Skydance’s Behemoth is likely one of the largest PSVR2 releases of 2024. Coming from the builders of The Strolling Lifeless: Saints and Sinners franchise, Skydance is switching out revolvers and walkers for swords and cursed beasts, promising one of many largest scale fantasy outings within the VR medium. Nevertheless, Behemoth is proof that larger definitely does not imply higher, as this uneven VR expertise is plagued with points all the way down to its very core.
That may look like we have utterly written the sport off, however that isn’t totally the case. There are moments throughout its roughly eight-hour marketing campaign that provide glimpses of the magic Skydance was aspiring in the direction of. The opener of the sport genuinely gave us goosebumps because the towering Behemoth heaves itself away off within the distance, with the snow and fog obscuring its view, and rumbling headset haptics actually promoting that sense of enormity. In lots of the Behemoth reveals, you’ll be able to’t assist however lookup in awe. It’s moments like this that VR was made for.
Nevertheless, don’t let the sport’s identify idiot you. Most of your time with Behemoth is definitely spent trudging by means of mundane fantasy backdrops, dealing with off in opposition to common previous bandits. There are literally solely three Behemoth boss fights throughout the entire thing, which definitely got here as a little bit of a shock for us.
You play as Wren, a villager on an epic quest to slay the Behemoths and save his household from the curse they unfold throughout the land. In your travels you turn out to be acquainted with a wandering warrior and mysterious spirit, each of whom act as avenues for brand spanking new weapons, upgrades, and talents.
The essential loop of the sport sees you traversing platforming puzzles, usually with the assistance of the grappling hook in your wrist, permitting you to swing round and zip as much as excessive ledges. Puzzles are interspersed with frequent fight encounters and the occasional mini-boss, earlier than culminating in an epic Behemoth combat. Coursing all through these sections is a slightly cookie cutter story about forgotten kingdoms, foul curses, and characters with ulterior motives. None of it actually issues, although, when the ‘world’ round you feels so totally void of life.
Whereas Skydance will sprinkle in some actually fairly skyboxes, or the occasional hallways with nice lighting, for probably the most half you are exploring copy and paste environments. We revisited the intro of The Strolling Lifeless: Saints and Sinners throughout the assessment interval, and the shortage of ambiance in Behemoth in comparison with the developer’s earlier work is actually disheartening. There are flashes of true immersion, like when holding a torch up as you crawl by means of a cave, however these moments are fleeting.
In fact, this isn’t a recreation about exploration, as a giant focus is sword-to-sword fight. That is most likely the strongest facet of all the recreation, though we nonetheless have loads of points with it. The haptics on controllers really feel nice whenever you handle to get an ideal parry, and for those who actually dive into it, there are many cool moments. We beloved seeing arrows pierce our held-up protect, or the surprised, blinking eyes of our enemies staring again at us as we rammed a blade by means of their cranium.
Serving to issues out are the traversal parts allowed by the grappling hook. With it we may zip across the fight arenas, pull enemies off of ledges, catch an arrow mid-air, and even seize an out-of-reach weapon simply within the nick of time. Behemoth offers you swords, knives, axes, bows, and shields, however the longer you spend with the sport, the extra you realise that the axe will get you thru virtually each encounter. There are even spiked partitions to throw enemies into and your power potential shatters shields, however form of like whenever you realise you don’t really want to bop in Simply Dance, you rapidly discover ways to most successfully counter enemies, and all of it turns into a bit rinse and repeat.
There are moments when Skydance tries to combine issues up, like a combat in a lethal fuel the place you’ll want to cowl your mouth with one hand, or one other the place you place your arms over your ears to dampen the sound of enemy shrieks. These moments are few and much between, although, and awkward hand-tracking truly made a few of them extra of a nuisance than something.
There are additionally platforming puzzles, normally involving a field that wants shifting, or doorways that must open. They’re pretty inoffensive for probably the most half, and sadly enhance simply as the sport is wrapping up. It could spotlight the perks of the physics system as you pull bins along with your grappling rope, however most of the time, these find yourself feeling like filler.
However let’s get into the promoting level of the sport: the Behemoth boss battles. Like we talked about, these are preposterously massive scale, and from a purely visible perspective, they are often extremely immersive. After we first began climbing up the facet of our first Behemoth, we had been giddy with how cool all of it felt. Nevertheless, like most issues within the recreation, these bosses really feel a bit undercooked.
Whether or not it was shoddy platforming, unclear signposting, or simply awkward design, we died a number of occasions throughout every of the three primary Behemoth boss battles (there are 4 in complete), always coming to blows with the know-how. Whereas from a visible standpoint issues look nice in VR, every little thing else about these fights made us terribly conscious that we had been truly taking part in a online game with a hunk of plastic strapped to our face. Falling to our loss of life, grapples not latching onto factors, or simply getting crushed with awkward Behemoth animations — all of it feels unpolished.
It’s a disgrace too, as a result of there are moments in these boss fights that may reel you in, like holding on to a spear on high of a flying dragon-like creature, or scaling a Behemoth’s face as its big eye stares again at you. The ideas are nice, however the execution very often feels flawed.
Then in relation to the efficiency, Behemoth is riddled with bugs, whether or not it’s partitions popping out and in of view, having to reload saves as a result of doorways don’t open after defeating enemies, or bosses being utterly invisible. Many patches had been dropped throughout our assessment interval (each pre and submit launch) however pretty constant points remained. Skydance is, nonetheless, seemingly dedicated to rolling out extra patches because the weeks go on, so hopefully that may enhance quite a lot of the bugbears we’ve with the sport.
Conclusion
Finally, Skydance’s Behemoth feels prefer it’s nonetheless in its beta part. The enormity of its Behemoths works excellently in VR, however at virtually each flip, the sport bogs you down with bugs, repetitive gameplay loops, and underdeveloped degree design. Sadly, it additionally lacks the identical sense of place that the developer’s earlier work has, with its Forsaken Lands feeling painfully boring for probably the most half. There are moments when the magic shines by means of, however Behemoth is an enormous missed alternative general.
