This is a hard review for me to do. I was extremely excited for Hive Jump and interviewed the developers on more than one occasion, but I cannot help but feel let down by this game. I realize that this is not the best way to start out the review, but I do not believe in holding back punches.
Hive Jump is a game that blends multiple genres. It has elements of Metroid, Contra, Metal Slug, Spelunky and more, but it doesn’t blend perfectly. Starting out, there is a slight strategic game part before getting into the meat of the game, but it felt distracting and confusing. Furthermore, the main game itself is rather awkward. The difficulty is intense and that is fine and I don’t have complaints about difficulty, but I do about stiff controls. And Hive Jump has very stiff controls that get in the way of the gameplay. This ended up holding me back significantly, both in single player and online. On that subject, Hive Jump is a game that needs to be played in multiplayer, it just does not play well in single player and you wont have a good time.
I played 3 online games and they ran fine, but it felt lacking. I don’t know how else to say it other than it was missing something. The game is a run and gun game but it has strategic elements that just don’t go with it and the difficulty of the game. It feels like the developers were trying to do too much and combine too many ideas and it just kind of sits there.
You can respawn numerous times after dying, provided the backpack does not get destroyed, after which permadeath kicks in. This is where the online fell apart for me and everything became utterly chaotic. Coordinating activity became impossible and everyone felt like they were fighting each other. The Backpack mechanic does provide some interesting ways of playing, but this is the one area where single player works better, even though Single Player is inferior in general. I didn’t get the chance to play local co-op and maybe that is better, but I walked away unimpressed.
Like I said, I was really excited for this game, but I do not feel the end product is the best it could be. It just feels like a recipe that was put together wrong. I really hope something can be done to make this game better, but right now, the product isn’t there.