The Hive Early Access First impressions

Let's take a look at this uninspired story driven real-time strategy game that does little to less on trying to change the formula in any new ways.


The Hive is a real-time strategy game made by Skydome Entertainment. The player will take control of the hive from where he will build structures, gather materials, and kill foes to venture on. You can purchase this title for $20 on steam right now.

Review is based on the Early Access version and the final version and the score could be different.

STORY

The game takes place in Earth 2175 where came the reign of fire that threatened to destroy the entire earth, even their technology could not save them. Construction for a massive ship to get everyone out was in the making but unfortunately only the strongest and most useful people were to board this ship. We flash forward to 2178 where the world has ended and only those who went on the ship have survived.The ship found somewhere at the edge of the solar system where they landed, weather conditions were rough and only the strongest were able to survive. Underneath they found an ancient place that was gleaming with new life and there a new species was found. From there you play as the alien species that wants to take control and grow to become powerful.

earth is doomed forever
…wait so what happened to the humans? If the story was so concentrated on human life why did the shift all of a sudden focus onto this new species of aliens? Why don’t we play as the humans instead? What even happened to the humans then, did they all die? It was not said at all whether they all survived still or died. Did these humans meet with the new species? If you are trying to make a narrative work everything must connect otherwise you’re just making a story out of thin air. How did this reign of fire happen anyways? Global warming?

GAMEPLAY

The Hive is a real-time strategy role-playing game where the player assumes the control of an alien species. Keep in mind, this is an early access title so not everything is going to be perfect. This game doesn’t really change the formula by much at all, it plays the same just as any other RTS would. In The Hive you will be gathering materials (food, minerals, DNA), building structures (defense, attack units, upgrades), and killings foes. Each new act will have a new objective to do but ultimately the idea is the same for each chapter. Make units, buildings, attack foes, and then kill a boss in the end. The game was not varied either in terms of attack units you can make. There are attack units and range units and one leader role. This is the only unit you can make which makes the game lack any depth at all. Seriously? Only 3 attack units in total for the entire game? This is absolutely lazy and better be fixed when the game is finished. 
boss fight! not very intense...
There are also items you can find in the game that only the workers can pick up which is extremely inconvenient might I add, because even though these items can make your leader “stronger” it really did not feel they were any better than before. Also, sometimes while in combat, some of the units will not attack and just sit there taking hits, this was extremely annoying and made the game a lot harder than it should have been and the fact that I can’t make a lot of units was also very disappointing. 

The worst part about the gameplay is that it just felt boring, I had fun for the first mission but after that it just seemed so stale like I was forcing myself to play rather than enjoy it. I didn’t care one bit for the story and everything else just seemed so irrelevant. 

GRAPHICS

The only thing this game has going for it is its art style. It looks nice and is soft on the eyes which is always appreciated. There is not a lot going on and the game runs very smoothly, I did not encounter any graphical bugs or glitches that would cause the game to run slowly. Runs at a very solid fps which is good. There is just a lack of detail on some things that don’t render right away as you see it. This is an early access title so all of this is okay for now but I expect in the full game that everything be rendered right away. Overall, the game does look beautiful in its colorful art style.

getting ready to fight

SUMMARY

The Hive ultimately has a boring story with gameplay mechanics that don’t feel any special than any other RTS game. It tries to be a story driven narrative that goes on for too long and ultimately makes the player not care about anything that happens. The fact that I can only have three units (attack, range, leader) in total for attack is a warning sign in of itself and the developers seriously need to change the game in this aspect. If I would have to rate this game at the moment it would get just 3 / 10. But as I said, it’s still in Early Access.

PROS:

  • beautiful art style

CONS:

  • boring gameplay
  • unexplained parts of the story
  • 3 attack units only
  • lacks depth and variety

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