‘Skydance’s BEHEMOTH,’ from the Creators of ‘The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners,’ is Out Now on Meta Quest

Skydance’s BEHEMOTH, the long-awaited all-new epic VR action-adventure from Skydance Interactive is finally out and available on Meta Quest! This massive new adventure is from the same team that brought us both of the award-winning The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners games and we can’t wait to see what they have in store for us this time around.

Take on the role of Wren the Hunter, wandering the Forsaken Lands in search of the titular Behemoths. Killing these massive giants—if it’s even possible—may be the only way to break the rot curse that plagues Wren’s village.

To learn more about this amazing new adventure, we spoke with Shawn Kittelsen and Brian Murphy from Skydance, to go behind-the-scenes on the development of Skydance’s BEHEMOTH.

Brian Murphy: Feels great, it’s been a super crazy year and the team has done an unbelievable job. This is the most ambitious game we’ve ever made. There’s all this anticipation from VR action and fantasy fans, so it’s awesome to finally put this game in players’ hands. This represents a milestone for Skydance Games, our first original IP in VR since Archangel. When you create anything original it's always exciting to see how players respond to something new.

Shawn Kittelsen: This is an action-adventure in which you play as Wren, a hunter who comes to the dreaded Forsaken Lands in search of a cure for the curse that is plaguing their village. Legend has it that the only way to break this curse is to slay the legendary Behemoths, ancient beasts of unimaginable power.

BM: We were inspired by Shadow of the Colossus, and we were really excited about the idea of experiencing the toe-to- toe fights against monsters the size of skyscrapers. Being able to climb around on an articulated monster like this has never been attempted in VR before. We’ve created a sprawling and sweeping fantasy world and pulled from so many inspirations that gives players a thousand years of history and creates fully realized characters and story telling to make a story that has weight and gravitas like such greats as Sanderson, Tolkien, Abercrombie.

SK: Our combat was definitely an evolution of the global stabbing system from The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, but it was also inspired by the Souls game with parry mechanics and of course our ultra-hardcore Barbarian mode where 1-2 hits will kill you. The grappling hook was a feature that we first teased in the CG reveal trailer for the game, and that’s another primary mechanic with some roots in past games that our team has worked on, including Treyarch’s Spider-Man 2 (2004) and the Batman: Arkham games. We literally described that feature in our design as “Barbarian Batman.” It’s extra awesome to release in the same year as Batman: Arkham Shadow. We’re friends with the Camouflaj team, so it’s super cool to see gamers get so much sweet grapple hook action in VR this year.

BM: Our entire combat system is based on and built upon what worked so wonderfully in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. The moment you drive a stiletto into a walker is one of my favorite moments in VR. That game achieved so much with survival scavenging gameplay and intimate scale, with all this time spent in these very grounded, relatable environments. Skydance’s BEHEMOTH takes that same visceral combat and inverts the scale to be as epic and massive as possible, from the first vista to epic bosses. But no matter how big that epic scale gets, we still want that experience of weight, wrestling against forces greater than yourself. The biggest challenge was living up to our own ambitions and the legacy of our earlier work.

SK: The most difficult was the scale itself. VR games can be especially demanding on hardware because everything needs to be rendered twice, so we gave ourselves a real challenge by targeting high-fidelity graphics, smooth performance, and some pretty vast environments with depth and dimension. Add on top of that the challenge of creating these giant Behemoth bosses, each of which is a unique level all its own, rigging those bosses with live physics, and unleashing them in that vast environment. This game pushed our technology to its limits… and then we pushed a little further.

BM: We had a rule for the Behemoths when it came to their size: they had to have the “pucker factor” in that they literally made your body clench with fear and awe. So we got the first version of our first Behemoth, Shacklehide, into the game and we asked ourselves, is this big enough? The answer was no. It had already been a real challenge to get Shacklehide working at that initial size. But we stuck to our mission, and the Shacklehide that you see in the game today is literally twice the size of that original version.

SK: Hacking, slashing, and slaying the bejeezus out of the curse-afflicted denizens of the Forsaken Lands. We have a deep combat system of varied attacks, blocking, and parrying. And we have dynamic severing, so when you engage your Strength mode, you can lop limbs and split bodies in twain. It’s the ultimate melee combat grimdark fantasy anecdote factory and we can’t wait to see what kind of slick kills players pull off.

BM: And in between battles with humans and giants, there are puzzles to solve, secrets to find, and an entire history of the Forsaken Lands to discover. All of this is woven together with a character-driven story that will give players the stakes, goals, and motivation to persevere through every challenge in order to see how the tale will end.

BM: The campaign lasts a good 12-14 hours for most players on their first run, and they still might not experience everything or find every item waiting to be collected in the world. There are a variety of upgrades to find, including upgrades that enhance Wren’s health, stamina, strength, and abilities. Then there are the Hero Weapons that you collect along the way, a specially themed sword, axe, and bow, which each come with their own unlockable progression that you forge along the way.

BM: This is a physics-based combat simulation so the more that you treat weapons like they have real weight, and physically act out the range of motion as you would with a heavy sword or axe, the more damage you will do. But don’t just swing away wildly! That’s a good way to gas out your stamina and leave you defenseless. It’s better to be methodical, pick your moments, play defense, and wear your opponent’s stamina down before going in for the killing blow.

SK: Explore! There’s a lot to find in this world, and if you want to unlock every upgrade and max out your stats for the finale, you’ll need to scour nooks and crannies, ascend every optional tower, and rummage about by smashing pottery and opening chests. Also, try different difficulty modes. If you’re intimidated by the combat, there’s no shame in starting out on Tenderfoot. If you’ve got your VR legs and some confidence, go for Standard. And if you have been dying for that Soulslike experience in VR, or you want to take a second run with a steeper challenge, step on up to Barbarian. You will feel the pain!

BM: But it’s a good pain!

SK: Happy pain!

BM: You can find more from us on our socials such as TikTok, X, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as on the game’s official website.

Skydance’s BEHEMOTH is out now on the Meta Quest platform! If you decide to venture forth and face the enormous creatures, make sure you’re ready for the battle of a lifetime!