It's clear almost from the start that your character, a roguish smuggler with Force powers, has evolved a bit (much like Luke Skywalker did in The Empire Strikes Back). I held out my hand, hit the Quest's trigger button and my light saber flew right to me. Attacking training drones and deflecting blaster shots felt just as satisfying and before, except now I could throw my lightsaber and have it return on command. And while I didn't get to try this in the dojo, I'm told you'll see other Force powers throughout the episode, like being able to stun and fling enemies across the room.

"I think the things that we learned and the things that we iterated on over the course of it, were figuring out how to make the player's hero role really come to life," said Alyssa Finley, ILMxLAB's senior producer of Vader Immortal, in an interview with Engadget. "Episode two especially gives you more powers, you get the force, and more ways to interact with the world. And I think that is all coming from the learnings of episode one...[people get the most enjoyment from being] the hero in their Star Wars adventure."

ILMxLAB tapped screenwriter David Goyer (Blade, Batman Begins) to develop Vader Immortal as a three episode arc. It builds off of Secrets of the Empire, a room-scale VR experience developed by The Void, who also made Ghostbusters: Dimension. According to Ben Snow, the director of Vader Immortal, the plan was always to use the first episode as a way to set the stage, while the second one lets you have a bit more fun.

As Snow explains it, his team has been working on VR Star Wars experiences for a while, starting with one for The Force Awakens. During the development of Secrets of the Empire, though, he realized that the ideal experience would be one where you're a more central part of the story, instead of watching people chat passively. The first episode of Vader Immortal went a long way towards putting you in charge of the narrative: You see the history of your characters exploits in your ship; you hit all the buttons to jump into hyperspace; and of course, your bloodline ends up being special enough for Vader to keep you around.