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Doing a Trench Run is probably pretty high on the bucket list of more than one Star Wars fan out there, but without a real Death Star, it’s a bit far-fetched to expect this to ever happen in one’s lifetime. Thankfully, it’s a lot easier and a lot safer to jump into a virtual X-Wing cockpit, and the Death Star Trench run isn’t the only mission you’ll be able to complete either. The classic PC simulator from 1999 is making a big reappearance in VR with this unofficial mod that’s set to breath new life into the game.
You’ll find the download along with some basic instructions on Reddit, but it looks like the modder is working on a beta for the mod that should be a little easier to get installed and configured for your favorite PC VR headset. Check out the dynamic cockpit teaser video below to see it in action.
X-Wing Alliance can be found on Steam right now for $9.99, but since it’s a 20-year-old game, will probably be on sale for cheaper at some point in time. Since this is a mod and not a fan-made project, there’s hope that Disney or EA won’t try to shut it down the way they have with some other fan-made projects like the Knights of the Old Republic that was being remade in Unreal Engine 4.
While this is a PC-only title right now, we’re hoping it’ll see the same love that recent ports of PC classics like Half-Life and Quake have received via the Sidequest app for Oculus Quest.
Modding classic games like this is an ample opportunity to re-experience games that you once loved or didn’t get a chance to play, especially when the experience translates this well into VR. Sitting inside the cockpit of an X-Wing in VR was once only something that could be done if you owned a PlayStation VR and Star Wars: Battlefront 2, but this changes that in a big way. While you won’t be getting the incredible graphical fidelity of that title, X-Wing Alliance is a much larger game and one that will give players plenty of hours of entertainment, whereas that Battlefront 2 experience is really just that; a short experience.
Short experiences are nothing new to VR players, who often only get glimpses of greatness from studios that want to showcase ideas they’ve been working on but either can’t get the funding or don’t have the time to put together a fully-involved VR title. While it was once thought that Respawn Entertainment could be developing a Star Wars title for Oculus, it seems that their upcoming AAA shooter is probably something else entirely.
Then, of course, we’ve got Star Wars: Vader Immortal – Episode II to look forward to in the near future. There’s no official release date for it just yet, but hopefully, we’ll be seeing its debut later this year alongside Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. What’s great is that this is a very different kind of experience from what’s available in X-Wing Alliance, giving Star Wars fans a considerable amount of content to experience over the coming months without worry of it feeling too much like the same thing.