Skydance’s newest release, Behemoth, is a testament to the studio’s refined expertise in VR game design, a journey reflecting the lessons they’ve mastered from their hit title, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. Venturing into the action-adventure arena with a fresh intellectual property, Behemoth might tread recognizable ground in its storytelling, a fact that could have made it easy to overlook in the expansive universe of conventional gaming. Yet, in the sphere of virtual reality, this game emerges distinctively, offering an enormous, satisfied experience that few others replicate.
Skydance’s Behemoth Details:
- Developer: Skydance Games
- Platforms: Quest 2/3/Pro, PSVR 2, and soon on SteamVR
- Reviewed on: Quest 3
- Release Date: December 5th, 2024
- Price: $40
Gameplay
Channeling vibes from Studio Ghibli’s classic, Princess Mononoke, Behemoth puts you in the shoes of Wren, a villager cursed and racing against time before the curse consumes him. This harmful mark of doom also imbues Wren with remarkable abilities—making him faster and more powerful—which he uses to uncover the roots of the malevolent force plaguing the shattered kingdom and, hopefully, to quell it.
Navigating through collapsed castles and labyrinthine paths teeming with cursed adversaries aligned with sinister entities, players will encounter fearsome Troll-like giants. It’s here that the thrill intensifies.
Behemoth focuses heavily on physics-based melee combat. The mechanics encourage creativity without over-relying on scripted attack opportunities for revamping your engagement with foes.
A straightforward parry system—simply blocking in line with the enemy’s attack—allows players to exploit enemy vulnerabilities. But be wary: randomly swinging and darting about will quickly drain your stamina, pushing you to adopt more strategic approaches with varied enemy types.
There’s some clever footwork involved—balancing superhuman strength, evading, and fending off assaults from various directions. The strategic use of super strength to obliterate armor and dispatch weaker enemies in one swoop becomes pivotal, especially in the game’s later stages dominated by armored opponents. This calls for heavier reliance on legendary weapons—a massive sword, bow with self-replenishing arrows, and an armor-shattering axe. These weapons can be enhanced at forges using the game’s upgrade currency, Coloss Alloy, collected along your journey.
The upgrade feature is somewhat unidimensional, as the game doesn’t dig into crafting beyond weapon upgrades, despite numerous non-storable medicinal plants that provide negligible health boosts. Initially, there seems a wasted potential for a more intricate crafting mechanism or potion creation, but the game compensates with ample health potions from vanquished enemies.
Players will frequently navigate environmental puzzles and face off against mini-bosses leading to the ultimate challenges: Behemoths. While the slicing mechanics are entertaining, the real highlight lies in confronting the titular giants. Despite only encountering four throughout the game, each Behemoth battle tests your honed skills to their limits with multifaceted, impressive battles that require planning and persistence. Aided by Wren’s mystical companion, the game directs you through these substantial adversarial encounters, offering insights into taking down colossal foes.
While Behemoth includes side content like collectibles and narrative bits, the core gameplay remains masterfully deliberate, much like Saints & Sinners. Yet, the storyline itself at times teeters on predictability.
Though the difficulty level is fairly challenging, even on easier settings, the game finely balances each combat encounter, necessitating genuine focus to decode attack patterns and vulnerabilities. Across a campaign that can span around nine hours, every element ties into a tighter gaming experience, where every collectible and weapon upgrade serves a clear purpose, driving exploration and interaction.
Behemoth encourages revisiting previous levels to discover secret areas, but it refreshingly avoids repetitive content, enhancing replayability without recycling existing gameplay excessively.
Immersion
Behemoth shines in its immersive capacity, particularly with Wren and his enchantress companion, enhancing but not overwhelming your gameplay experience. Unlike the usual trope of overly-narrative companions, these characters rarely disrupt, offering aid only when solicited. The voice acting, although decent, does feature a character who might appear overly dramatic, but it doesn’t detract significantly from the gritty atmosphere presented.
The narrative, while not groundbreaking, provides enough engagement, bolstered significantly by stunning visuals and interactive environments, reminiscent more of a high-end PC VR experience than a mobile platform game given the impressive texture quality.
While the storyline employs familiar twists, including the ubiquitous climactic duel, the game tempers this with engaging combat that makes full use of dynamic grappling during each boss battle.
Enemy AI can at times feel a bit too contrived, lacking the organic immersion seen in Saints & Sinners, and certain arena setups can feel predictably gamey. Nonetheless, the overall execution and diverse level designs, punctuated by awe-inspiring confrontations with Behemoths, provide compelling incentives to keep the adventure exciting.
Comfort
Despite the game being quite physical, Behemoth comfortably supports both seated and standing play styles, ensuring you can enjoy extended sessions without undue strain. The two-handed interactions require ample space for those hefty combat swings, but overall, the game offers comprehensive VR motion settings, catering to both smooth and snap-turn preferences, alongside variable vignette options for added comfort.
Navigating through the snowy landscapes, the on-screen visual cues subtly maintain your orientation, adding to a smooth, comfortable movement experience. Count on perhaps the occasional queasiness during some movements, but overall, Behemoth maintains a commendably comfortable VR experience.
In conclusion, if someone had shown you Behemoth on a Quest 3 five years ago, it likely would have left you impressed, a testament to the significant advancements VR gaming has achieved on mobile devices.
