Hive was originally a board game that was developed in 2001 by John Yianni and Gen42 Games. It is an abstract strategy game, which means that you have pieces that can move according to certain rules, you alternate turns, and to be good at the game you have to think ahead. The gameplay goes something like this: you and your opponent take turns putting down “bugs” (think, chess pieces but with different rules). Each bug has a movement pattern and other rules associated with it. All your and your opponent’s pieces must stay linked (ie. in a single hive) at all times. The object of the game is to “trap” your opponent’s queen bee (sorry Lorde). You trap the queen by surrounding her with bugs, yours or your opponents.
The digital Steam version, which technically isn’t officially out yet but is still in early access, is an absolutely wonderful adaptation of the board game. But, I’ll get to that in a second. There are so many things I love about this game before I even get into my narration of my power hour. 1. It is developed by a tiny studio, which y’all know from my Indie Game of the Week segments and my many, many blog posts featuring indie games that this is something I love 2. Reading through the comments on Steam from impatient people waiting for the game to come out, I found that the devs were pretty nice and patient. Ie. Not all indie devs are Jonathon Blow. When I didn’t my early access code (which I purchased awhile ago) I emailed them and one of the devs emailed me back right away with it. And 3. They seem to be open to sharing their coding knowledge, or at least they talk through a lot of code decisions on their blog, while sharing large swaths of it. Now, since I’m not a programmer I certainly don’t understand what it means, but it seems pretty cool.
Now, the game. Let me start my actual review by saying that I SUCK at this game. Resource management is really where I shine in the strategy realm, not in this kind of game. As Cody Reimer will tell you I play video games from the heart, not the head. This is why I may be a successful poker player, but am terrible at Chess. I want to play my opponent, not the game. But I still found myself getting addicted to this game. Within the first hour I had only beat the easy level (which is embarrassing to admit, but there ya go). I feel like I’m about to beat the next level as well… which is totally not what I’m going to go do after I post this… no no, I’m going to work on my dissertation or send an article out…
The game has several modes, pass and play, 2 player, online, or against the computer. There are several difficulty levels, which the devs have warned about being very difficult, if not impossible, toward the top. The images are fun; the gameplay is smooth. But the reason to play is really that it’s just pretty darn addicting.
Now, you may see this game on Xbox Live and your iOS and wonder why you should buy it on Steam. You should buy it so we can play against each other. I will in all probability lose, which may be fun for you. Come crush someone who is about to get her PhD and (if the job market goes well) be a professor. It can be payback for all the terrible stuff your English teachers made you read.
