Where the Bees make Honey Review (Switch)

Review code used, with many thanks to Whitethorn Digital

Back to being a child

I’m a fan of the weird and wonderful in gaming. Which is why it wasn’t hard for me to decide whether I would review this game myself. Heck yeah!

First of all, what is the game about? The first segment of the game is pretty familiar to those of you who work in an office. Sunny is at her desk, in her cubicle, talking to a client on the phone. Somehow, poor woman, she is alone at the office! She somehow drew the short straw and is on working late. Small wonder she gets to wonder if this is what she wanted growing up. A dull job, doing chores for others, little or no feeling that what you’re doing is worthwhile.

You get to know the layout of the office trying to find items you need, when the power goes down. Great, you have to go to the basement to throw the switch and get it all going. For a moment there I was wonder if it was going to be scary in the basement, but I shouldn’t have worried. Going back up to my floor, Sunny opened the door and the office had changed into a lush landscape that looked fairy-like. Like a child would imagine the world to be. Much better!

That’s when the adventure started.

Is the game about the puzzles or the story?

From that moment on, the scene kept changing. Just when I felt the landscape was beautiful, it changed into a two colour long staircase with shadows that Sunny had to go down on. The first person view that you played in at the office is gone, instead you control a little drawn image of a girl. Sunny, as a child, and she is remembering things from her childhood.

Where the Bees make Honey LadiesGamers.com — *This first segment reminded me so of Chibi Robo, I was hopeful!*

The story is told while you go from scene to scene, never knowing what you are going to see next. There are puzzles, bizarre landscapes and in between, you see short pieces of a movie with real people in it.

Without going into the rest of the story I will say that it’s like the game can’t decide on what kinda game it is. I know the developers did this on purpose, but it threw me a little. I never knew from the one scene to the next what to expect, and some segments were really…strange.

I like the puzzles most, they reminded me of how you have to work in 3D to find the solution by turning the screen with both shoulder buttons. I wanted to keep the puzzles going, only to find myself coming back in the body of a rabbit without a clue about where to go. Eventually it dawned on me that the bunny trying to find her children stands for Sunny’s mom who at one time lost Sunny in the supermarket. But it’s not clear why you aren’t a human, but a rabbit that hops over the screen.

More puzzles would have been nice

So, the package of gameplay offered is varied. The puzzles were definitely my favourites, as they worked flawlessly too. I do see that this might be personal preference, but I found the other segments that didn’t work as well.

For instance, the bunny sequence I mentioned: turning the screen did strange things to the rock-blocks, they became transparent. For a moment I thought it was how it’s supposed to be, that it were optical illusions that i could walk (eh, I mean hop) through, but no. That was thinking too deeply.

No, the bunny had to hop a certain course. And what a frustrating course it was too, because of the controls. Pressing Y made the rabbit jump, but not always. Most of the time it just fell of the rock, not heeding my Y command.

Conclusion

Where the Bees make Honey takes you on an emotional journey. Showing you childhood days are preferable above adult life with all its must do’s. The developers made a daring video game, but to me it felt like they couldn’t settle on one idea. If they’d picked the puzzles and told the story with them, I would have loved it.

Now, it was a package with a jumble of ideas all rolled into one. For me, a bit too much of a jumble, though I do realise others might feel it a great diverse little game. Loved the puzzles, didn’t love some of the other segments. Paired with the issues in control and graphics, it’s a mixed bag for me. If the idea appeals to you, try to check out the trailer below to see if it’s your cup of tea.

Verdict: I’m not sure.