By Isaac Espinosa
Last week, I was given the opportunity to participate in an immersive VR demo over at the Lightbox, a loft-like space in midtown Manhattan’s West Side. Presented by Skydance Games, the same developers that created The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, the event was a launch preview for their newest offering, Skydance’s Behemoth. There, everyone involved had a chance to play through some of the upcoming VR Title to get a taste of what’s to come when the game officially arrives on December 5th. So with a fair amount of playtime under my belt, what were my impressions on Behemoth?
I had the chance to play both a demo version of Skydance’s Behemoth on the Meta Quest that acted as more of a tutorial, alongside a little bit of the full game, which was played on Playstation 5’s PSVR 2 system. Through both experiences, the game looked amazing, and really set me into this backdrop of a forgotten old land that had been lost to time. Whether it was me walking through the snow-filled but empty forests, or an abandoned colosseum, Skydance nailed the atmosphere. Considering it was in VR, the isolation that came from being alone in this world they created felt very real.
That isn’t even to mention how the added movement option of the Grappling Hook makes it so the game doesn’t feel slow. It was a surprisingly fun addition that made me feel as though I was Spider Man in the Barbarian Era! The aspect of Skydance’s Behemoth I was most impressed by, however, was the combat. Having an ax and sword at your disposal, swinging both weapons felt incredibly responsive, which was important to me since Behemoth had a parry mechanic. Swinging your sword to block an incoming attack at the right time parries the blow, causing the enemy to be stunned so you can go in and attack. The thing that feels so rewarding about this parry system comes in where you have to actually angle your sword swing to properly block the attack, instead of just aiming mindlessly and hoping to stop it. It not only takes advantage of the VR system. It also encourages you to immerse yourself even more into the movements and actions.
After getting the chance to play, I spoke with a lot of the attendees about what they thought, being able to express our collective enjoyment of the game. But mixed in between that, I was able to speak with the game’s director: Brian Murphy. Our conversation was definitely one that gave me a ton of insight to the many decisions behind Behemoth, primarily regarding the choices in its gameplay and the team’s inspirations.
Walking through the world, I couldn’t help but feel in awe at the sheer scale of the game’s giant monsters, named Behemoths, and how their size made it even more of a task to defeat them. Speaking with Brian Murphy confirmed with me that this was an intentional choice inspired by games such as Shadow of the Colossus, where you would have to climb the surprisingly docile Colossi and take them down via weak point hunting. Imagining such a scenario in VR was a huge point of creating Behemoth, according to Murphy. My talks with him also enlightened me on the decisions regarding the combat system. Brian stated that there was an emphasis on making it as interactive as possible in order to increase immersion. That’s why the parry works the way it does. I even got some further hints into what came later in the game, with different powers that come at a coherent pace, alongside Grappling Hook upgrades that help to integrate the hook into the combat.
There is a clear amount of passion and pride that comes from the development team from even just the demo of the game, and the demo is just a small piece of the whole! Once the game arrives, I can’t wait to explore every little bit of the world that Skydance has created.
Bronx native Isaac Espinosa is a Member of the New York Videogame Critics Circle. Along with being named the Circle’s first assistant Mentor, Isaac also coaches students for CEI Esports.
