Since its big announcement in 2022, Skydance’s Behemoth VR has been on my radar as a potential reason to go next-gen with VR. Fluid animations and the prospect of fighting off a massive beast (in VR!) were too alluring to turn down. So, getting under the hood of the PSVR 2 and jumping behind the capable boots of the warrior Wren in Skydance’s Behemoth VR was an offer I could not refuse. Thankfully, Skydance’s Behemoth VR is shaping into a well-developed combat-centric VR title that acts as a love letter to Shadow of the Colossus, and Skyrim combined.
One of the most important things when playing VR games is the overall feel of the title, and Skydance Games is known for delivering crisp AAA VR experiences. Seeing its catalogue headlined by the award-winning series, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, it’s safe to say that Behemoth VR is in capable hands. This is notable immediately when getting through the title’s opening screen and entering the POV of Wren the Hunter.
Animations move along smoothly during every aspect of gameplay (it feels like chugging along at 60 FPS) and when simply walking around, and spatial physics feels just right. Picking up weapons and throwing them have true weight, as does almost every other aspect of gameplay. Skydance Games knocked this realistic VR feel out of the park, which makes the rest of (my brief playtime) with Behemoth VR a smooth experience.
Skydance’s Behemoth VR puts the player behind the helm of Wren the Hunter, an amnesiac warrior bestowed with powers and a grappling hook tasked with his own version of Hercules’ Seven Virtues. Wren must kill the monstrous behemoths that stalk the land, and traversing the Forsaken Lands to do this feels a lot like The Legend of Zelda but without a Master Sword and green tunic.
“Behemoth VR is shaping into a well-developed combat-centric VR title that acts as a love letter to Shadow of the Colossus, and Skyrim combined.”
The Forsaken Lands are loaded with things that want to kill you. Humanoid sentries litter the landscape with bows and steel. Instead of stalking the doorways where the inevitable protagonist will walk through, they have smarter mechanics and move about the landscape. After getting a feel for the mechanics, it’s clear Skydance’s Behemoth VR is made by developers who also want to play a good VR game. Simply picking up a two-handed sword automatically allows players to adjust their playstyle. You can stack your hands on top of each other and do a two-handed helm-cleaving slash, or tap a controller button to switch it into a more stabby-stance.
Players can go for broke during combat. Wren is armed with curse-given super strength, so performing an action that feels a lot like clenching your fists with the controller engages this rage mode. Hitting enemies under the rage mode sends them flying like a solid drive on a par 5. You are Tiger Woods, enemies are golf balls and you’re angling to take three off your stroke count. Of course, Behemoth VR is designed in a way that lets the cautious sword-and-board player creep forward after systematically killing enemies, or you could fling your weapons at enemies until they drop.
During a particularly engaging grappling hook platforming segment, I noticed an enemy far below me. Throwing a single-handed weapon would not reach the enemy. So I engaged the rage mode and made my best Tom Brady impression while throwing a hail mary about 30 yards at my target. The funny thing is, it did genuinely feel like throwing harder made the weapon fly further. The weapon smashed the target in the head and he crumbled to the floor. This was FUN.
Respectively, during combat sections, Wren’s default weapon (a one-handed sword that resembles Spartan steel from the movie 300) acts like Kratos’ Leviathan Axe in God of War Ragnarök, so you could essentially throw and return your weapon a bunch of times to make short work of enemies. While this does feel slightly cheesy, combat is a blast.
Locking steel with Behemoth VR‘s foot soldiers is an intimate affair. Each enemy has different tells, and weaknesses, so its up to the player to determine the most effective way to eliminate combatants. If you swing a weapon at the enemy’s in the proper direction you parry their blow and it opens them for attack, this is denoted by an awesome blue flash which acts as a congratulations. After an enemy swung at Wrten, I was able to parry their blow from overhead, clutch the grip on my two-handed sword, and swipe their existence into oblivion. Behemoth VR lets the player feel powerful.
Other game mechanics move as fluidly as combat does. Using the grappling hook felt tedious at first, but once the growing pains leave, it’s all fun moving forward. Wren can hoist himself up places, rappel downward, and use momentum to swing across gaps. The grappling hook can also be used in the environment to hurt enemies and retrieve far away weapons. After attaching the hook to a suspicious looking shield during combat, Wren was able to rip the shield off the wall, and the momentum from the shield barrelled into an adversary. Dispatching enemies in this manner is incredibly satisfying.
“Behemoth VR is shaping up to be an exciting combat-centric VR title, that tags puzzle-solving elements to Shadow of the Colossus.”
My hands-on time came to a close when facing the big blubbery behemoth, who resembles a Star Wars swoop bike racing bettor, but much larger and less money-motivated. Imagine a Hippo-elephant but the size of a two-family home and Skydance Games designed this creature to look as real as possible. The sunlight deflects off the facial blubber with awesome shine, and a broken horn adds character to the already fearsome and formidable foe. The behemoth also swings around a massive flail that can send Wren flying across the battlefield, and the weighty crash into the snow sends awesome mini-quakes across the landscape.
Without spoilers on how to defeat the behemoth, climbing on its body feels like what I would have imagined Shadow of the Colossus would play in VR, and looking down definitely made me lose my legs. Skydance Games makes scaling the beast feel as high up as possible, which is just another awesome touch to immersion in Behemoth VR.
Skydance’s Behemoth VR is shaping up to be an exciting combat-centric VR title, that tags puzzle-solving elements to Shadow of the Colossus. The weight of enemies and actions feel just right, and the atmosphere is littered with helpful items and secrets that can help Wren on his quest to hunt the behemoths. What I’ve played of combat was exhilarating, and activating rage mode to punch enemies in the face feels like a tavern brawl with none of the consequences or headaches the following morning. Behemoth VR launches at a TBD date in the Fall of 2024 for the Meta Quest 2, the Quest 3 and PSVR 2.
