The main problem with The Hive is that it's boring. Really really boring. Most of the time you just sit there waiting for your workers to gather food so you can build troops to fight the enemy. This enemy consists of small groups spread across the map that just wait for you to show up and kill them. Combat is basic, there are no abilities or different types of resistances or anything that requires thought. You just send your troops to attack a group and wait for them to die. It's really more a clicking game than a strategy game.

Other than being the video game equivalent of valium, The Hive has a number of issues. You get very little feedback from your actions. Sometimes you're not even sure if you ordered a construction or movement. Ordering units to gather/attack sometimes doesn't work, they will just stand near the target. I've also experienced that units refused to retreat despite constantly ordering them to do so, they insisted on attacking the enemy.

This is also the only game i've ever played that crashed my PC when i tried to run it in 4K. Even Deus Ex: Mankind Divided didn't do that, but this game does. And i'm not sure why because the graphics look very dated and the textures are low-resolution (obvious when you zoom in). It wasn't even a CTD, it was a hard crash, i had to use the reset button. And you can't play it in 4K anyway because the interface doesn't scale.

Another area where the game fails badly is the available units and upgrades. At the start there's a worker, queen, melee and ranged unit. It couldn't be more basic. There are 3 more units but you have to unlock them with DNA, like all upgrades. DNA is gained from items you find near enemies and their corpses. It's quite rare and you can only unlock a single unit by mission 2. Provided you don't buy any other upgrades, of course. The other upgrades are just +attack and +armor, try to stifle your yawn. And even with the tank, the medic and the third unit that's a pathetic roster.

Notice how i mentioned items? Yeah, this game wants you to equip individual units with items. This barely works for the queen, it's worse when you have to do this for each of your 15-20 other troops. Especially since you start the map with just one worker and have to rebuild and re-equip everyone. An item system makes sense if you have specific units to carry them and they stay between maps (like in Spellforce). It makes no sense in this dollar store Starcraft clone. And yes, this game is exactly that, some of the voice lines almost border on copyright infringement.

The story is also so bizarre that i want to mention it. Humans get into a war with aliens and have to abandon earth on a giant ship because they bombard us with meteorites. They find a new planet and now you control insectoid aliens. Wait, what? During the first mission you also encounter a "wraith", skeletons, some gnoll-like fantasy creatures and "ancient ones" including a devil-like lava monster and a giant hermit crab. There's also a giant scorpion and a minotaur. It's like they randomly generated their lore.

The Hive fails on every level, you're better off playing literally any other RTS. The only positive thing i can say is that the developer went out of his way to help me and others with technical issues.