Honey Pot is a brand new co-op VR recreation the place you struggle bears with bees, and it is definitely intriguing.
Overcooked and Crops vs. Zombies are from two utterly completely different genres. One is a co-op cooking recreation, whereas the opposite is tower protection. As odd as it might sound, each titles really impressed Brazil-based studio VRMonkey after they envisioned their subsequent providing: Honey Pot.
Honey Pot combines tower protection mechanics with action-focused gameplay, the place you and your folks management bees to defend the queen from waves of rampaging bears. It is a foolish premise however mechanically, it really works. I performed a 20-minute demo on the Tokyo Recreation Present the place VRMonkey had an exhibition sales space. There, I met studio co-founder Pedro Kayatt and different group members. Utilizing a Quest 3 headset, Kayatt walked me by way of this upcoming tower protection VR recreation, whereas additionally recounting how the studio conceptualized this mish-mash of concepts.
Kayatt knowledgeable me that Honey Pot’s first inspiration was Overcooked. Particularly, it is the “mayhem and chaos that goes on while you strive co-op in Overcooked.” The group goals to seize the identical frenetic tempo whereas additionally combining this idea with how they envision a singular VR tower protection recreation, which is the place the second key inspiration, Crops vs. Zombies, comes into play.
The beginning of the match entails inserting towers rapidly alongside the trail that hostile models would cross by way of. Kayatt states they’ve designed round 14 towers — “fireplace towers, those who create patches of grass, those who shoot balloons to sluggish enemies down” — and an assortment of components that may provide benefits or disadvantages. From there, the main focus shifts to action-oriented gameplay the place you tackle the ursa advance as a bee.
A few of the enemies I confronted in Honey Pot have been smaller cubs, simply dispatched in a couple of hits. Others have been bigger brutes that may face up to extra injury earlier than they have been eradicated. Fortunately, your bee has extra methods up their sleeve, er, foreleg. These embrace flying above your foes and sniping them from afar.
Kayatt notes that, whereas conceptualizing the character’s motion, they found that it is higher to show flying into a traditional technique of traversal. VR motion needs to be immersive and with Honey Pot, you pose together with your arms outstretched earlier than doing a flapping movement. I did really feel a bit foolish and I even chuckled on the thought. Nevertheless, when my character flew excessive up into the air, the motion and animations have been fluid and straightforward sufficient to grasp.
Whereas flying, I might additionally convey out my bow with one hand after which draw the bowstring with the opposite. This allowed me to levitate for extended durations, giving me a way of taking pictures the rampaging bears from above. I let unfastened one arrow after one other, bringing down enemy models till the spherical ended.
As for why the bow was chosen as your major weapon, it is due to how “it felt so good to repeatedly glide whereas aiming and taking pictures enemies.” There definitely was synergy when it comes to movement, animation, and gameplay mechanics, making this a part of the sport very pleasant.
Kayatt provides that the group primarily designed Honey Pot with co-op in thoughts as a result of they really feel that it is all the time extra enjoyable to play video games with associates. Stepping into solo, nevertheless, doesn’t suggest that AI bots will be a part of you. Kayatt confirmed that the marketing campaign is balanced relying on the variety of gamers which might be within the squad.
As a humorous apart, I have been instructed that gamers also can pull the stinger from their character’s rear finish. This can be utilized as a devastating projectile, however doing so causes their character to die, too. This generally led to shenanigans after they have been playtesting as everybody tried to detach the stinger.
Honey Pot is definitely fairly completely different from VRMonkey’s earlier releases, equivalent to Galaxy Kart and Sky Climb, however the premise definitely has me intrigued. The studio is at present growing the Meta Quest 3 model earlier than finalizing the builds for different VR headsets, and it is anticipated to launch throughout Q1 2025.
