The Hive

The Hive (2016) is an indie real-time strategy (RTS) game with distinct RPG elements that asks players to tap into their inner alien overlord. Developed and published by the Finnish studio Skydome Entertainment, the game sidesteps traditional human militaries to place you in absolute control of a chittering, evolving insectoid hive mind.

Set in the vast, beautiful, yet highly hostile underworld of a planet called New Eden, your ultimate goal is to guide your swarm from the subterranean depths back up to the surface.

Terran-Sized Zerg Vibes, But Indie Style

While The Hive visually and conceptually evokes the look of StarCraft’s Zerg faction, it abandons frantic multiplayer competitive macro in favor of a atmospheric, single-player campaign driven by exploration.

• The Condensed Nest: Base construction is highly streamlined. Players build out a functional underground nest using just four basic structures: the main Hive (which acts as a central hub and automated healing zone), Barracks for producing combatants, a Worker’s Den for deposits and technology upgrades, and static automated defensive Turrets.
• Resource and DNA Harvesting: Aside from standard mining for minerals and harvesting food to fuel population limits, the game relies heavily on a DNA evolution mechanic. Defeating indigenous monsters allows your workers to extract raw DNA, which acts as currency to permanently upgrade the base attributes or abilities of your swarm.

Chittering RPG Progression

What truly sets The Hive apart from standard real-time strategy layouts is how heavily it borrows from traditional role-playing dungeon crawlers:

• Equippable Carapaces: Defeating elite enemies or cracking open hidden ruins yields physical loot drops and ancient relics. Players can manually equip these items onto specific units to grant them passive modifiers like life leech, poison damage, or damage reflection.
• Veterancy and Survival: Your combat units accumulate experience points as they kill enemies, organically growing their health bars. If you play on the specialized Survival Difficulty, any units that survive a map will persist into the next stage, making unit preservation far more critical than throwing away cheap waves of disposable bugs.
• MMO-Style Boss Encounters: The game features towering, localized boss battles against colossal subterranean creatures. Rather than being simple stat checks, these bosses telegraph their devastating Area-of-Effect (AoE) attacks on the ground, requiring players to nimbly micro-manage and pull their swarm out of danger before they are vaporized.

Summary

The Hive is a quirky, lower-budget tactical experiment that trading mechanical polish for immense atmosphere, a gorgeous soundtrack, and unique genre-blending ideas. While its pathfinding and UI can occasionally feel a bit janky compared to the AAA strategy heavyweights, it successfully delivers a satisfying 10-to-12-hour dark-fantasy campaign that captures the primal fantasy of cultivating a monstrous, tight-knit alien family.

Release Platforms

• Microsoft Windows / macOS / Linux (PC): August 25, 2016 (Available via Steam and the Epic Games Store)