A gargantuan adventure made for VR.

After more than a year’s delay, virtual reality (VR) has seen the launch of Skydance’s Behemoth.

Released Dec. 5 for the PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2), Quest, and PCVR, the game created by Skydance Games (The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners) takes players on an epic journey across the Forsaken Lands.

Shawn Kittelsen, SVP of creative with Skydance, says the inspiration for this game came from the team wanting to push themselves further after the success of Saints and Sinners and their love for epic spectacles.

“We are huge fans of the epic spectacles in games like Shadow of the Colossus and God of War, of the combat in games like Dark Souls. We started to wonder what it would feel like to take on a giant in VR. That led us to consider traversal in a whole new light, and inspired our idea of a grapple hook that would make players feel like ‘Barbarian Batman.’ We also wanted to create human-scale enemies who could go toe-to-toe with the player using the same melee combat abilities, so we were talking about a far more complex combat system.”

Taking on the role of Wren, players are tasked with breaking a curse beset upon them and their lands. To do this, they must journey across perilous and barren landscapes full of marauders, all with the goal of killing the massive behemoths. These god like creatures, revered by the marauders and shackled into servitude, hold the key to stopping the curse and bringing about peace.

Aided by Silja, the spirit of someone from the time when the curse was released, you embark to not only bring down the behemoths, but to find the weapons capable of the job.

These weapons can be upgraded via a forge, which can be found at the castle base of king Ragnar, a mysterious man whose reign came at the time of the curse.

The game offers physics based sword combat, and haptics in the PSVR2 Sense controllers allows you to feel every slash, parry and block. In fact, haptics here are very well done, with things like dragging your sword(s) across the ground or across each other, giving off a realistic feel that is only matched in very few instances.

Headset rumble also adds to the immersion felt in the game, however, it seems to be a little inconsistent early into the release. While the game seems to have launched with various bugs and with the promise of patches – one on launch day and another Dec. 12 – it may not be that the rumble, or intermittent lack thereof, is tied to the bugs.

For example, the first time you encounter the first behemoth known as the Shacklehide, you do not feel any rumble outside of the Sense haptics, despite the creature slamming a giant metal ball onto the ground. In fact, the only time headset rumble was really felt was during the boss fight with the Shacklehide.

This is a shame considering regular fights would still benefit from this, especially if you are struck in the head. The rumble actually doesn’t come into play during the second boss fight with the Nightscraper – a giant bat like creature that scrapes a hook onto the ground; neither does it activate during your initial encounter with the third behemoth – the Dreddstag, despite it’s foot coming down mere feet from you.

Hopefully if this is a bug, it’s fixed in a patch. If it’s an oversight, then that’s very unfortunate to go through all the work, only to limit the times when this technology is used.

Now, the things we’ve spoken of up until now have been fairly skewed towards the negative. However, this does not make the game bad. In fact, there are a lot of things the game does right.

For instance, let’s talk about the graphics.

The game world is vast, and it has to be considering the size of the beasts you are hunting. But Skydance holds back nothing when it comes to the quality of work they put into making this game world beautiful. Whether it’s the snowy tundra, unending forests, or plethora of crypts, things look truly amazing.

In fact, just walking into a dark tunnel with only a torch makes the experience feel real.

Another great addition to the game immersion comes in the form allowing you to make specific movements at certain points of the game. While this may sound basic or silly, having to put your hands over your ears when the Nightscraper shrieks at you, or using your hand to cover your mouth when walking through noxious green gas, something small like this really helps take the game to another level.

Now for those who are accustomed to very easy gameplay with mechanics that hold your hand, this is not for you. There are tutorials that teach the basics of fighting, how to use the grappling tether that’s attached to your arm, and things like this. But what you don’t learn are the fundamentals that make the gameplay smoother.

If you’re planning on achieving trophies in the PSVR2 version, you’ll need to do things like grapple swing for 20 seconds without touching the ground. The problem for those who expect an easy story and guiding mechanics may have trouble achieving this, as you need to learn how to properly swing yourself around. As well, things like properly timing your dodges, the perfect timing to parry your opponents swing and the like, are expected to be learned on your own.

Hell, the scroll that gives you information on your character, map and inventory was not even taught to you and it took more than an hour before it even worked properly – never mind the time it took to figure out how to use once it did.

All this to say, expect to experience a truly grand adventure as even the easiest setting is still not there to baby the VR gamer.

While it launched with issues, Skydance’s Behemoth is a game well worth your time. The campaign runs upwards of 12 hours to complete, including areas to explore to find upgrades for your character. There are those who will obviously be turned off by the abundance of issues, but not many aside from what’s said above was really experienced.

Now, there are reports of more bugs being experienced than what’s mentioned here, but incoming patches should see to fixing the majority of what may be holding players back. Regardless of the bugs, Skydance’s Behemoth is a truly stellar game game. The Forsaken Lands are a captivating place to be, and the time spent there will be well worth it – especially for the patient and forgiving player.

If you’re one of the VR gamers who either gets annoyed at the slightest inconvenience or needs to see that there are no present issues before playing, then you may want to wait to pick it up.

But for those who have been waiting to jump into this for more than a year, it’s highly advised that you take the leap and jump in to fight for the survival of your home.

“If you’re someone who has always wanted to hack and slash your way through a grimdark fantasy world, or if you’ve ever wanted to stand at the foot of a giant and dare to cut them down, this is the game for you. We’ve got hard-hitting combat, gorgeous visuals, places to explore and puzzles to solve, and Behemoth encounters you will never forget. So give Skydance’s BEHEMOTH a spin! And while you’re at it, check out some other VR games, too. It’s been a great year for the medium. I hope games like ours convince more people to buy headsets and play all the amazing titles out there.”

While there is currently a roadmap and an arena mode in the works, Kittelsen notes that they listen to player feedback and if anyone wants more from this game, to let them know.

“Listening to the community is at the top of the list. We’re passionate VR fans first and foremost. We work at this studio to push the medium forward, to take bold risks you could never attempt in flat games. But we can’t take those risks unless we’re willing to adjust when the players tell us something could be better. So we’re listening, and learning, and sharpening this game into 2025 based on community feedback. We’re also working on Arena Mode, which is currently a Beta feature. We want to build out and improve that experience until it’s a proper 1.0. When that’s done, it will be a free update for all players,” he said. “As for additional content beyond that, play the game and tell us what you’d like to see next! I can’t make any promises but we’d love to spend more time in the Forsaken Lands.”

Skydance’s Behemoth, was reviewed on the PSVR2 after receiving a pre-release key.