A Tale of Two Games

Behemoth casts you as Ren, a lonely warrior travelling cursed lands to battle giant monsters and save his people. The narrative, while predictable, is well-delivered through an engaging mix of environmental storytelling and voice-overs. Unlike many other narrative-driven VR titles, the game respects player agency during exposition, allowing you to move and interact while absorbing the story rather than trapping you in static dialogue sequences.

The game’s lore is cleverly distributed through interactable items throughout the world. This optional approach to narrative depth works surprisingly well – you can engage with as much or as little of the background story as you wish, with voice-overs playing seamlessly as you continue your adventure. It’s a thoughtful solution to the common VR storytelling challenge of maintaining immersion while delivering plot.

Let’s Fight!

The majority of Behemoth plays as a medieval combat adventure with satisfying physics-based melee combat at its heart. The game offers a reasonable selection of weapons, from swords and daggers to axes and bows, as well as 3 special weapons that stay with the character and are upgraded throughout the campaign. Each of the weapons feels appropriately weighty thanks to a solid physics system reminiscent of Saints & Sinners. This physics system, along with great sound effects and crisp animations, delivers satisfyingly impactful combat that drives the action sequences throughout the campaign.

In addition to the standard array of melee weapons, Behemoth also provides a grappling hook, which is a lot of fun to use. While initially finicky, it quickly becomes an invaluable tool for both vertical traversal and combat. Grappling an enemy’s leg and yanking the rope will pull them off balance, opening new opportunities to attack. The grapple can also quickly reposition the player during fights, pull enemies off ledges, or pull distant health pickups to you during intense battles. This versatility adds a welcome layer of depth to the combat system.

Combat in Behemoth employs a stamina system that, while not overly restrictive, adds a tactical element to combat. When depleted, your arms become notably weaker, the weight of your weapons becoming far more tangible as you can barely lift them to defend yourself. The system feels well-balanced and fair, giving you enough stamina for aggressive play while preventing endless flailing and encouraging a tactical dynamic that serves the game well.

All that said, the combat definitely struggles to find balance in other areas. The “strength” ability feels massively overpowered from the start. Once you get used to relying on this power, most combat encounters become trivial. This is compounded as you upgrade your weapons to the point that late-game human boss fights that should be climactic challenges can be defeated in under a minute.

The power in and of itself isn’t bad, but its implementation highlights a real misstep in progression. While the skill can be upgraded over time, all of the enhancements feel superficial when compared to the abilities base power. Had this been a skill that grew from more humble beginnings throughout the campaign, then waltzing through late-stage combat would have felt empowering and hard-earned. Instead, Behemoth effectively provides a built-in cheat code that makes every encounter almost game-breakingly easy from the outset.

Behemoth also undercuts the tension it otherwise creates by providing generous health pickups throughout combat areas. This abundance means you’ll rarely feel pressured in combat by the game’s latter half, knowing that healing items are always readily available.

The game includes an arena mode in beta, offering additional combat challenges for those seeking more action after the main campaign. While it provides a pure test of the combat mechanics, including encounters with the game’s human bosses at higher waves, its repetitive nature and inability to use upgraded weapons from the campaign may limit its long-term appeal.

Hardly a Head-Scratcher

Behemoth’s puzzle elements represent one of its weaker aspects. Most puzzles boil down to simple box-moving exercises that feel more like busy work than genuine challenges. While there are occasional clever moments – such as using the grappling hook to create swing points for objects – even these more innovative puzzles lack complexity and can typically be solved in just two or three moves. Compared to contemporaries like Asgard’s Wrath 2, the puzzle design feels particularly underdeveloped.

In fact, overall, there seems to be a noticeable decline in polish and performance as the game progresses. The first two-thirds of the game provides a high-quality and broadly stable experience, but the final third feels rushed, with technical issues occurring more frequently. Combat becomes less reliable, visual glitches become more common and things generally begin to feel a bit repetitive.

This sliding scale of quality is particularly noticeable in the later Behemoth encounters, where the combination of ambitious scale and technical instability creates frustrating experiences that fall short of the game’s early promise.

The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Oof

The titular Behemoth battles, which should be the game’s crown jewels, deliver mixed results. Of the four major encounters, only one or two truly capture the epic scale these battles promise. The second Behemoth battle, featuring a massive flying creature, stands out for its ambition. The concept is thrilling – fighting atop a giant bat-like creature as it soars through clouds, requiring careful climbing and tactical thinking. However, even this highlight suffers from scripted sequences that limit player agency and technical issues that break immersion (if you let it). Our team had mixed responses to this sequence, but I found it one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in VR.

Other Behemoth encounters prove less successful. The third battle, for instance, reduces what should be an epic confrontation to a relatively simple platform/climbing exercise. Where you should feel the tension of scaling a massive, dangerous creature, you instead find yourself comfortably hopping between static platforms or dealing with short, easily manageable climbing sections that never test the stamina system and so never actually feel like a threat. Couple this with excessively forgiving waypoints, which make dying almost meaningless, and you end up with an encounter that feels more pedestrian than the desperate battle against a colossal beast it should have been.

These sections also suffer from various and occasionally severe technical problems, including screen jittering, glitching grab points, and accidental holster triggers. These issues are particularly problematic during climbing sequences, where precision is crucial.

The disappointment is made so much worse by the fact that the Behemoths actually look amazing. At several points before battling each of them, you will see them ponderously moving through the world, and they are a sight to behold. Spotting a massive Behemoth in the distance while completing other objectives creates thrilling moments of anticipation – anticipation that isn’t seldom satisfied when you finally face them.

Pretty With a Side of Jank

Graphically, Behemoth is impressive on the Quest, particularly when compared to other Quest fantasy titles. The environments are varied, from snow-covered landscapes to lush castles and the striking Red Forest. Character models and animations are well-executed, though the lighting can sometimes feel murky, especially in underground areas.

The sound design stands as one of the game’s strongest elements. The score knows when to swell for dramatic moments and when to remain understated. Combat sounds are particularly well-implemented, with weapon impacts carrying satisfying weight through audio cues. Environmental audio adds depth to the experience, with footsteps and echoes changing appropriately based on your surroundings.

However, there are technical issues with the sound implementation, particularly in music transitions. Tracks can cut off abruptly between areas, breaking immersion with jarring silence before new music begins.

A Tale of Diminishing Returns

Behemoth presents a challenging case for reviewers. The first two-thirds of the game offers solid entertainment with satisfying combat mechanics, a well-told narrative and well-crafted environments. The combat system complete with grappling hook provides a nuanced take on melee combat (when not overshadowed by the overpowered strength ability

However, the game’s quality noticeably degrades in its final third, with a less polished level of design and an increasing array of technical glitches. Most disappointingly, the Behemoth battles, which should have been the game’s crowning achievement, on the whole fall well below their colossal potential.

Note: If you’re a fan of Shadow of the Colossus coming to this specifically for massive creature battles, you might want to adjust expectations closer to 7/10.

Instead of manipulating traditional flippers, players wield large circular paddles to bounce balls through these dynamic spaces. It’s an ingenious reimagining that manages to both honor pinball’s timeless appeal while revolutionizing how we interact with it. The game presents four distinct environments—a Western town, haunted mansion, space station, and pirate ship—each functioning as its own unique playfield while maintaining the core principles that make pinball engaging.

Paddle to the Metal

Bounce Arcade wastes no time getting players into the action, with an efficient tutorial that demonstrates the fundamentals without overstaying its welcome. Each environment serves as a living pinball table, complete with objectives highlighted in yellow (turning green when activated) to guide players through the experience.

Where the game truly shines is in its creative integration of VR-specific interactions. Rather than simply hitting targets, players engage in environment-specific mini-games that break up the traditional pinball flow. The Western town erupts into shooting galleries where players must carefully target bandits while avoiding civilians. The space station challenges players to mine asteroidal resources while dodging hostile defensive systems. These moments aren’t mere distractions but rather clever expansions of pinball’s bonus round concept into full VR experiences.

The fundamental mechanics work flawlessly, with responsive controls that feel natural and intuitive from the first minute of play. Multi-ball sequences, target hits, and special events all trigger smoothly, creating a polished experience that successfully translates pinball’s core appeal into VR. Traditional pinball elements like bonus multipliers and target sequences are present but reimagined through the lens of each environment’s theme.

However, the game’s pacing often works against its creative ambitions. Ball physics feel notably sluggish, with gravity seemingly set too low, resulting in balls that float lazily toward the player rather than maintaining pinball’s characteristic frenetic energy. This leads to unusually long rounds—sometimes lasting 20 to 30 minutes—that feel more like endurance tests than tests of skill. The inability to adjust difficulty settings for individual tables further compounds this issue, with inconsistent difficulty ratings that don’t always match the actual challenge level.

Bounce and Shine

The game adopts a stylized visual approach that prioritizes clarity and character over photorealism. Each environment boasts its own distinct personality, from the warm tones of the Western frontier to the ethereal glow of the haunted mansion. While the graphics may not push the Quest’s hardware to its limits, the cohesive art direction, smooth particle effects, and fluid animations create an inviting and readable playing field that serves the gameplay well.

The visual design emphasizes readability without sacrificing atmosphere, ensuring players can track balls and objectives while remaining immersed in each environment’s unique theme. Special effects during multi-ball sequences and bonus rounds add satisfying visual feedback without overwhelming the player’s view.

Sounds of the Silver Ball

The fundamental pinball sound effects hit all the right notes, with satisfying impacts, chimes, and mechanical feedback that ground the experience in arcade authenticity. Each environment brings its own themed audio flourishes, from creaking floorboards in the haunted mansion to the metallic echoes of the space station. The sound design successfully reinforces the feeling of being inside a living pinball machine while maintaining clarity during hectic sequences.

The musical accompaniment provides distinct themes for each environment that, while competent, tend to fade into the background rather than enhance the experience. The tracks serve their purpose without being memorable, offering appropriate atmospheric support without drawing attention to themselves.

Rolling Returns

The game’s staying power largely depends on your appetite for high-score chasing and leaderboard competition. While the variety of mini-games and VR interactions provide initial entertainment, the game’s limited selection of just four tables and absence of progression systems or customization options constrain its long-term appeal. Without announced DLC plans, dedicated players may find themselves wanting more content after mastering the existing environments.

The game’s relatively low difficulty curve affects its longevity as well. During pre-release testing, it was possible to top global leaderboards without exceptional skill, suggesting that serious pinball enthusiasts might find the challenge lacking. The emphasis seems to be on extended play sessions rather than the quick, intense rounds traditional pinball fans might expect.

Bumper to Bumper

Technical performance remains consistently smooth, with responsive controls and stable framerates even during chaotic multi-ball sequences. However, the game’s core design choices present more significant hurdles. The slow ball physics and generous difficulty drain the urgency from the experience, while the inability to customize difficulty settings for individual tables limits player agency.

The difficulty ratings for each environment often feel arbitrary, with some “easy” tables presenting more challenge than those marked as difficult. This inconsistency, combined with the generally forgiving gameplay, means that success often comes down to patience rather than skill or quick reactions. These issues, combined with the modest content offering, hold Bounce Arcade back from achieving its full potential.

Final Tilt

Bounce Arcade represents an imaginative leap forward for VR pinball, successfully translating the genre’s fundamental appeal into an immersive new format. Its creative mini-games and polished mechanics demonstrate the unique possibilities of virtual reality gaming. The initial impression is genuinely impressive, with many players likely to be wowed by their first few sessions.

However, pacing issues, limited content, and restricted customization options prevent it from becoming a true classic. While it offers an entertaining diversion for casual players and VR enthusiasts, its longevity suffers without more substantial content or progression systems. The lack of challenge may particularly disappoint hardcore pinball fans looking for that classic arcade difficulty.

For now, Bounce Arcade serves as a phenomenal proof of concept that doesn’t quite stick the landing. With additional content, mechanical fine-tuning, and better difficulty balancing, it could evolve into something truly special. As it stands, it’s worth a look for its innovative approach to VR pinball, even if it may not hold your attention for extended play sessions.