Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge - Enhanced Edition (PlayStation 5) Review

Tales from the Galaxy's Edge puts players in the shoes of a droid repairman, who may or may not be running an illicit delivery job before he gets boarded and ends up stranded on Batuu. The next few hours are spent gunning through Guavian Death Gang members while trying to solve a variety of environmental puzzles and positioning challenges.

The story is pretty good, but the first couple of hours can end up being a little bit of a slog as the game helps players get accustomed to the gameplay loop. Once the story gets less handhold-y, however, the characters begin to drive the narrative and it hits a fun pace and becomes quite intriguing. The DLC chapters from the original are here, too, and provide a variety of new gameplay challenges and even let players control a Jedi in one mission. There is a lot of fun to be had. Just don't expect the pacing to be perfect.

Gameplay makes use of all the PS VR2 features, with proper hand controls, a variety of movement options, and haptic feedback. As this title was developed with VR in mind, the environment has plenty of incidental items players can lift up and manipulate in 3D space - something some other VR games forget to implement.

What form does this title take, then? Well, it's a first-person shooter with an emphasis on positioning and control. Players use the L1 and R1 buttons to grab items and use them with the triggers. This feels pretty intuitive after a few minutes, and also allows for things like panicked players dropping weapons or juggling things, which is always a nice bonus. There are a ton of accessibility options for players who suffer some of the ill effects of VR, though if coming from PS VR1, many of those issues will self resolve. These options include snap turning, teleport moving, and a variety of different directional walking options.

Combat is the main focus of the game and luckily it's a good time. The developers made sure to pepper the landscape with weapons to equip. They have limited shots before they have to be discarded, so grabbing and discarding weapons is super important for the game flow. Many of these weapons have differing properties and damage outputs, so juggling them is of striking importance, especially for larger fire fights.

When not in combat there are a smattering of collectibles to pick up. From little droids, which can be sold to scrap for upgrading things, it's worth exploring at least a little. Much of these will be hidden in boxes that are usually locked behind light puzzles where players need to use the main character's multitool to cut, zap and screw their way past the locks.

The visual design is great with lots of cool Star Wars aesthetic, but it does suffer from sometimes flat lighting. If a discerning player holds an object right up to their face, however, it's clear there is a lot of care and attention put into the weapon designs. Character rendering is great, especially when looking closely at C3PO who is shiny and reflective in a very cool way. This extends to enemy character designs that, while repetitive, pop out from the environment to help give players a chance to hit them at long distance. Environments feature decently high detail, but can suffer from backgrounds being obviously 2D images. It's not egregious in any way, but it is noticeable.

This is paired with great sound design and an interesting use of the headset haptics. When lasers fly past the player's head, or a ship or explosion rocks a scene, the headset rumbles, adding to the immersion. It all feels very authentic, and when it plays more interesting Star Wars tracks, the atmosphere is fantastic. However, the music at the bar's jukebox leaves a lot to be desired.