The Skydance Big is among the largest PSVR2 releases of 2024. Coming from the builders of The Strolling Lifeless: saints and sinners franchise, Skydance is swapping revolvers and walkers for swords and cursed beasts, promising one of many largest-scale fantasy outings within the digital actuality medium. Nonetheless, Behemoth is proof that larger definitely doesn’t suggest higher, as this uneven VR expertise is riddled with issues to its core.
It would seem to be we have fully written off the sport, however that is not totally the case. There are moments all through its roughly eight-hour marketing campaign that provide glimpses of the magic that Skydance aspired to. The start of the sport actually gave us goosebumps because the towering Behemoth rises within the distance, with snow and fog obscuring its view, and the loud haptic headsets actually promote that feeling of enormity. In a lot of Behemoth’s reveals, you may’t assist however stare in awe. For moments like this, digital actuality was created.
Nonetheless, do not be fooled by the secret. Most of your time with Behemoth is spent strolling by means of mundane fantasy settings, taking up common previous bandits. There are literally solely three Behemoth boss fights in your entire sport, which was definitely a shock to us.
You play as Wren, a villager on an epic quest to kill the Behemoths and save his household from the curse they unfold throughout the land. In your travels you’ll meet a wandering warrior and a mysterious spirit, who act as avenues to acquire new weapons, upgrades and talents.
The fundamental loop of the sport has you traversing platforming puzzles, usually with the assistance of the grappling hook in your wrist, permitting you to spin round and climb up excessive ledges. Puzzles are interspersed with frequent fight encounters and occasional mini-bosses, earlier than culminating in an epic battle in opposition to Behemoth. All through these sections there’s a pretty easy story about forgotten kingdoms, nasty curses, and characters with ulterior motives. Nonetheless, none of that basically issues when the “world” round you feels so fully devoid of life.
Whereas Skydance will embody some very nice containers or occasional hallways with nice lighting, for probably the most half you are exploring copy-and-paste environments. We reviewed the intro to The Strolling Lifeless: Saints and Sinners throughout the assessment interval, and the dearth of ambiance in Behemoth in comparison with the developer’s earlier work is admittedly disappointing. There are flashes of true immersion, like once you maintain a torch whereas crawling by means of a cave, however these moments are fleeting.
After all, this isn’t an exploration sport, as its most important focus is sword-to-sword fight. That is in all probability the strongest facet of your entire sport, though we nonetheless have numerous issues with it. The tactile really feel of the controllers feels nice once you handle to drag off an ideal cease, and when you actually get into it, there are many fascinating moments. We cherished watching arrows pierce our raised protect, or the shocked, blinking eyes of our enemies watching us as we drove a sword by means of their skulls.
The transversal components that the grappling hook permits assist clear up the issue. With it we might navigate the fight arenas, knock enemies off ledges, catch an arrow within the air and even seize a weapon out of attain simply on the final second. Behemoth provides you swords, knives, axes, bows, and shields, however the extra time you spend within the sport, the extra you understand that the ax will get you thru nearly each encounter. There are even spiked partitions to throw enemies at and your power means breaks shields, nevertheless it’s like once you understand you do not really want to bounce. simply danceYou rapidly learn to counter enemies extra successfully, and all of it turns into a bit difficult and repetitive.
There are moments the place Skydance tries to combine issues up, like a battle in a lethal gasoline the place it’s important to cowl your mouth with one hand, or one other the place you place your palms over your ears to muffle the sound of the enemy’s screams. These moments are few and much between, nonetheless, and the awkward guide monitoring truly made a few of them extra of an annoyance than the rest.
There are additionally platform puzzles, which often contain a field that should be moved or doorways that should be opened. They’re fairly innocent for probably the most half, and sadly they get higher simply as the sport ends. It could spotlight the benefits of the physics system as you pull containers along with your grappling rope, however as a rule, they find yourself feeling like filler.
However let’s get into the sport’s promoting level: the Behemoth boss battles. As we talked about, these are ridiculously massive in scale and, from a purely visible perspective, could be extremely immersive. As we began climbing up the facet of our first Behemoth, we acquired dizzy from how cool all the pieces felt. Nonetheless, like most issues within the sport, these bosses appear a little bit uncooked.
Whether or not it was poor high quality platforming, unclear signage, or simply awkward format, we died a number of occasions throughout every of Behemoth’s three most important boss battles (there are 4 in complete), and have been continually confronted with the expertise. Whereas from a visible standpoint issues look nice in VR, all the pieces else about these fights made us painfully conscious that we have been truly taking part in a online game with a chunk of plastic strapped to our face. Falling to your dying, grappling hooks not grabbing factors, or just being crushed by awkward Behemoth animations – all of it feels unpolished.
It is a disgrace, too, as a result of there are moments in these boss fights that may seize you, like holding a spear on prime of a flying dragon-like creature or climbing up a Behemoth’s face whereas its big eye stares again at you. The ideas are nice, however the execution usually appears flawed.
Then, on the subject of efficiency, Behemoth is plagued with bugs, whether or not it is partitions showing and disappearing from view, having to reload saves as a result of doorways do not open after defeating enemies, or bosses which are fully invisible. Many patches have been eliminated throughout our assessment interval (each earlier than and after launch), however pretty constant points remained. Nonetheless, Skydance seems to be dedicated to the launch. additional patches because the weeks go by, so hopefully that may enhance numerous the problems we’ve with the sport.
Conclusion
Finally, Skydance’s Behemoth seems to nonetheless be in its beta section. The enormity of its Behemoths works excellently in VR, however in nearly each facet, the sport bogs you down with bugs, repetitive gameplay loops, and underdeveloped stage design. Sadly, it additionally lacks the identical sense of place that the developer’s earlier work has, and Forsaken Lands feels painfully boring for probably the most half. There are moments the place the magic shines, however Behemoth is, general, an enormous missed alternative.
