However, that doesn’t really stop you getting involved and becoming the hero.Īvril was horrified when this started to happen, which just shows the effect that the game has on the young gamer. But the queen insists that you perform your job and find pollen. Terrified, you want to help save the hive by finding a new home. The tree is busy dying and they need to get rid of the bee colony within it. Just as you start getting comfortable, some of the park people decide to cut the tree down. You spend the beginning of the game exploring the park, finding pollen and returning it to the hive. She expects you to go out into the park that you live in, which is located beside a large zoo in an urban park, which was inspired by Central Park in New York City. You start off as a young worker bee, who is given the title of honey bee by the queen. Not just from humans, but from other creatures, insects and mother nature itself. It also teaches how bad humans are for trying to destroy them, and shows us just how hard bees have it in life sometimes.
Everything you do and learn in the game aims at teaching you the value of bees and their role in the world. So Bee Simulator has been named a Family Educational game in the press releases and having played through the game, that is exactly what it is. I will answer that question at the end, once I have been through this review, since many points in my review actually aim towards that view. It almost feels like developers are desperate to get us to feel what it feels like to live these type of lives. I guess the one question I should answer is, ‘Is this really a Simulation game?’ So many games these games are getting the ‘Simulator’ appendix to their names, and I have been playing a handful of them for review this month: Farming Simulator 2019, American Truck Simulator, Construction Simulator 2 (review coming soon). The game was played by myself and Avril Jooste (my 4.5 year-old daughter), so this review is from both of us. As part of this collaboration, €1 out of every game sold will be donated to the foundation. As a bit of a fun fact, and perhaps the reason why I love this game so much, they partnered with Yann Arthus Bertrand’s GoodPlanet Foundation to raise awareness of protecting bees and the environment among players. It was developed by Varsav Studio and published by BigBen.
Bee Simulator was released on 14 November 2019 for the PC, Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.