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"The Hive" is a single-player RTS/RPG game where you control an insectoid hive mind, exploring a vast ruined underworld filled with dangers and lost civilizations. Build your own nest, defeat ancient creatures, and unlock new units and abilities by dissolving enemy DNA. Experience an epic story across 10 levels and 10-12 hours of gameplay, with a serene yet perilous world awaiting.

The Hive screenshot
The Hive screenshot
The Hive screenshot
The Hive screenshot
The Hive screenshot
The Hive screenshot
The Hive screenshot
The Hive screenshot
The Hive screenshot
The Hive screenshot
The Hive screenshot
+12

89%
Audience ScoreBased on 536 reviews
story106 positive mentions
replayability8 negative mentions

  • The graphics and unit designs are beautiful and immersive.
  • The game offers a unique blend of RTS and RPG elements, allowing for unit customization and upgrades.
  • The story has potential and is engaging, with interesting lore and a captivating atmosphere.
  • The gameplay is slow-paced and lacks challenge, making it feel repetitive and tedious.
  • There are significant bugs and technical issues, including poor AI and unit pathfinding problems.
  • The game has limited content with only 10 short levels and no multiplayer or skirmish mode.
  • story
    488 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story is often described as confusing and poorly executed, with many players finding it disjointed and lacking coherence. While some appreciate the unique premise of managing an insectoid race, the narrative fails to engage, feeling rudimentary and repetitive across its short ten-mission campaign. Overall, the storytelling is seen as a significant drawback, with many reviewers expressing a desire for more depth and clarity in the plot.

    • “The story behind the game was very well thought out and it is beautifully presented to us, giving us a captivating story to experience spread out over several levels.”
    • “It is deeply atmospheric and the storytelling has a couple of plot twists that really make you second-guess what's actually going on.”
    • “The hive is a fun strategy game with a good story.”
    • “The twists and plots and turns and story beats and even some world building are there but mashed into an incoherent fever dream.”
    • “The story-line is extremely jarring as you don't know what's happening.”
    • “The story seems unfinished, convoluted, and just kinda blah.”
  • gameplay
    242 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of the game is characterized as a blend of traditional RTS mechanics with some RPG elements, but it lacks innovation and depth, often feeling repetitive and simplistic. While the atmosphere and visuals are praised, many players find the mechanics clunky and poorly explained, leading to frustration with inventory management and a lack of engaging content. Overall, the game shows potential but is criticized for its unpolished execution and limited gameplay variety.

    • “The gameplay is actually really nice, and the atmosphere is perfect for a game like this.”
    • “8/10, gameplay is fun and units all have some form of synergy with others, and items are useful but not required.”
    • “The gameplay mechanics here are truly amazing and if some more time is invested to enhance it and give it more replay value it will grow into an amazing game.”
    • “The gameplay is exactly what you expect from a typical RTS, with some pretty nature scenes and water simulations, but nothing truly new, and nothing exciting.”
    • “The gameplay feels very simplistic and dumb and is not fun at all.”
    • “Overall, gameplay felt clunky and unpolished.”
  • graphics
    146 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the art style and unit designs as visually appealing and immersive, reminiscent of classic RTS games like Starcraft and Warcraft 3. However, some players criticize the animations and overall graphical quality as dated or simplistic, noting issues such as low-resolution textures and janky animations. Despite these criticisms, the game is generally considered to have a decent visual presentation that runs smoothly, especially for an indie title.

    • “The artwork is amazing.”
    • “The graphics and voice acting are great, the existing units and enemies got a beautiful design and the first two maps were nice to play.”
    • “Simply put, this is an RTS with an interesting story and beautiful artwork.”
    • “I didn't have much time to play this game to review its gameplay properly, but I was disappointed by the lack of actual effort in most of the game's animations and visuals.”
    • “The graphics are pretty poor, and the buildings/units look very simplistic.”
    • “And I'm not sure why, because the graphics look very dated and the textures are low-resolution (obvious when you zoom in).”
  • music
    44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in "The Hive" is generally praised for its atmospheric quality and ability to enhance the game's immersive experience, with many reviewers highlighting its relaxing and tribal elements. However, some users noted issues such as repetitive tracks and technical problems during critical moments, like the final boss fight. Overall, the soundtrack contributes positively to the game's visual and narrative appeal, despite some inconsistencies.

    • “The background music adds to the overall quality that the game offers; it builds the atmosphere and keeps it right there as the climax is reached.”
    • “Gorgeous music and a beautiful visual design take you to the planet of New Eden.”
    • “A must play with stunning visuals, engaging story, and incredible music!”
    • “The music on the final boss was skipping pretty severely, especially when your own units were giving their response sounds, and cut out entirely at some point.”
    • “There are also a very limited set of enemies to face, there's basically no soundtrack, and let's not forget the graphics remind me of Age of Mythology or, if we want to be very generous, Warcraft 3 - it's not ugly, in fact the units are visually well-designed all things considered, it just looks like an RTS from the early 2000s.”
    • “Sound: music is repetitive, but the ambient sounds are perfect for the environment.”
  • atmosphere
    36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive quality, enhanced by stunning graphics, a captivating soundtrack, and detailed environments, particularly in its unique alien setting. Players appreciate the depth and intrigue of the atmosphere, which contributes significantly to the overall experience, despite some technical issues. The combination of visual and audio elements creates a compelling and engaging atmosphere that keeps players invested in the game.

    • “The gameplay is actually really nice, and the atmosphere is perfect for a game like this.”
    • “"The Hive" is a fun RTS with a unique setting and an immersive atmosphere created by graphics, soundtrack, and sound effects.”
    • “The atmosphere is quite unique, with the game largely taking place in beautifully detailed subterranean caverns on an alien world.”
    • “I enjoyed the atmosphere, but the game is technically lacking due to occasional bugs and balance issues.”
    • “The game world is really interesting and will captivate you with its alien atmosphere.”
    • “And the main thing here is atmosphere.”
  • replayability
    26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game "The Hive" currently suffers from minimal replayability, primarily due to its limited content, with only 10 levels and no multiplayer options. While there are some achievements that encourage multiple playthroughs, the overall lack of variability and polish detracts from the experience, leaving players feeling less motivated to revisit the game. Future updates could potentially enhance replay value, but as it stands, the game is seen as lacking in this crucial aspect.

    • “The gameplay mechanics here are truly amazing, and if some more time is invested to enhance it and give it more replay value, it will grow into an amazing game.”
    • “Unfortunately, at this stage, the game does not offer much in terms of replay value; however, the game does have achievements that require a bit of a grind and there are difficulty-based achievements that will require more than one playthrough, so there is that at least.”
    • “Really looking forward to the development of this game as it looks to have a high replayability.”
    • “The one major flaw of this game is its lack of replayability.”
    • “There is a distinct lack of variability and this reduces the replayability of the game.”
    • “Unfortunately, at this stage the game does not offer much in terms of replay value; however, the game does have achievements that require a bit of a grind and there are difficulty-based achievements that will require more than one playthrough, so there is that at least.”
  • stability
    24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is plagued by numerous bugs, including issues with AI behavior, animation glitches, and freezing, leading many to describe it as a "student project" or "buggy shovelware." While some players enjoyed the gameplay despite these flaws, the overall consensus highlights significant stability problems that detract from the experience.

    • “Good game, love it! No glitches; would definitely recommend.”
    • “The game is very buggy (enemies shooting through walls, phasing through walls, clipping animations), the AI is objectively terrible (just sends their forces straight at you with no tactics and doesn't know how to move or fight in any way, often breaking and following you all the way back to base). Even if your units all die, they will still go to your base, which is not a problem because you can just pop turrets and watch all enemies instantly die. Lastly, buildings will glitch out a bunch and get confused.”
    • “Biggest drawback is it's a bit buggy; the biggest bug I found is when you run a mission, don't 'load' from a save, select from continue and start from the beginning of that mission.”
    • “It also freezes, and I have a new computer with good RAM and graphics, so it's hard to understand why it made me restart from scratch over and over again (could be buggy).”
  • grinding
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, often describing it as repetitive and clunky, with poor controls and camera angles exacerbating the experience. While some appreciate the loot system that allows for permanent upgrades, the overall sentiment is that the grinding feels excessive and could benefit from improvements to enhance enjoyment.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “Finding the correct way to unlock map scripting to allow progression felt like tedious trial and error guesswork.”
    • “Bad - e.g. repetitive, clunky controls, bad camera angles, endless frustrating grinding.”
  • optimization
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, the game's optimization is inconsistent; while the first five missions perform well with smooth graphics and stable frame rates, the latter half suffers from significant issues such as FPS drops, broken unit pathfinding, and occasional crashes. Users have reported short-term lag and stuttering, indicating that the game may not be fully polished or optimized for all systems.

    • “The artwork is nice and the game runs smoothly.”
    • “It runs smoothly in my monitor’s native resolution and on constant 60 frames per second.”
    • “It is important to note that the first 5 missions were good and well optimized; however, the second half of the game had FPS drops, broken unit pathfinding, and selection of units not disappearing.”
    • “Unity game engine, short-term lag/stuttering at times, 1 crash.”
  • humor
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is often unintentional, with players finding amusement in graphical glitches, repetitive textures, and bizarre visual effects during gameplay. While some moments are genuinely funny, much of the laughter stems from the game's quirks and oddities rather than intentional comedic elements.

    • “I won't say I didn't have fun, but some of it was laughing at the game—like noticing that the same texture is used, often very stretched out, on any surface that's supposed to be natural rock. In the final level, there's a sequence where you use your workers to tunnel, and the blocks do very strange things visually based on how you clear them out, or the... uh... new unit you get midway through the game.”
  • character development
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development is highlighted for its high-quality design, indicating that the characters are well-crafted and thoughtfully developed. This attention to detail enhances the overall gaming experience, making the characters more engaging and relatable.

Buy The Hive

8h Median play time
6h Average play time
1-10h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 4 analyzed playthroughs

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