Skydance's Behemoth is at its best when facing the titular creatures, though it's not a completely clean sweep through the Forsaken Lands. Read on for our full review.
There's a unique fear that only VR's sense of presence can deliver. Your journey begins alone, wandering through a snowy tundra with your mother's message echoing in your thoughts. Seeing the first Behemoth barely a stone throw away immediately sets the scene and while that's only a tease for what follows, these awe-inspiring moments are where the game really shines.
The Shadow of the Colossus inspirations are clear, though viewing this as the VR equivalent of Team Ico's cult classic would be a mistake. There are obvious similarities, but you're only facing four of these giant creatures with a longer journey in between.
As Wren, you're tasked with defeating these giant monstrosities to lift the curse that infected you and your village. It's not a particularly original premise, the story held my interest, but the voice acting quality between characters is uneven. This 9-hour campaign is filled with collectibles, too. Statues aren't much to write home about beyond displaying them at your base, whereas scrolls and skulls provide intriguing hints into this fallen kingdom's past.
Behemoth is an otherwise linear adventure, so the way forward is always clear. Some areas will hide paths that reward more than just lore and statues, providing items that boost your health and stamina. Wren's also got a Strength skill tree that provides useful upgrades like increased speed, and a grappling hook that controls well.
While Wren's curse means their clock is seemingly ticking, it's also your source of power across the physics-based combat. The now-patched stamina bar feels lenient enough to let you swing without immediately getting tired, while also ensuring you can't go blindly swinging to get through fights. Calling upon your 'Strength' provides a temporary boost that can destroy armor, while dismembering enemies creates satisfyingly gruesome kills. That said, cutting through a man's head like a melon in Fruit Ninja will probably haunt me.
You'll gradually obtain three hero weapons: a bow, a sword, and an axe, each with specific abilities like breaking armor. These can be upgraded for welcome improvements, like more arrows or blocking normally unblockable strikes. I'm not expecting Blackforge levels of depth, though the added physicality of hammering in upgrades is nice.
Skydance's Behemoth - How Does It Play On Quest?
My review is primarily based on the PlayStation VR2 version, since that's where I completed this campaign. PS VR2 closely matches the PC VR edition, but you may be wondering how Skydance's Behemoth compares on Quest. Like the PS VR2 version, I waited until the December 12 patch was live before diving in.
I've only been able to spend an hour with the Quest 3 version so far, and I've yet to try it on Quest 2. Waiting 2-3 mins for shaders to compile when you launch the game for the first time isn't fantastic, though at least it's a one-off process. Loading screens are also present when travelling to new areas, something you don't experience on PS VR2.
The standalone port otherwise holds up well in my playthrough so far. Performance hasn't been a problem during combat or exploration, though it suffers from some aliasing. I've yet to encounter reported glitches like missing key weapons after dying, either.
However, finding the weapons highlights some underlying tedium reflected across this journey. Each weapon's location involves clearing a puzzle, which is always moving two blocks across a room toward two weight-sensitive switches. This happens every time, it's repetitive, and wider puzzle solving usually involves the tedious process of moving boxes to set destinations.
Things don't get much better during exploration with general combat. You'll fight various factions across each section of the Forsaken Lands. The combat feels good, blocks and parries are responsive; enemy variety is my main problem. Standard fighters and archers are the usual draw, with later stages adding armored enemies more frequently. After a couple of hours, I wanted something different.
I never feel challenged enough on standard difficulty to change up my combat approach against these cursed fiends, so I'm pleased a harder setting is available. Even enemies with unblockable attacks only need a quick dodge by pressing a face button to get out of the way. Considering fights regularly occur in waves, this can become rather dull over extended sessions.
Even when facing mini-bosses on standard difficulty, letting loose several bomb arrows at these stronger opponents ends the fight fairly quickly. Limited healing items means you can't be too reckless, though human enemies often drop them when dying.
It's this exact reason why I didn't spend long in the sandbox Arena Mode, which is currently in Beta. It'll serve well if you're after somewhere to practice, but beyond quickly jumping in to see if anything's different, I didn't feel particularly inclined to stick around after summoning foes.
The Behemoth fights are ultimately what I'm interested in, and they're easily the game's strongest component. They put everything you've learned in the preceding section to the test. Physically scaling these corrupted monstrosities keeps me on my toes, and while the goal remains attacking obvious weak spots, each presents a compelling set of unique challenges.
I won't detail any strategies here or get too specific on their moves because that would spoil the best part of the game. That said, holding on for dear life while activating strength as I dodged a wrecking ball and climbing an utter mountain of a monster delivered some of the most memorable encounters I've had in a while in VR. It presented an entertaining challenge.
With the presentation, Behemoth currently delivers mixed blessings. The PlayStation VR2 benefits from strong visuals across impressive environments that bring this adventure to life well, though some areas have noticeably flatter textures than others. Darker environments look great on the OLED screens, while the Behemoths have unnerving designs.
Comfort
Skydance's Behemoth asks you to choose your comfort settings before proceeding into a new game. Movement is limited to artificial stick-based locomotion, though snap and smooth camera options are available with adjustable degrees and turning speeds. Motion vignettes can also be applied, and screen shake can be switched off.
Difficulty setting can be adjusted mid-campaign, though activating this requires travelling to another area first. Both seated and standing gameplay are supported. You can turn the haptic feedback off, choose how you grip items, while the UI can be individually tweaked for greater immersion.
However, even after the December 12 patch, I've encountered numerous visual issues on PS VR2 that are holding it back, and I noticed this more in the latter half. Glitches I spotted include torch holders floating midair, visual pop-in and environment skyboxes becoming visible from a distance.
There's considerable jank that also extends to weapons collision. While this isn't nearly as obvious during actual combat, I noticed during the opening segment that tapping two daggers together leaves a very noticeable invisible gap. The size of said gap varied between other weapons, and it's still disappointing.
Smaller visual glitches are tolerable, though I draw the line with getting soft locked and this happened on three occasions: once where I fell through the map, a spawning enemy getting stuck in a door, and a crate that needed moving onto a switch jumping far away in the third area. Quickly resetting got me underway again and the checkpoint wasn't too far back.
Skydance's Behemoth Review - Final Verdict
Skydance's Behemoth is an enjoyable new VR action adventure from the Saints and Sinners studio. The combat feels good, this Nordic-inspired fantasy world delivers some mostly impressive visuals on PS VR2, and taking down the Behemoths is rewarding. Unfortunately, the game's biggest problem are those moments in between.
While I enjoyed learning about this world and found myself invested in its story, getting from one Behemoth to the next can become tedious. Repetitive light puzzles, lacking enemy variety and considerable jank notably hamper Skydance's ambitious title. Skydance's Behemoth feels great when you're slaying the titular creatures, but there's ultimately some rough edges.
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