale about a bounty hunter droid named IG-88.
This mission has you travel to Nar Shaddah where you play as an assassination bounty hunter droid named IG-88 as you are on a mission to kill Boggs Triff, who took over your client Neeva's district and kidnapped her brother. Its your job to get through the district and Bogg's hideout in order to assassinate him. This is actually a really cool mission, you feel menacing and unbeatable as you walk through areas of the hideout and lock onto enemies with your shoulder mounted guns and pound down doors. My only gripe was that we didn't get to encounter any remaining Jedi, so that I could kill them and be just like General Grievous and take their saber and say AHHH ILL ADD IT TO MY COLLECTION, but oh well, still cool though. The boss fight here in this mission versus Boggs is pretty unique in my opinion or at the very least, entertaining. You cant attack him directly, so you have to take out mechanical cores to take down his shield, but then like an idiot, he self owns himself and a pillar falls down, crushes him, and kills him. What a freaking idiot. But in order to get to the next area for the info Neeva needs about her brother, I need to scan his face for facial recognition. No problem! wait.. uh oh, I kind of.. smashed his face? oh well, plan B, destroy it all!. Completing the mission and getting ready to leave this place behind, Neeva tries to convince you to become a good guy, and honestly, IG-88 actually consider it for a bit, that is until a transmission from Darth Vader himself comes through and says he has job for you. She's like you're not really going are you? and like the boss he is, he's like ''bye Felicia''. Classic IG-88.
''Poo or do not, there is no try''
DISLIKES:
The game, while fun, does have some problems here and there. Nothing too major but they still exist either way. My first issue is sometimes movement when going up ramps will get you stuck in the ground for a bit, which makes you have to try to force your character out of a glitch, another issue is the wrist communicator with it not always being responsive with your button touches and that can make you fiddle with it for a few minutes when you're just trying to scan one thing quickly. Third issue is, while my preferred method is sticky grip, this feature does make it a bit awkward to throw stuff, and it can be an issue when trying to toss a bomb or throw an empty gun away. Melee hitting is a missing feature I wish could've also been in the game as well, because a lot of time I found myself instinctively trying to punch an enemy up close in close combat situations, but your punches just goes through them like a ghost, it puts a damper on immersion a little, and its something I feel the game could've benefitted from to make it even more fun than it already is.
''Unlike Greedo, I'm the one who shot first''
OVERALL:
At the end of the day, Star Wars Tales From The Galaxy's Edge Enhanced Edition is the best non-Jedi related Star Wars game that I have played since Shadows Of The Empire on N64. Yeah it has its problems with some unresponsive button presses here and there, glitching into the ground at times with your movement and lack of melee combat, but at the end of the day with awesome overall features of real time grabbing guns, belt, inventory, bombs, intense combat against normal First Order troops and Pirates, engaging boss fights, great call backs for nostalgia with C3PO and R2-D2 who are just as lovable in this game as they are in the movies, fun easter eggs with being able to see the Millenium Falcon multiple times throughout the game, amazing voice acted cast who really makes you love the characters in this title - all of that put together, makes this game an absolute must play for Star Wars fans who happen to own a PSVR 2 and a PS5. Its fantastic. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says...BUY NOW
