Honeycomb: The World Beyond, A different take on the survival genre…

We all know the gameplay loop by now, start off with nothing and slowly collect materials to build yourself the tools you need to survive in a hostile environment. Often this involves crafting makeshift weapons in order to fend off the local wildlife or to hunt for meat.

Honeycomb: The World Beyond is not that game.

It takes the standard formula for the survival genre and turns it on it’s head. Instead of using a kill first, ask questions later approach, it asks you to carefully analyse and observe your surrounding, giving you the tools to use the local environment to your advantage, or to alter it for your own benefit.

Bioengineering is the name of the game here, playing as a scientist called Hennessey who is sent to an alien planet called Sota7, you are able to use her scientific skills to collect data and samples of local plant and animal life and alter them to create brand new species with the specific traits you are looking for. Honeycomb: The World Beyond’s wildlife can be friendly, shy, or aggressive, but you do not kill the wildlife you come across, you learn to live in harmony with them.

Upon starting Honeycomb: The World Beyond, I was immediately reminded of Subnautica, albeit with the emphasis shifted to land rather than water (although there are underwater biomes in this game too…). The process of scanning the various plant and animal life was immediately familiar to me as someone who is well versed in the survival crafting genre. That is not to say that Honeycomb: The World Beyond does not make its one mark on this type of game, as more and more systems were introduced I soon realised that it is much deeper than it initially appears. And I think that anybody who is already a fan of survival games will for sure find something refreshing about the way you approach the world.

Graphically, Honeycomb: The World Beyond is presented with a semi cartoonish art style, the world of Sota7 is lush and colourful and a lot of the animals you come across are…for lack of a better word…cute.

During my time with Honeycomb: The World Beyond, I found that it mostly ran well. Since I had access to a beta build I did run into a couple of crashes but nothing that really spoiled the experience for me. One thing that I think was perhaps a missed opportunity is the fact that the game is single player only. I can imagine that playing Honeycomb: The World Beyond with a friend or two would be a great experience and it’s a shame that this feature was not included.

Overall I found Honeycomb: The World Beyond to be a very charming game, for fans of the survival genre who are maybe looking for something different I would highly recommend it. This is a game that you could easily sink a lot of hours into and I firmly believe that it would be time well spent.