Star Wars: Beyond Victory Is A Slight But Enjoyable Experiment In What Meta’s Storytelling Potential (Review)

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Star Wars: Beyond Victory brings the iconic galaxy to Meta’s VR platform with a surprisingly effective blend of three different gameplay styles. The game essentially offers three experiences – a playset for interactive exploration, a racing game, and a story-driven adventure – each leveraging the unique capabilities of VR. While none of these elements are groundbreaking on their own, they combine to create a compelling and enjoyable overall experience.

I recently checked out *Star Wars: Beyond Victory*, and honestly, the demo felt more impressive than a finished game – and that’s a good thing! It’s a pretty short experience, but I enjoyed the story and gameplay, especially as a Star Wars fan. But what *really* blew me away was how it *felt* in VR. It showed me a glimpse of what Star Wars storytelling could be like in virtual reality, and that potential is super exciting. It’s definitely something young fans of the franchise will love, but the presentation is what truly sets it apart.

3/5

Pros: Cons:
Adventure mode is an effective and tight Star Wars plot about a fan-favorite corner of the universe. Short run-time leaves the player wanting more.
Pod racing is simple, chaotic, and fun as a throwback to arcade games Controls on Pod racing can be a bit unweildly
The playbox options offers potentially limitless options for creativity and play The playbox options offer potentially limitless options for creativity and play

The Pod Racer’s Dream

Star Wars: Beyond Victory is a smart take on VR gaming, showing how well the Star Wars universe can adapt to the platform. While the story isn’t very long and the game has limited options overall, it doesn’t fully utilize the technology’s potential. The game features three modes, and the main one, Adventure, lets you play as a new pod-racer named Volo.

The game switches between two viewpoints: you experience the story as Volo in virtual reality, and see him explore a larger world from an overhead perspective. While the plot isn’t overly complex, it cleverly brings back Sebulba from *The Phantom Menace* for some added enjoyment. He’s now a retired racer who wants Volo’s help with a scheme to win a tournament and steal a large sum of money from the Hutts.

The story is fairly simple and can be completed quickly, but it doesn’t suffer from being shallow because the characters and overall story are enjoyable. While the virtual and augmented reality parts of the game have a lot of promise, they’re mostly used for basic puzzles and exploration. These sections are interspersed with pod races, which also form the core of the game’s Arcade Mode.

This racing game feels like a throwback to classic top-down racers, but instead of a traditional track, the action unfolds on an augmented reality table. When it works well, the racing is enjoyable. However, the controls can be a bit tricky, and the levels generate so quickly that they can become hard to navigate. It’s a perfectly fun *Star Wars* experience for both kids and longtime fans, especially considering its reasonable price. Still, the game is relatively short, and the controls could be smoother.

Play Time Is Any Time

What really makes *Beyond Victory* special is its Playset Mode. As you progress through the game’s story, you’ll unlock more figures and effects to use in this mode. Think of Playset as a digital toybox where you can arrange the game’s figures however you like in a virtual room. The figures are designed to be highly poseable, just like the action figures many people enjoyed as kids, allowing for endless creative setups and combinations.

Beyond Victory really shines when it lets players use their imagination and build their own Star Wars scenes. Having a life-sized R2-D2 nearby is cool, and arranging the figures to create little moments is genuinely fun. This feature gives the game lasting appeal, even though the available toys are all from one particular period in the Star Wars timeline. It’s a smart way to recapture the joy of playing with Star Wars toys, and it’s different from the virtual and augmented reality experiences found in the other game modes.

I have to say, even though it’s not perfect, getting to race pod-racers around my house is just plain fun! Building little tracks and zooming them around is surprisingly engaging. It’s a simple idea, but it really works with the tech, and it makes me wonder what else we could build and do with it. Honestly, this feels like the most exciting thing Meta has added so far, and I’m really hoping it inspires them to come up with even more creative stuff like this in the future.

A Galaxy Far, Far Away — In Their Comfort Of Your Own Home

Star Wars: Beyond Victory is a fairly simple game, but that’s understandable considering it costs only $19.99. It’s best thought of as a virtual playground that makes good use of VR technology, though the different ways to play aren’t very extensive. Ultimately, Beyond Victory feels like a demonstration of how VR can bring well-known universes to life in new ways.

The augmented reality storytelling experience is flexible – it can be scaled to life-size or used with miniature figures, opening up exciting options for future top-down exploration games. While currently simple, the virtual reality storytelling effectively demonstrates the growing potential of VR to create immersive and visually rich environments. Even though the Arcade mode is fast-paced and straightforward, it shows that even story-focused VR games can successfully incorporate traditional gameplay elements for variety.

What makes *Beyond Victory* stand out is how it seamlessly blends different gameplay styles with the authentic feel of *Star Wars*. This highlights how strong design and smart use of technology can really revitalize a beloved franchise. It’s an enjoyable VR experience that *Star Wars* fans will appreciate, and hopefully, the developers will use what they’ve learned to create even better games in the future, building upon this already strong foundation.

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2025-10-07 21:16