A good game for a bargain bin price, what's not to like?
For all intent and purposes the game borrows many elements from the Metroid series. Female protagonist? Check. She comes in the shape of red head bounty hunter Jessica Arma. Derelict levels but filled with murderous aliens and blob viruses? Check. Upgradeable suit? Check. Weapons? Check. True, the story is not different from Metroid. You respond to a distress signal, investigate, get infected by a virus, fight, destroy threat, escape.
That virus thing I mentioned is a big part of the gameplay. The virus count steadily increases towards 100%. Once it reaches 100% you lose health incredibly fast and then die. Thankfully the game is littered with medical bay that reduces that count back to 1%. Though it never cures completely. It keeps the game tightly paces and focused. It's always clear what you have to do and how to do it, thanks to the overly helpful computer AI you have with you. There's little chance of any real exploration and the isometric viewpoint does get annoying a few times.
For example, jumping onto platforms and climbing onto the various poles takes an age to get used to. The controls are so fiddly and the DS D-Pad does little to help ease the pain. Even aiming is hindered by this, aiming in a specific direction can take an age and you'll more or less fire in a 360 motion. The game plays generally well, but it's when you have to do something that requires specific accuracy the game takes a turn for the worse. But despite that, the game is generally fun to play. It's just a question of patience on your half.
The artwork and animation do much to bring this game alive. Rather than have it completely dark and detailed as seen in Metroid Fusion, for example, the game looks a lot brighter, cartoonier and it just pleasing to look at. The animation is spot on with some impressive looking visual effects and interesting enemy design movements. Scuge's music also lends itself well, setting the right mood and not getting annoying.
Scurge Hive is quite a lenghty game for a handheld, with little backtracking. There's no real replay value though and it's a little forgettable once done with.
Scurge Hive is a admirable game for the DS. It's by no means a masterpiece, it's certainly no Metroid beater and there's several things it should of taken out of Lunar Knight's page on how to do the isometric gaming correctly. It's worth look though if you see it going cheap. I like it anyways.