VR action RPG Behemoth - first details about gameplay and game world
Behemoth is one of the most talked-about VR games for 2023, and its developers are now revealing the first details about the game's mechanics and world.
Behemoth is the big new VR project from Skydance Interactive, the studio behind The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, which is considered one of the best and most successful VR games.
Behemoth was announced at Meta Connect 2022 in October and was accompanied by a cinematic trailer at the Game Awards 2022 (see below), which doesn't show any gameplay footage, but does give some first glimpses of the gameplay and the harsh world.
In a post on the Playstation Blog, the lead developers go into more detail about the VR game and reveal new details.
A brutal fight for survival
According to Davidson Cole, who is responsible for the story, the studio wanted to combine several genres. Behemoth is supposed to be an "epic adventure" in which you defeat giant colossi, but it also includes the brutal fight for survival of the Walking Dead titles, as well as a dash of folk horror with themes like sacrifice and the cruelty of nature.
"In Behemoth, the dread of the unknown is always with you," Cole says.
From the outset, the hero is thrown into a bleak world without hope: a remote corner of the doomed empire, an outcast among outcasts and defenseless against the titular colossi. In the very first scene, the hero is attacked, robbed of his meager possessions, and left for dead.
"There is a clear message here — if you want to survive, you better be prepared to fight for it. And that’s just the human enemies. When you stare down your first Behemoth, you better be prepared for how huge these things really are, and what it takes to slay one," says lead concept artist Dylan Scher.
Boss fights against the titular colossi, which are meant to be especially terrifying in VR, are the game's highlights.
Realistic sword fights
The studio wants to create a world that is both brutal and beautiful. "Great, sheer cliffs descend into the foggy unknown. A massive glacier looming over a ruined coast. Caves that descend through darkness into massive underground lakes. And threaded into all of it is the ancient remnants of a collapsed civilization, and the secrets its ruins may still hold," Scher says.
Another major focus is on combat simulation. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners featured lifelike interactions between zombies and all manner of brutal combat equipment. With Behemoth, the studio wants to step it up a notch and bring realistic sword fights against human opponents.
"In Saints and Sinners melee combat was only really for the walkers. In Behemoth you will fight human enemies that are smart and have thoughts and feelings. Combat is all physics based, and we require real weapon collision for things like block and parry. This applies to enemies also, so the AI will actually predict the incoming angle of your attack and position their sword properly to block it. They do make mistakes though, and if they fail and your sword connects with their body, it will do damage," says creative director Todd Adamson.
And what about the grappling hook that you can spot in the trailer? The developers confirm that this weapon will be present in the finished game. You'll be able to force enemies to you or climb steep walls with it.
Behemoth will be released in 2023 for Meta Quest 2, Playstation VR 2 and PC VR.
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