Review for Bee Simulator. Game for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 31/12/2019
The videogame landscape is full of simulation games but nowadays there was no bee simulator. For this reason the guys from VARSAV Game Studios they have well thought of developing Bee Simulator, where we will finally be able to take on the role of a bee and live life inside a beehive. As we all know by now, the intensive exploitation of our planet's resources combined with excessive air and soil pollution are putting the ecosystem of bees in crisis, making them a species at risk of extinction. Although apparently this small insect seems useless and annoying, it represents an indispensable resource for our ecosystem and for our agriculture.
Bee Simulator takes this topic very close to heart and the title in fact, begins with a video where it will try to raise awareness among gamers, trying to make them understand how important these little creatures are.
The title, however, is an atypical simulator, and also mixes the typical components of an adventure game within it. We will take on the role of a little newborn bee, obviously daughter of the queen bee, and our task will be to help our colony find the pollen necessary to make honey and survive the thousand adversities that we may encounter along our path.
The first stages of the game represent the tutorial where the game dynamics will be explained to us and which will introduce us to a world that has now become hostile for these little creatures.
The story behind Bee Simulator is extremely simple but effective. Like all bees, we are daughters of the majestic queen bee, our task will be to collect the pollen. During an expedition outside the hive, upon our return we will find humans intent on cutting down the tree containing our entire colony. From now on, our task will be to find another home and save our huge family. Being Bee Simulator a title designed not only for the adult audience, but also for the little ones, our bee will soon become a little hero, because our actions will not only depend on the future of the colony but also of the earth.
The game is divided into different areas, all to be explored, including the tree that will function as a hub. We can fly free anywhere and go to the zoo, help other animals, challenge the other bees to a dance competition or challenge them in ring courses. Our main task will always remain to collect pollen: there will be over 40.000 different types of flowers which will offer us more or less pollen depending on their rarity. We will have a small tank, indicated in the lower left part of the screen, which will indicate the maximum quantity of transportable pollen. Once full it will be up to us to place it in the hive. When we reach maximum capacity, both the speed and stability in flight of our little bee will suffer, causing random wobbles. To help us collect pollen, we have a bee eye view that will show us all the flowers available, divided by color according to the amount of pollen they can offer.
As a last resort, we also find a turbo mode that will allow us to fly faster. It too has an indicator that will show us the percentage of turbo left. The campaign of the bee simulator, however, is short-lived, our adventures will last just over three hours, but offer a good dose of good fun.
Bee Simulator offers two difficulty levels, a simpler one designed for children and a more difficult one designed for adults. The substantial difference lies in the clashes, because in Bee Simulator we have the ability to face other bees or other insects, such as wasps, in hand-to-hand clashes. In the simplest level we will have to press a sequence of buttons, while in the more difficult the battles are more complex and, in addition to attacking the enemy, we will also have to parry the attacks in a timely manner. Any confrontation will be free of violence.
Bee Simulator, albeit in a very simplified way, also offers an RPG component. It will be possible to change the name of our little bee at the beginning of the game, and subsequently also various parameters, such as the speed with which we collect pollen, increase the flight speed when we reach full load or increase the transportable weight.
Bee Simulator on a technical level is really pleasant and pleasing to the eye. The models of bees and other insects are extremely detailed and very realistic and the environments, offering over 40 thousand varieties of plants, are very colorful and vivid, making them extremely beautiful to look at..
The animations of the bees are extremely believable and well done, while those of the human beings in the background are really bad. Another negative point of Bee Simulator are the textures of the land, trees and some marginal insects such as grasshoppers: they turn out to be too washed out and not very detailed. In a title like this the sound component could be a marginal aspect, but on Bee Simulator we find a soundtrack well made and pleasant to listen to, all without clashing with the scene we have on screen. All the songs of the bee simulator are in fact made by the same composer who gave life to the majestic soundtrack of The Witcher 3.
The title developed by the guys from VARSAV Game Studios is a pleasant surprise for this final year full of interesting titles. Bee Simulator is a bee simulator that aims to educate and sensitize players on what is most important for the stability of our ecosystem. The adventure, although short-lived, will show us all the hardships and dangers that a bee must undergo nowadays. The collection of pollen and the various secondary quests are very pleasant to carry out and represent an excellent pastime, both for adults and for children. On a technical level, the title is extremely pleasant to see, thanks to the countless shades of color present on the screen, even if the textures are of low quality resulting faded.
► Bee Simulator is an Adventure-Simulation game developed and published by Varsav Games for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 31/12/2019
