Skydance’s Behemoth draws a lot from its VR design experience, largely due to the ground they’ve covered with their standout VR title, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. As a new original IP in the action-adventure realm, Behemoth follows a familiar narrative path that might blend into the crowd were it a traditional video game. But in the VR space, it’s a different beast altogether, offering a colossal experience that’s both satisfying and rare in the genre.
Behemoth—an Overview:
- Developer: Skydance Games
- Platforms: Quest 2/3/Pro, PSVR 2, (SteamVR is on the way)
- Reviewed On: Quest 3
- Release Date: December 5, 2024
- Price: $40
Gameplay
In Behemoth, reminiscent of Princess Mononoke, you embody Wren, a cursed villager burdened with a spell that threatens to turn you into a mindless creature. It’s a curse with a silver lining—granting superhuman abilities like extra speed and strength that empower you to hack, slash, and brawl your way to the source of this evil plaguing a once-great realm.
Navigating through dilapidated castles and winding paths, you encounter a multitude of cursed foes serving sinister forces. While journeying, you’ll face giant, troll-like enemies too, but more on that later. Behemoth revels in physics-based melee combat, offering a creative strike-and-parry system that provides ample strategic freedom.
Your parries simply involve positioning your sword to block enemy attacks, exposing them for devastating counter-strikes. However, reckless attacks deplete your stamina fast, so focusing on your adversaries—who wield different weapons and styles—is crucial. The game creates a balancing act, compelling you to juggle your strength, abilities, and defenses.
There’s also a tactical advantage in exploiting your super strength to cut through armor and topple multiple lesser foes in one go. This powerful move, although not shown in the clip, allows for massive damage output. As you progress, you’ll need to rely more on this strength, especially in later stages, where armored enemies dominate.
Legendary weapons, including a formidable sword, bow with regenerating arrows, and a mighty axe, become critical to your journey. These tools, upgradeable at carefully placed forges using Coloss Alloy, are your key to success. Despite medicinal plants littering the landscape, they serve a limited purpose, offering little health. It’s a missed crafting opportunity—perhaps a hinted-at potions system was abandoned?
Immersion
Your experience is further enriched through environmental puzzles and mini-boss fights leading to encounters with formidable Behemoths. While there’s a longing for more, these titanic foes provide satisfying challenges that test every skill—from combat techniques to puzzle-solving.
Narrative-wise, the story could use more depth. Though immersive, with strong visuals and interaction dynamics, it plays on predictable twists. The climactic end-game duels and some melodramatic voice acting slightly detract from the gritty atmosphere, but they’re overshadowed by the thrill of combat and epic encounters.
The AI enemies might feel mechanically predictable at times, but overall, Behemoth maintains a compelling gameplay loop without regression into recycled content. Your journey is accentuated by carefully placed encounters and the thrill of discovery without retreading old grounds.
Comfort
Behemoth accommodates both seated and standing play, letting you enjoy longer sessions without discomfort. The game wisely implements standard VR movement options without teleportation—smooth turning, quick dashes, and other configurations ensure accessibility for all players. An engaging particle field in view helps ground your sense of movement within the virtual space.
While an occasional elevator ride might unsettle, Behemoth ensures a comfortable and immersive VR experience across the board, meeting diverse player needs.
In summary, Behemoth stands as a testament to Skydance’s commitment to evolving VR experiences, offering a thrilling journey that capitalizes on their past successes while paving the way for future innovations in virtual storytelling and interactivity.
