APICO: Game Review

APICO is a beekeeping simulation game where you collect breed and conserve bees, all at a relaxed and light-hearted pace, developed by Tea Engineers and published by White Thorn Games. Apico has you exploring a sandbox world filled with trees, bees, and some humans in between.

It is both a game and secretly learning, reading up on, and figuring out how to take care of pollinating companions with a touch of fantasy mixed in for good measure and all within the game.

In terms of story, you have returned to the islands of your family heritage to take up beekeeping once again. Following the guides of your pun-loving grandfather and the support of your grandmother, and fellow beekeeping neighbors.

Throughout your time on the islands, you will rediscover bee species, crossbreed to create new species and return the bee balance of the world. There is also a touch of Minecraft and other crafting open-world games in which you craft tools to obtain materials from the world around you, such as wood and rocks.

Despite the absolutely charming pixel art and soothing musical accompaniment of Apico, the game early on and very quickly introduces you to your various guide books on beekeeping.

As a beekeeper, you break down or break into hives to collect honeycombs and bees and create queens which don’t result in your character being stung every which way to Sunday.

You can sell the honeycomb or more importantly, use it to craft some of the many items you will need to venture forth in your family keeper legacy.

Besides your beekeeping activities, you can also sell your products to local vendors and purchase much needed items from them in return.

There is also a little modding community and built-in mod support for this game. Developers seem to have made it easy for anyone to mod the game and share that with the community.

Apico is not a difficult game, just a detailed one, and thankfully they’ve got an explanation for just about anything you’re unsure about.