Review of ‘Skydance’s Behemoth’ – A Giant Leap in VR Action-Adventure Gaming

Skydance’s latest VR venture, Behemoth, draws on the invaluable lessons the studio learned with their hit VR game, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, released in 2020. This action-adventure game, while weaving a rather familiar narrative that might blend into the background of traditional gaming, stands tall in the virtual reality realm. It offers a colossal experience that’s hard to replicate and delivers a deeply satisfying gaming encounter.

Quick Overview

• Developer: Skydance Games
• Platforms: Quest 2, 3, Pro, PSVR 2, and soon, SteamVR
• Reviewed On: Quest 3
• Release Date: December 5th, 2024
• Price: $40

Diving into the Gameplay

In Behemoth, you embody Wren, a villager cursed with a transformative affliction, reminiscent of Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke. This curse, while signaling certain doom, also gifts you with extraordinary abilities, enabling you to move with remarkable speed and strength. Your journey revolves around uncovering the malevolent forces dragging a once-majestic kingdom into ruin and attempting to halt their advances.

Navigating through dilapidated castles and complex pathways, you encounter various adversaries, all serving dark powers engulfing this world. Among them are towering, troll-like giants—each presenting its own set of challenges. Behemoth thrives on physics-based combat, emphasizing melee attacks in a way that invites creativity rather than prescriptive sequences dictated by the enemy.

Combat involves a dynamic parry system where raising your sword against an oncoming strike opens your enemy to more significant damage. While flailing wildly can quickly drain your stamina, approaching each encounter thoughtfully is crucial. Each foe is uniquely armed and styled, keeping you alert as you balance your supernatural attributes effectively.

There are strategic advantages: your superhuman strength can shatter armor and eliminate multiple foes with a single blow. These abilities become quintessential as the game progresses, especially when armored enemies dominate the scene. Gathering legendary weapons—a mighty two-handed sword, a regenerative bow, and a formidable axe that shatters armor—becomes essential. Upgrading these at forges with Coloss Alloy, looted from treasure chests, adds depth but is perhaps a missed opportunity for more elaborate crafting mechanics.

As you navigate further, optional but refreshing environmental puzzles intersperse your combats, gently easing the rhythm before facing mini-bosses and, the true stars of the game, Behemoths. These epic battles test your mastery over every skill the game demands, compressing simplistic tropes into grand encounters that absorb you completely.

While the Behemoths are few—only four—they present varied challenges, utilizing refined skills such as shooting, slicing, climbing, and dashing. The game guides you with internal monologues from a witchy companion, ensuring every move is strategic against these enormous foes. Yet, even with guidance, conquering a skyscraper-sized enemy remains engaging and complex.

In terms of extra content, Behemoth provides standard collectibles and story bits via found notes, with a straightforward holster-based inventory system. Apart from certain overly familiar story beats, the game stays engaging through its solid mechanics and clever level design.

Immersive Experience

In the role of Wren, your character—and the inner voice of a witch-like companion commenting on your mental journey—remains an immersive element, rarely intruding into gameplay. This dynamic storytelling sidesteps the common "helpful robot" trope, allowing players the space to explore and solve challenges independently.

Voice acting, while effective, occasionally feels overly dramatized, clashing somewhat with the otherwise gritty environment of decayed castles and dark crypts. The narrative also lands in the realm of predictability at times; visually, though, the game excels with impressive textures and brilliant aesthetic designs throughout.

Despite moments of familiar narrative twists, Behemoth shines with its engaging combat mechanics and robust dynamic locomotion, particularly during boss encounters.

Comfort and Accessibility

Behemoth caters to both seated and standing players, ensuring flexibility in how you engage physically with the game. Be prepared for substantial physical activity as it requires significant two-handed interaction.

The game offers standard VR locomotion options without teleportation, accommodating both snap-turners and smooth-turners. Various comfort settings, including adjustable stamina through vignette effects, enhance the VR experience.

While an occasional elevator scene may unsettle your stomach slightly, the overall experience remains comfortable and immersive, highlighting the strides made in VR game development.

Behemoth sets a high standard in VR gaming, combining thrilling battle mechanics with an expansive universe worth exploring. Even with its dull notes and narrative predictability, it’s an impressive package that demonstrates just how far VR technology has come, offering a promising glimpse into the future of immersive gaming experiences.