Hive Jump 2: Survivors is an addictive blend of Vampire Survivors and Brotato with a Jetpack

There may come a day where I get tired of survivor-like bullet hell shooters, but it's clearly not today. Hive Jump 2: Survivors just released and I've had a real blast with it. It was previously in Early Access, with the 1.0 release out now. Note: Key provided by ÜberStrategist.

Here you're tasked with a pretty simple objective: take down the alien hives while lasting as long as you can, which is a lot easier said than done. It has the usual staples of the genre that we've come to know and love with various types of enemies to squash, where you pick up little experience orbs to level up and pick from upgrades which Vampire Survivors made popular.

It also blends in the shop system that made Brotato great too. It's a wave-based auto-shooter, and when a wave is finished you can then buy weapons from a shop, or combine two of the same type (and same level) to make something even more powerful. Eventually, you can become a true bug-stomping machine. However, you never actually feel over-powered.

Pictured - Hive Jump 2: Survivors with my favourite upgrade, the electric fence.

In Hive Jump 2: Survivors though you only have a very limited selection of weapons available, which makes the decision on what build to go for a little harder when you keep being presented with new weapon options but you're already into upgrading a few.

Part of the fun here is your Jetpack. You can use it to quickly hop over enemies and obstacles. A lot of the upgrades are linked to it to (not all, but quite a few). So you can move faster, shoot faster, throw grenades more quickly and so on while you're boosting yourself around. It nicely adds to the chaos and makes it different enough that it's not a bore to play and not yet-another plain survivor-like clone. It thankfully still manages to feel unique and just a thorough blast to play through.

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There's a few other fun features included to set it apart too. There's a challenge system that pops up now and then to give you some extras like taking no damage from enemies for a wave. Add to that the point of the game: taking down alien hives. These are bullet-sponges, that can take a moment to destroy while you're also being swarmed by aliens. Once destroyed though, you then get a special equipment drop to give a big buff to something.

Really challenging with the different types of bugs too, there's even a little Starship Troopers thrown in there with artillery bugs that shoot out of their back. They're damn annoying when you're already surrounded.

A nice meta-upgrade system too, so going through numerous runs does actually have a point to it. There's a few characters to unlock with different starting weapons or abilities. Plus there's about 35 other types of meta-upgrades from health to movement speed, increases for different types of games to better wave-finish store prices and more.

The only real complaints I have is that firstly I would have loved to see more variety in the weapons. What's there is great fun to annihilate the bug menace with, but I would have just liked to see some more different types. Additionally, more map variety would have been good too. Another slight nuisance is the upgrade system when you've started upgrading your three slots, it gives you too many options you can't use without replacing what you have. Some tweaks there would be nice to see.

Overall, Hive Jump 2: Survivors nicely sets itself apart in a genre that's now getting swarmed. It's absolutely worth picking up if you enjoy a lot of action and testing out various different character builds.

You can buy it from:

Steam (Native Linux)

GOG (Windows only)