APICO

Reviewing this game is simple. It's cheap, has massive depth, and you can play it very casually.
But most of all:
"For APICO, donations are made to bee, beekeeping, pollinator and conservation-based charities. For Snacktorio donations will be made to various hunger charities and foodbanks. For Mudborne it will be amphibian, wetlands, and environmental charities."

I attempted to start this game several times and was not in to it, but then I tried again and accepted a sort of.. slower pace for it. Trying to understand and do things all at once all at the same time is immediatley overwhelming and sort of impossible. Instead of trying to breed 4 special bees and cross 7 flowers and find 2 butterflys all at once, and stress about honey being ready to process.. I just log in for a bit and focus on one thing at a time. This approach has made the game much more enjoyable and you can be a bit relaxed, and trust the game in saying there is no rush.

I like being able to pick one small goal, like breeding a new type of flower, and not trying to juggle many things at once. There are tons of other things I feel like I need to do, restoring ecosystems and finding species, but I let myself let go and take it easy. I appreciate how this game has helped me slow down.

Slow paced and pretty simple for a laid back stress-free experience. However there is plenty to discover and the game nudges you towards doing the right thing with gentle hints instead of in-your-face prompts, so it feels rewarding when things go right.
+ Lovely pixel art
+ Lots of aspects to discover
+ Mellow and stress free
+ You get to save bees (if only it were that simple IRL)

- Not the flashy fun with giant arrows above objectives

...btw, not sure if this is a feature of the game, but after I installed the game and gave it a few hours, the next day a little bee friend came to inspect my laptop (it's been gently guided to the outside afterwards) :D

This is a very cute and fun little game. I had a delightful time with it, and if you like chill farming/breeding/collection games, you'll like this one.

Overall: 81.7/100
Summary: This game is so cute. All the bee puns are adorable. It does get to a point where you feel like there is so many tasks you need to do, but take breather, relax. There are no consequences for not getting to anything “in-time.” Nothing expires, there’s no time limit, you’ll get to it when you get to it, and it’s not going anywhere (except the solitary bees in the bee hotel, you do need to stay and watch for those).

Audience
Beginner or casual gamer, looking for something relaxing

Visuals
9/10 Pixel art style, but it’s pretty clear what things are, could be a little clearer.

Audio
9/10 The music is it’s own mechanic. The music is nice and relaxing, sets the ambience. Unfortunately, it doesn’t play automatically all the time, but you’ll find things to fix that later. Suffer a little first.

User-friendly HUD and In-Game Menus
10/10 You can have so many menu’s open at once and move things between them easily.

Controls / Settings Customizability
9/10 Quite customizable.

Game mechanics Easy to Learn
7/10 The game spells almost everything out for you, just check the guide. But it’s a lot to process. There are a lot of machines and the things they do interact with one another.

Game mechanics Easy to Use
7/10 It’s simplified as well as can be expected for how much is going on, but there is a lot going on.

Difficulty of Gameplay
10/10 Not difficult at all, which is perfect for a relaxing game.

Bugs
9/10 Only bug I found was that part of my map stopped showing up on the map after I watched the credits. But I knew where everything was by then so it wasn’t a problem.

Story
4/10 A story. Somewhat cute.

Interest and Excitement
8/10 Not exactly thrilling, but interesting enough. It’s more relaxing.

Grinding
9/10 Very minor grind now and then.

Price / Quality
7/10 Wait for a sale.

Exploitability
None that I noticed

In-Game Choices Matter
There are no choices

Replay-ability
I wouldn’t

Game time / Length
40-70 hours for main story
70-100 hours to 100%

The gameplay loop while grindy, is a lot of fun. It's exciting trying to get new bee species and I love how it incorporates butterflies as well. Some mechanics could be better explained.
I play solely on the Steam Deck and controller support is clunky + glitchy. It's not unplayable but I disagree that it should be verified. Not sure if they rushed controller support or if the game itself is glitchy and thats why theres so many issues when playing with controller.
Regardless, I still recommend the game but if you play only on controller...expect some frustrating moments.

APICO gets a review now. Bee game. Best enjoyed on my widescreen monitor so I can have sooo many machine tabs open at once. Very glad there's automation late into the game, and the overall gentle "hey, with cogs, now your machine keeps spinning once cranked" is Very helpful as well as the first time I've seen a small boost to production in early-game go so well. Go bees. Very glad I can buy Monthense's theme music.
I group this game with Minecraft, Terraria, and Stardew valley in my head for it's ability to let me live in a virtual location for a Really long time, slowly building and improving it around me. VERY GLAD THERE'S MULTIPLAYER