Take to the skies to save your hive in Bee Simulator: The Hive. Combining the original story with brand new elements, The Hive allows you to create your own little colony. After releasing on August 4th we decided to buckle in and take up our duties as pollen collectors. Is the additional content worth a new, full release of the game? Let’s find out!
Get your bees knees ready! It’s time to collect some pollen
You can grab Bee Simulator: The Hive on Steam for an introductory price of £14.69
Gameplay
Take flight as a tiny bee in Bee Simulator: The Hive, a tale of a small bee that wants to help protect their colony. Your wings carry the fate of your bee family as you collect pollen, save lost bees and fight off wasps around a beautiful park.
Exploring is simple. Use WASD and your mouse to fly through the sky, completing story missions or side quests. For such a simple game it packs a punch with the amount of content you get. Fight wasps, dance with bees and take part in races to call yourself the best bee in the colony.
The map isn’t large (though it may bee to a bee!) but in a world where open world is the king, this game manages to be a solid contender. There’s plenty to explore and a lot to take in as your hive resides in a Zoo. You can go up to all the animals such as hogs and deer. You can also go into the rainforest area and meet a vast array of exotic birds. The game gives you ample opportunity to diverge from the story but it won’t penalise you if you stay on the set path.
Introducing the bee by disguising education
Bee Simulator: The Hive is a surprisingly educational experience but it doesn’t feel like it is. With every loading screen and every development in the story, you learn more about the life of bees and their effect on the environment. The main story allows you to explore the surrounding park that your beehive resides in and offers a wealth of beautiful graphics, other natural wildlife and plenty of mini games to keep the gameplay going. One of the ways this exceeds is through the collectibles. You gain knowledge points every time you give pollen to the hive. These points can then be used to unlock skins and trophies that give you more information on the bug species and how they interact with bees. It’s perfectly suited to a young audience and could be a way to introduce them to simple gaming mechanics.
The Hive and its short falls
Bee Simulator: The Hive adds a new gameplay feature that wasn’t available with the original release of the game. The new content and features allow you to build and manage your own beehive! Instead of only collecting pollen you also collect various materials such as sticks, glue, flowers and more. I think it’s a really good addition to the game and it definitely gives you more reason to keep playing after the main story however it’s not enough to justify a full new release in my opinion. This could have easily been added as DLC or as just a content update on the original story.
I didn’t think flying had to be so sensitive
Bees may not look like the most agile of creatures with their big fuzzy butts but that doesn’t mean that they move like they’re stuck in their own honey. When playing Bee Simulator I found that the original sensitivity settings were way too lower for the gameplay. I ended up pushing the sensitivity to max. It was a bit of a nightmare in tight places but it felt like the only right way to play.
Graphics & Audio
The general graphics are fairly simple but land really well. The game is very pretty and really emphasises the size difference between your tiny bee body and the rest of the world. The sheer size difference and the way that it plays into the game is impressive. The shift between the two art styles allows you to see some more in-depth images that accurately represent the bees whilst the playable graphics promote the cosy vibe the game has.
One thing that does need to be said is that there has been a pretty big improvement on the animations of the wildlife. It was a bit robotic in the original release of Bee Simulator. In The Hive edition of the game they have been massively improved.
The audio is crafted perfectly of the setting. It is relaxing and allows you to enjoy your time flying through the sky. The soundtrack of Bee Simulator: The Hive is composed by Mikołaj Stroiński, who is known for his work on The Witcher 3. The soundtrack goes above and beyond. Everything about it felt right and fitting making it easy to get absorbed into a little bee’s adventure
Longevity
The main Bee Simulator story only takes around 3-4 hours to complete but it packs a lot into those three house. If you’re looking at getting every trophy and collectible then it could potentially take you up to 11 hours. This game is a one time play through type of game where it tells its story without leaving any plot holes. The additional of the Hive elements add a few more hours to the overall playtime. I’ll admit I’ve played through Bee Sim a number of times now. It’s a cosy, down to earth game that you can zone out to and enjoy flying around.
Final Thoughts
I am a big fan of the original Bee Simulator game. I’ve played it a couple of times on my PlayStation. There’s no doubt this game is a really good way of combining gaming with educational elements without feeling like you’re learning something.
When I heard there was going to be a new release with new features, I was really really excited! But in all honesty, Bee Simulator: The Hive didn’t need to be a full release. Whilst it adds some really fun elements, they’re only accessible post-main game and it doesn’t really add all that much. It’s quite difficult to figure out what rating to give it. If you’ve played this game before then realistically I don’t think you’ll be massively impressed. If you’re a brand new player I think it does definitely add something to the base game.
The bees keep buzzing and this continues to be a good game, ultimately I just don’t think it’s worth buying the game over again.
With that I’ve given Bee Simulator: The Hive the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
Check out our other PC reviews here!
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