Review: Honeycomb: The World Beyond

Honeycomb: The World Beyond is a special and refreshing survival experience that clearly tries to move in a different direction than many traditional games within the genre. Instead of focusing on fighting, weapons and constantly beating enemies, this game essentially pertains to discovering, investigating, experimenting and surviving on the mysterious alien planet Sota7. You're crawling into the skin of Hennessy, a bioengineer sent to this unknown world to gather new knowledge that may ultimately be of great importance to the future of mankind. From the moment you enter the colorful world, you notice that Honeycomb essentially wants you to be curious and take the time to actually study your environment.

One of the strongest aspects of the game is without doubt the world itself. Sota7 feels colourful, lively and at times almost soothing. While exploring, you will encounter various plants, landscapes and alien life forms that you can explore and document. Exploring new flora and fauna gives you the feeling that you are on a scientific expedition. At the same time, the planet is not completely harmless and you will have to learn which animals you can safely approach and when it is wiser to keep your distance. As a result, there is always a certain amount of tension during exploration, without turning the game into a traditional action game.

The bioengineering mechanics make sure that Honeycomb really stands out. Collecting plants and other biological materials has a greater purpose than simply filling your inventory. You use what you discover for research and experiments and can combine different species to discover new results. This makes progress feel more based on knowledge and experimenting than just collecting ever better equipment. Especially for players who like to discover systems and find out for themselves which combinations are possible, this can be a very interesting part of the game.

Base building also plays an important role. As you progress, you can build your own research base in which you put different facilities and equipment. Your basis is not only a safe location where you keep things, but is actually the central point of your scientific activities. Collecting materials, expanding your base and freeing up new possibilities ensures a pleasant progression. The combination of survival, crafting, building and scientific research works surprisingly well and gives Honeycomb a clear identity.

Visually, the game also leaves a good impression. The developers did not opt for full photorealism, but for a colourful and stylized presentation that fits perfectly with the alien world. Especially the environments often impress. The different colours, strange plants, weather effects and special animals make sure that there is plenty to see during the exploration. The quiet presentation furthermore helps to give the game an almost relaxing atmosphere, making it easy to spend longer time simply walking around, collecting and exploring.

This calm approach is at the same time one of the points on which Honeycomb will not be suitable for every player. The pace is rather low. Whoever expects a survival game in which something happens all the time, gets a lot of fighting and you are regularly confronted with spectacular action, will probably find their place here less quickly. Honeycomb requires patience and rewards players who are willing to explore the world quietly. Traditional survival mechanisms such as collecting raw materials and taking into account the needs of your character may also feel repetitive over time. Especially when you have to travel longer distances for certain materials, the pace can sometimes become a little too slow.

Yet that choice for a quieter experience is also an important part of the charm. Honeycomb is not simply trying to be the next big survival game, but consciously opts for science, nature and discovery as the main components of the gameplay. The result is a game that sometimes feels almost meditative. You are not constantly searching for the next fight, but much more often with the question of what grows behind the next hill, what new species you will encounter or what results an experiment can yield.

The game will therefore be particularly attractive to players who love exploration, crafting, base building and survival games in which you can set your own pace. Players who, for example, enjoy slowly building a base, discovering unknown areas and experimenting with different systems will probably enjoy this much more than players who are mostly looking for quick action.

Honeycomb: The World Beyond is an interesting addition to the survival genre. The beautiful alien world, extensive research, bioengineering and the ability to build its own research base give the game enough personality to distinguish itself. The slow pace will not appeal to everyone and some survival parts can become repetitive after a long time, but for players who are looking for a quiet and discovery-oriented science fiction experience Honeycomb has a lot to offer.

What mainly lingers is the feeling that you were not sent to Sota7 to conquer the planet, but to understand it. That may sound like a small difference, but it affects almost everything you do. Discovering, observing and experimenting are central and therefore Honeycomb feels different from many other survival games. It is not a game for everyone, but for the right player it can be a particularly relaxing and interesting journey through a beautiful alien world.