Scurge: Hive
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| Scurge: Hive | |
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| Developer(s) | Orbital Media |
| Publisher(s) | SouthPeak Interactive |
| Release date(s) |  October 24, 2006 October 13, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Action/Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-Player, Versus |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS |
Scurge: Hive is a Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS Video game. The game follows Jenosa Arma battling an alien infestation from an isometric perspective. The character is tasked with fighing the Scurge, and alien entity capable of rapidly adapting to and infecting biological, mechanical, and digital systems, including the player. Throughout the game, Jenosa Arma will have to battle various forms of the Scurge virus and race against the clock as the Scurge slowly takes over Jenosa's body.
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[edit] Story
Scurge's story exists to set context for the gameplay. It features bounty hunter Jenosa Arma, who has been contracted on a mission to Confederation Research Lab 58 on planet Inos. Though a distress signal was sounded forty eight hours earlier, Jenosa's mission is to recover all salvageable technologies. The perpetrator of the difficulties is the virulent organism Scurge, which has the ability to transform various organisms and technologies into Scurge derivatives. Jenosa has been equipped with a suit that resists infection. Unfortunately, it can only slow the infection rather than make her immune. Though there are a moderate amount of cut-scenes scattered throughout Scurge: Hive, most of them exist merely to set up a new objective. Towards the end, the story does take one or two twists, but the plot is relatively uninvolved overall. The ending leaves the door open for a sequel, though that likely depends on Scurge: Hive's success commercially.
The story does set up the atmosphere of the game, which is detailed for a portable game. The emphasis is on setting, which Scurge: Hive pulls off well, creating a believably hostile alien environment comparable to that of Metroid.
[edit] Gameplay
Scurge: Hive is an action-adventure game that incorporates elements of many different games, but takes its primary inspiration from Metroid, though it differs in several key areas. Much like Metroid, Scurge emphasizes platforming elements fairly heavily, though the game's isometric vantage point gives it a more open feel, though it makes some jumps difficult to align. In addition to Jenosa's standard jump move, she can also attach a mechanical tether to a hook and swing longer distances, jump in mid air and grab onto horizontal pipes and ledges. Also borrowed from Metroid is the game's upgrade system, which allows you to progressively open up more of the game world as you gain upgrades that allow you to pass previously impossible obstacles. These upgrades are quite varied, and will provide you with additional weapons, mobility and other special abilities. Scattered throughout are light puzzles, which mostly involve triggering switches, and are usually not very taxing.
Where the game starts to veer from Metroid convention is the combat. With an isometric perspective and the inability to run while shooting, Scurge puts the emphasis on aiming and risk-taking. It is difficult at first to come to grips with exactly how to align shots, once the player gets used to the directions Jenosa can shoot it, the game becomes an exercise in lining up your shot, firing, and deciding when to move away from a projectile or charging enemy. Adding to the depth are the weapons Jenosa receives, which use a rock-paper-scissors-esque system, where a weapon will deal more damage to one type of enemy and powers up another. Jenosa will receive three elemental weapons, EMP, combustion and dissipate: EMP does more damage against mechanical enemies but increases the power of energy-based enemies; combustion works well against biological enemies but ups the strength of mechanical foes; dissipate effectively destroys energy foes but gives additional power to biological adversaries. Defeat an enemy with the weapon that works most effectively against them, and they will explode, causing them to damage or strengthen foes within close proximity, depending on their type. Scurge: Hive frequently throws multiple enemies of different kinds at you. This causes the player to make difficult decisions about which weapon to use, weighing effectiveness against the potential to make Jenosa's foes more powerful.
Tying the game together is the game's infection meter; a percentage at the top of the screen that gradually moves towards 100%. When the meter reaches 100%, Jenosa's health deteriorates rapidly. There are various cleansing stations scattered about the game-world that heal Jenosa and reduce her infection meter to 1%. The infection meter increases slowly enough for enough time to explore a little, but advance quickly enough to hurry you from one point to another. The result is a swiftly paced action game, though the overall game length is still fairly significant, falling in the 15-20 hour range.
[edit] Graphics and Sound
Scurge was originally developed for the GBA, and later ported to the DS, so graphical and sound expectations should be managed accordingly. Regardless, Scurge is one of the more attractive games on a portable, despite its relatively dated technology by today's standards. The environments, enemies and animations all appropriately convey the game's moody atmosphere. The game's sound is similar. Although the sound quality is artificial, that seems to work to the game's advantage, given its setting in a futuristic laboratory. Equally moody, it's reminiscent of the sound in Metroid games, though the melodies are fairly original in their own right.
There have been some scattered reports of graphical quality being lower on the DS version of the game, but those cannot be confirmed as of yet.
[edit] Reception
It has also been announced that SouthPeak Interactive will be publishing the game [1].
As of November 13th, Scurge: Hive has performed moderately amongst critics, scoring 68% and 70% on the DS and GBA, respectively.
