IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
The Force is strong with this fan-made VR remake of the 1983 Star Wars arcade game
Forget the loot box controversy, my biggest disappointment when it came to Star Wars Battlefront 2 was the lack of a de…
www.eurogamer.net
An incredibly talented VR researcher and software developer from Utah University has picked up the slack. Project Stardust: X-Wing VR is the brainchild of Dylan Stout who spent his Autumn term in 2018 developing a VR experience for a study into Virtual Reality Sickness. Over time and with the help of a few friends, this experience has slowly morphed into a fully fledged, PC VR remake of the 1983 Star Wars arcade game, which follows Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing, Red 5 as he attempts to blow up the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin.
For a fan-made game, Project Stardust is quite the achievement. Not only does it look really nice, in fact the graphics are better than a lot of VR games I've had to pay for, but also it's incredibly fun to play. The feel of the 1977 movie is captured especially well thanks to familiar lines from the film being incorporated into the experience and as I flew through the Death Star trench it was enough to give me goosebumps and a huge adrenaline surge.
At points it legitimately felt like a childhood dream come true, finally I was the hero in Star Wars, experiencing Luke's adventure through his eyes. At points the swell of the music combined the feel of flight and the thrill of the dogfighting had me giggling with joy. The fact that something that felt this authentic could be created by a team of fans with zero budget just goes to show the power and potential of VR as a way to expand on or recreate cinematic experiences.
There are a few faults of course. The aiming is a bit stiff compared to that of the Rogue One: VR Mission and it's often hard to see the enemy Tie-Fighters as they are easily obscured by the X-Wing's nose cone. The weapons are lacking, you can only fire lasers and there's no lock-on for easy target tracking. Transitions between each section are especially jarring too and, as you'll see in the video above, there are definitely a few bugs that need working out.
