Skydance's BEHEMOTH

Skydance's Behemoth is the kind of VR success story we'd like to see more of. Skydance Games delivers another polished, addictive production. A major studio in the discipline.

Skydance's Behemoth stands out for its intense combat and immersive exploration. The well-structured narrative and effective use of PlayStation VR2 features provide an engaging experience. However, some players may find the learning curve challenging and the battles physically demanding.

Skydance's Behemoth is a decent VR sword-and-sorcery adventure, with some really eye-catching staging and some really fun fights against colossal monsters. However, between colossuses we have to deal with tedious sections and repetitive enemies.

Ultimately Behemoth is a good VR combat game that's a bit too easy, and with its impressively huge boss battles too few in number. Whilst the combat and exploration is enjoyable enough, the puzzling is too simple and, in a game about killing giants, you'd expect there to be a few more giants.

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.

Skydance's Behemoth is an adequate VR game that peaks during some stunning boss battles.

A game about fighting office block-sized monsters, where you spend most of your time battling far less interesting human-scale enemies, with clumsy and repetitive melee combat that pales next to the all-too-few behemoth fights.

Skydance's Behemoth offers a huge amount of spectacle with the four giant creatures you'll take down over the course of your time with it, but spectacle is the majority of what's on offer. It's a shallow game with a combat system that never challenges you to evolve your tactics (even when/if it's working properly), a repetitive gameplay-loop, runtime bloating encounters and box-pushing puzzles, and a story that does nothing new with uninteresting characters. Traversing around with a grapple hook and climbing the giant beasts at least proved both consistently fun and an interesting gameplay experience in VR, and it has its fair share of visually striking moments, but that isn't enough to recommend it.

Behemoth seems frozen in time, unable to leave nearly as strong an impression as its predecessor by dint of scale alone, resulting in what feels like a colossal waste of potential. [Issue#406, p.114]

Ultimately, Skydance’s Behemoth feels like it’s still in its beta phase. The enormity of its Behemoths works excellently in VR, but at almost every turn, the game bogs you down with bugs, repetitive gameplay loops, and underdeveloped level design. Sadly, it also lacks the same sense of place that the developer's previous work has, with its Forsaken Lands feeling painfully dull for the most part. There are moments when the magic shines through, but Behemoth is a massive missed opportunity overall.

Fun and challenging swordplay can't make up for bland and repetitive action between behemoths, making this far from the epic adventure it wants to be.