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Bee Simulator (PS4) Status: Finished playing I started playing this game on Saturday 17 October, 2020 // I stopped playing this game on: Sunday 8 November, 2020
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.
October 24, 2020 05:46:02 PM
Finished! I'm not sure I have all that much more to say - the game isn't that deep but I did have a bit of extra fun picking up some trophies and finding some easter eggs - a literal one in this case (there's an easter egg inside the hen house in the zoo, if you sting it, it turns red and unlocks a trophy). Perhaps the neatest was finding a ring in the seal pen, stinging it, and an inscription appears! (like in the Lord of the Rings movie). It has a code that you then need to enter in a laptop. WHAT?! Anyways, light, fun and totally charming game.
October 20, 2020 10:07:28 PM
I've been enjoying this. It's simple, easy, educational and completely unexpected. I think it's the freshness/novelty I enjoy as well as my sheer surprise that a game like this even exists. It's also surprisingly easy to describe in "game design terms". I can do this poorly...for example, by saying that it's like an open-world game (al a GTA, Assassin's Creed) with a central story-driven narrative and in-world side missions and quests. You fly around to certain locations (often see in the screen as a pillar of light in different colors according to the type of quest) and activate them. These function like mini-games: there's a combat game, a racing game, a pattern-matching (mimic the bee dance!) game, and a collect-stuff game. There are also (very few, it seems) some story-driven side missions like helping an orphaned baby squirrel, feed squirrel kids, and a few more I don't recall right now. I think what I like about it is that is has this structure, but it's applied to a game that is not 80 hours long. It's probably about 8 hours - I'm guessing even less if you only stick to the main storyline. I think I'm 90% done with the story in 4 hours of gameplay? It's also surprisingly earnest and serious - the characters are modelled in a realistic fashion (not cartoony) and it the issues are...well, real? I mean, maybe its closer to the antz movie than bug's life...but it's not a cartoon in the over-the-top sense. Like, I really am collecting pollen (by flying over flowers, which is not realistic) and learning about different flowers and...who the bees don't get along with (wasps, hornets), and how important it is to have enough pollen for the winter...and, stuff like that. So far, pleasant surprise!

Bee Simulator (PS4)