Behemoth blends Skyrim and Shadow of the Colossus into one VR epic

This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

Skydance Games has something big on its hands with Behemoth, an upcoming fantasy action VR title for Meta Quest 2 and 3, PlayStation VR2, and PC VR. And when I say “big,” I’m talking about its titular Behemoths themselves. From the first person perspective of the lead character, standing near the base of those beasts has a way of making you feel very small by comparison. But that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to fight them, and the entire plot of the upcoming VR game hinges on their defeat.

Digital Trends was recently invited to Skydance Games’ office in Santa Monica for a hands-on demo of Behemoth. Shawn Kittelsen, vice president of creative for Skydance Interactive, was there to walk me through the demo, which takes place about three hours into the game. According to Kittelsen, the area explored in the demo will be populated with more enemies in the final game. But in order to keep the demo to just 45 minutes, some subtractions were made. In the short time that I had to play, I got a taste for what feels like a promising cross between Skyrim VR and Shadow of the Colossus.

Slaying the Behemoths

Behemoth is a first-person VR adventure with an emphasis on sword-swinging combat and light exploration. BothSkyrim and Shadow of the Colossus are apt comparisons because Behemoth thrusts the players into a dark fantasy realm and puts them into the mountainous terrain of the cursed Forsaken Lands. The player character is a mighty warrior who has also been cursed, and the only way to cure the land is to rid it of the Behemoths.

The demo was played on a PS5 using the standard PlayStation VR2 headset and controllers. The immersion was impressive even at this stage of the game, which Kittelsen indicated was six months behind the current build of Behemoth. The controls took some trial and error to get used to, but they were largely intuitive once the commands were learned. Movement is controlled on the left-hand