Star Wars: Beyond Victory Review – Mixed Reality Misstep

Star Wars: Beyond Victory Review
Star Wars: Beyond Victory (SWBV) is a VR mixed reality pod racing game designed specifically for the Quest 3 & 3S from Industrial Light & Magic. This is an original story that blends pod racing with a powerful narrative and mixed reality gameplay. The mixed reality aspect of the game is done via a three-quarter isometric tabletop view. The settings have a very diorama look to them.

ILM Pedigree
That’s not a knock. Quite the opposite. The ILM pedigree shines in all aspects of this game. SWBV is a top-notch production from the graphics, the gameplay, the UI, the writing, music, and voice cast. This is a worthy addition to the Star Wars canon. Special marks are especially for the graphics. The amount of detail on everything from characters to Star Wars tech to buildings to track design to, of course, pod racers is amazing. This is true no matter how far away or close you get to the game.

SWBV game takes place during the reign of the Empire after the events of The Phantom Menace, with Sebulba as one of the featured characters. The game features three distinct modes: Adventure Mode, Arcade Mode, and Playset Mode. The goal of the three modes is to broaden the game’s appeal by offering a wide range of play styles. Adventure Mode tells the tale of young Volo Bolus, an eager but naive pilot. It should take players between ninety minutes and two hours to complete. The Arcade Mode is pod racing only. Finally, the Playset Mode is a dynamic sandbox based on unlockable digital from the other two modes and includes figures, vehicles, and tools to play with.

Of the three modes, the Adventure Mode has the least replayability. Once you get through the story, there is very little incentive to replay it. The only actual need to go back is to search for any collectibles missed in your first play-through. It is advisable to give the interior and exterior of your home base garage a thorough search and exploration. Certain collectibles are only available in specific chapters. You can use these collectibles in the Playset Mode. How long the story will take you to complete depends on your racing skills. You have to finish first to complete the story. Each race gets harder, too. This is the biggest flaw in the story mode.

Mixed and Virtual Reality Modes
Unique to the Adventure Mode is the switch from Mixed Reality to Virtual Reality when you move inside buildings at Volo’s home. The Star Wars universe really comes to life in virtual reality. You can freely explore the interiors for those collectibles. It is here that the ILM attention to detail stands out. Seeing everything rendered in true-life scale is impressive. Unfortunately, environment interactivity is limited to story elements. You cannot interact freely with everything.

Character-wise, there are eight main ones, including the hero, Volo Bolus, a reptilian four-armed character. The extra arms cleverly act as storage for your inventory. Volo’s goal is to become the best podracer in the galaxy. A dream he shared with his recently deceased friend, Pyya. Trying to prevent Volo from meeting the same fate as her child, the Twi’lek, Sornah acts as an aunt to him. She tries to cope with her loss through her art.

Using Volo’s ambitions for their own gains is Sebulba. The Dug podracer continued his cheating ways after his defeat by Anakin in The Phantom Menace. That cheating led to Sebulba’s expulsion from pod racing. To get back into pod racing, Sebulba will do anything and has enlisted two henchmen, Luuda and Trizz. Trizz is an explosive expert, while Luuda is a top-notch slicer, aka computer expert. Together, this trio aims to pull off a big heist under the cover of a big pod race event. Volo is unaware of their true motives. The story is well-written and will grab your attention. It leans into previous Star Wars lore, which is a great hook for Star Wars fans.

It’s a toss-up between the Playset and Arcade Modes which will get the most playtime. For Star Wars collectors, the Playset Mode is a dream come true. You can build a dream Star Wars diorama in one of the Viewportal playsets or place your digital toys anywhere in your physical space. The more achievements attained in the other game modes, the more toys you can collect.

A Galaxy of Collectibles
There are over 176 Playset Items to collect. These items include the SWBV characters and classic characters such as Darth Vader, R2D2, and C3PO. Other playset items to collect include the pod racers, Imperial land vehicles, weapons, tools, art, food, cookery, podracer engines, signs, lights and more. There are a lot of items for you to mix and match to create your own personal Star Wars diorama.

The third gameplay selection is the Arcade Mode. This is pod racing, done diorama style. In this mode, ILM has taken classic pod racing and re-imagined it. In mixed reality, you can transform your space into a holotable arena. From here you will have to master fast, top-down pod racing with multiple paths and nonstop action. This perspective definitely ups the challenge to pod racing, to where the mixed reality implementation is a misfire.

From this viewpoint, the length of the upcoming track is too short. This makes finding the best racing line impossible. So not only do you have to be aware of where your enemies are, you have to be extra vigilant scoping out where the track is going. You also have to keep an eye out for power-ups such as boost and gadgets such as bombs.

You replay the races from the Adventure Mode and compete against other racers via a leaderboard. Not only are you aiming to sit atop the leaderboard, but you will unlock achievements to unlock rare toys. On each racetrack, there are also tokens to be collected. Collecting tokens in combination with getting the best times pushes you up the leaderboard. While collecting tokens, be aware that you can carry up to three boosts.

Limited Pod Racing
While racing, you must monitor vehicle health to avoid blowing up and losing precious time. If you do blow up, your pod racer will be reset on the track where health ran out. Visual cues that your pod racer is under distress include fire and smoke coming out of your vehicle.

Unfortunately, the Arcade Mode only has four tracks, the same racetracks from the Adventure Mode. On the plus side, there are a variety of pod racers to unlock, including a very cool Tie Fighter pod racer that Sebulba races. There are also a variety of pilots to unlock too. All of these unlockables are for naught, though, because of the decision to have the pod racing done with a mixed reality view.

Star Wars: Beyond Victory is a handsome game with one major flaw. The decision to match pod racing with mixed reality is a puzzling one. For all that ILM gets right with this game, it befuddles me how no one during development realized how mixed reality and pod racing don’t mix.

Die-hard Star Wars fans will find enough here to enjoy the game for a while. More casual fans will probably play the game for a couple of hours and then move on. Star Wars: Beyond Victory is available on the Quest 3 and 3S.

***Meta code provided by publisher for review***

The Good

High production values
Engaging story and characters
Detailed graphics

70

The Bad

Mixed reality and pod racing don’t mix
Game stopping narrative if you don’t finish first
Limited replayability