If Samus Had A Sister

Scurge: Hive deserves a lot of credit. Seeing an original IP in a sea of sequels and games based off kid movies is quite rare.  Therefore, Orbital Media gets a well earned pat on the back.  But creating an original game does not mean a whole lot without some solid gameplay to back it up. 

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Ok, tell me if you heard this before.  The player controls Jenosa, a female bounty hunter with a power suit and arm cannon.  She answers a distress call coming from a space station laboratory where she must fight an alien race.  But this alien race, known as the Scurge, has infected her body, forcing Jenosa to seek out medical treatment facilities, aka save points, before the infection fully takes over.  If you ever heard of a little video game series called Metroid, then you might see a similarity or two. 

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Scurge has many similar themes and gameplay structures as Metroid.  In fact, there are so many similarities I often thought that I was playing a sequel to Metroid Fusion.  The presentation, the overall atmosphere, and the main character all contain a striking resemblance to Samus and her quest to purge the galaxy of space pirates.  But while there are many similarities, several differences still remain. 

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Unlike the handheld and classic versions of Metroid, Scurge is played from an isometric view point.  This screen structure is probably the biggest downfall of the title.  Unlike Metroid, Scurge is based a little bit more on combat.  It is not uncommon for Jenosa to take on five to ten enemies at one time.  However, movement and shooting arm cannon blasts are based on the 8-way direction of the D-pad.  This ends up being incredibility restricting as shooting on an angle is very unforgiving.  An enemy can be one foot away, but out of reach from your arm cannon because you can only shoot in eight directions.  While this might have been excusable in other titles, it winds up being a major annoyance in Scurge due to the fact that tons of enemies can pop up on screen at one time.  Adding more enemies means more action, which in turn could add to the overall fun factor, but if not done properly, the result can be more of a hindrance. 

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Platforming can also be difficult because of this view point.  Perhaps it is the new DS Lite that I played this game on, but moving, shooting, and jumping on an angle was always difficult.  It was almost as if you had to fight the D-pad to move in that direction.  Also, when you tap in the four main directions, Jenosa will face that direction and stay there.  However, I could not get the playable character to do this on an angle, increasing the frustration levels. 

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Scurge’s story line also feels a bit empty.  The only indications of a plot line rely on Jenosa taking to some robot A.I. character or by reading the dairy of the people that once inhibited the space station that she explores.  This is a shame because Jenosa seems like she would be an interesting character.  You never really understand why she was picked for this mission, how she acquired her power suit, and what the deal is with her intense red hair.  The lack of finely tuned detail somewhat disappoints.

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The atmosphere in Scurge is very reminiscing of a Metroid title.  Blasting your way through aliens and monsters on a foggy space station will bring back the memories of Metoid Fusion.  Hell, even the game’s sound effects contain that great space/futuristic/alien vibe.  While this game was probably built with Metroid in mind, the fact that you feel like you are actually exploring an alien world cannot be overlooked.  Creating this atmosphere and mood on a handheld system can be difficult to pull off, but Scurge does it well.

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Jenosa also has the ability to grow stronger, not only by acquiring new suit parts, but by killing enemies similar to an RPG.  The more enemies you kill, the stronger you become.  This forces the player to stand and fight as opposed to just running around a potential hazard.  Unfortunately, this system has its ups and downs.  First, fighting swarm after swarm of enemies increases the game’s action level.  However, a couple hours into the game, you will grow tired of fighting the same pallet swapped slime monster.  Also, this game uses, as I like to call, the Mega Man X effect.  Meaning, as soon as you leave the screen, all the baddies magically return as if nothing happened.  So if you take the time to clear out a room, then go to the next screen to save your game at the save point, every single monster that you just terminated will be back to annoy you once again.  Can’t we at least have like, a two-screen compensation?

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Early in the game, the player acquires a grappling hook, one of the best and most unused weapons in all of gaming.  Unfortunately, this grapple hook just never reaches its full potential.  Instead of having this grapple hook be the main focus of the game, it takes a back seat and almost feels like a last minute add-on.  The grapple is used to place frozen enemies on switches and move boxes to their power supply.   I would rather swing around, make wild, and out of reach jumps, and use this extendable chain in my combos.  Oh well.

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Platforming was also a bit of a disappointment.  Whereas Metroid mixed a solid blend of jumping, clinging, and wall hopping, Scurge’s platforming feels slightly underwhelming.  Perhaps I miss crawling into ball form like Samus did, but I still think the player should be given a double jump right from the start of the mission along with more ledges to cling on to.  Having a solid double jump technique intertwined with a better grappling hook system could have enhanced the end beyond measure. 

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The dual screen format of the DS uses one screen to house all the gameplay while the other functions as a map.  Scurge: Hive features a lot of exploration, but there is too much key hunting and switch pulling.  In just about every area of the game, the player is sent on a quest to light up many pillars of light and collect several keys in order to gain access to the next area.  Along the way, one new type of weapon will usually be found to allow passage to an area that was blocked.  With this said, backtracking must take place.  This kind of takes away from the thrill of exploration in a new environment, especially since Jenosa can only go for so long before the virus infects her.  And since the only way to delay the virus is by visiting a save point, there is never one too far away, somewhat placing the game on a easier and forgiving difficulty level. 

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Even though Orbital Media has only released two other games (Racing Gears Advance, and Juka the Monophonic Menance), they have become one of my most liked developers.  This team’s philosophy on making games should be the model of the industry.  Not only does this development team score major points in my book for creating original handheld games, but they also take care in all graphical aspects. Like Racing Gears before it, Scurge is a very detailed sprite based game.  Everything is well animated and looks very crisp and clear.  I only wonder what this game could have been like it was in standard 2D sidescrolling.  But one question I would like to ask is why Jenosa has such a powerful idling animation. 

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Unlike most handheld titles, the soundtrack usually takes a back seat.  But because the developers at Orbital Media seem to take great pride in setting the atmosphere of their games, this sound track is worthy enough to be put on CD and bundled in stores.  Yes, it borrows themes and sound effects from the Metroid franchise, but if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. 

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Overall, Scurge: Hive is a decent title.  If there was some slight fine tuning, this would have been a killer game.  Unfortunately, the isometric view can be more annoying than welcomed, but the graphics and sound track are stellar enough to bring the presentation levels sky high.  It is too bad that more detail was not given in the story line, but having an original IP on a handheld system is nothing to shake a stick at.  I wanted more use of the grapple hook, but the different types of guns bring a fair amount of variety. Even though there are some problems with Scurge, I still enjoyed my time with title. 

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There is a version of Scurge that was released on the GBA, but I was unable to play it in conjunction with this review.  However, I image it would play very similarly since the game only needs the “A,” “B,” and shoulder buttons

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I am now looking forward to Orbital Media’s next game, Pirate Battle, scheduled to be released sometime next year.