I'm standing next to rusted screens in a dimly lit cantina, cables above me. The bartender, that huge five-eyed thing called Seezelslak, is talking to me, but I'm not listening. I look out of the window. I can see the Millennium Falcon downstairs. I look out on the streets of Black Spire Outpost from Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. I want to go down there. But I can't. But i'm so close
This should be the year I would go to Disney to see Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Trips canceled, plans changed. My theme park and travel dreams have become virtual. I've worn VR headsets to see plays, go to art shows, and go to concerts. Now the latest Oculus Quest The Star Wars game almost promises to take me to Disney Park, which I never went to.
For more of that
Subscribe to the CNET Now newsletter to receive the most important stories of the day from our editors.
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge is a spiritual sequel to Vader immortal, a three-part VR experience released by Disney's experimental entertainment tech group ILMxLab last year. Vader Immortal combined stunning voice acting and storytelling to make it feel a bit like a game mixed in with a theme park experience at home. Tales from the Galaxy's Edge takes place in the same world of Batuu as Disney's huge new real Star Wars lands and is like a detour into this universe in a VR headset. After all, it could be an experience that blends in even more with Disney's real world parks. But right now it's a tantalizing taste of what kind of overlap between theme park and VR could be ahead of us.
Exploring the outskirts of Batuu
It feels like stepping into a theme park from the start, with a touch of Disney magic: I'm on a ship orbiting Batuu, learning the ropes of my controls and battling pirates of the Guavian Death Gang. Overhead screens show me what's in front of me, much like the television screens I'm used to when I'm in line on Disney rides. On an Oculus Quest 2, the graphics are extremely sharp and compelling. Even so, I know it feels more like a video game than a trip to a real place.
The game then moves onto the surface of Batuu and introduces me to a cantina that acts as a kind of home base. SNL alum Bobby Moynihan approaches Seezelslak, the massive alien bartender who is much bigger and more intimidating than I expected. The facial animations are amazing. I am told to find ingredients for a magical drink that, when made, will take me to a basement separate from the High Republic via a Jedi exploring an ancient temple with Yoda. This mini-chapter unfolds like the previous Vader Immortal, with lightsaber and mighty powers at my fingertips.
The rest of the experience blends into a series of video game-like run-and-shoot levels set in wild areas of Batuu where gangs of pirates await. It's about charging weapons and other blasters, collecting treasure and power-ups, and finding money. I can store and store things in utility belts and I jump around and dodge people who keep shooting at me. In the medium level of difficulty I am often knocked out.
Occasionally I need to figure out how to open boxes by using a tool on my belt that unscrews things and melts metal. These pieces feel like mini-puzzle challenges, but are rare.
There are some surprises too, and I'm not going to reveal them, but C-3PO and Yoda show up, voiced by Anthony Daniels and Frank Oz, and it's really cool to be so close to them. Hours go by and I forget to take off my headset.
Where the park ends, my virtual world begins
With Tales from the Galaxy's Edge, I can never explore the Black Spire Outpost area in Disney's Galaxy Edge Park the way I wanted to. It's kept at a distance in VR, like a cruel joke. The cantina I can visit is not the same as Oga's cantina in the park, although it is referred to. I can visit Mubo who runs the droid droid depot in Galaxy's Edge Park. I go to his workshop, which is right next to the depot. It's adorable, blue, and very Disney / Star Wars-esque.
"We worked very closely together [Disney] Imagineering and the story group to find out who that character is, and now that character exists, "says ILMxLab's Tales from Galaxy's Edge director Jose Perez III.
It's like visiting the back room of the actual park. I'm so close to places in the actual Galaxy's Edge Park, but they're right next door. I imagine that maybe I could just step into the park behind that door near me. Sometimes I wonder if if you were in the park, could you possibly look through a window and see me?
"We worked very closely with Walt Disney Imagineering and they built the place so they knew what it is. We used all the resources there to faithfully reproduce the park's contents," says Visual Director Steve Henricks. "So what you see is what you will for the most part get." As for the Millennium Falcon, which I can see from the Cantina window, he says, "We actually took the Falcon from Episode IX and basically turned it into something that could run on those platforms. We're definitely doing Asset -Transfer things on each of the platforms. " Models that we can get from ILM. "
Will I be able to explore Black Spire one day?
Exploring Black Spire the way Disney envisioned it is not possible, but it is out of the question in the future. "We're not taking it off the table, but we're not talking about any of it right now," says Perez. "That can grow over time. And we'll listen to the fans a lot and think about the stories we're telling."
With that in mind, the VR experience disappointed me to kind of go to Disney virtually. But the game was never designed to replace the park and was conceived before the pandemic closed the parks and traveled. Now, Tales from the Galaxy's Edge has a different meaning as it is a park that most people can no longer easily visit.
I just want to explore more, hang out. I can play darts at Cantina Repulsor, but there aren't that many other activities. I'd really like to just walk around the Black Spire Outpost and see what the layout looks like. Just for a little?
"Black Spire Outpost is there, it's a physical place," says Perez. "We mainly tell the stories from the outside and build on that. But we definitely want to get some of these stories to the point." But Perez also suggests that there will certainly be an interlocking. "We're making the relationship between Black Spire Outpost and Tales from the Galaxy's Edge ... there will be a bit of crossover, things that we do can show up there, and things that they did show up clearly in our That is that crazy nerd stuff where you do something and ask yourself, "Is this stuff going to show up at Disneyland?"
"For us, what we can do that you can't just do in the theme park? We know you can't walk two meters in a theme park: let's do that. We know you don't have a training remote [droids] flying around marking things: let's do this. "
The missing piece: other people
The entire first part of the Galaxy's Edge game takes a few hours. Further expansions will follow in the next year. But all of this is single player. I'm in VR alone, but at Disney, I would be with friends and other people. ILMxLab explored multiplayer VR with Star Wars and Wreck-It Ralph experiences in location-based VR attractions via The Void, but so far the home VR games have been one-on-one trips.
Multiplayer will be considered at some point, however, even if it is not in the plans for this and the next installment of Tales from the Galaxy's Edge, which will be released next year. "We have a few things that we've been experimenting with," says Perez, referring to ILMxLab's multiplayer projects with The Void. "I would love to see more co-op stuff. It will definitely be a big part of our future at some point, that can't be denied."
Once I can go to Batuu with friends or even groups of friendly and willing strangers, it could feel like a haunting theatrical experience or be at Disney. Part of seeing something amazing is sharing it with someone else. At the moment this Star Wars trip is a solo expedition.
