Lightblade VR isn't exactly a lightsaber simulator—for copyright reasons, refer to these colorful, buzzing laser swords as "lightblades" when buying or selling them—but that doesn't impede the pure joy of swinging them around. Deflecting lasers and completing tasks in virtual reality is much easier than making a lightsaber from scratch, and looks extremely gratifying. Using the HTC Vive's motion sensing controller, the new game from Mazebert lets you feel the hilt of the lightblade in your hand as you swing it, rather than pressing buttons and toggling joysticks. "Our goal is to make it a satisfying experience," Mazebert developer Andreas Hager tells The Creators Project. "No-one wants to get screwed by the robot or feel dumb or powerless." Lightblade VR is currently a training module that teaches you skills by fighting against a floating robot, á la A New Hope Luke in the Milennium Falcon, and is very different from Industrial Light and Magic's official Star Wars VR game, The Trials of Tattooine.
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The game is available now on Steam, but will it's still in development. Hager wants to add eye-tracking capabilities to make the blades swing more accurately, and is working on a satisfying way to make two of them clash. Yesterday Unreal Engine released a new version of its rendering software optimized for VR, so Lightblade will only get better. Check out the game in action in the images and video below.
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