Starship Trooper Extermination

Starship Troopers is a bizarre cultural icon, starting life as a pulpy but hardcore militaristic sci-fi novel about a man fighting giant bugs, then transformed into other media. Notably, the 1997 Paul Vanhoven film wasn’t a big success but has a loyal cult following, who admire the dark satirical humour. Then came a bunch of straight-to-DVD movies, some animated films, and even a game back in the early 2000s … it wasn’t great. But the concept of man fighting giant bugs has always fascinated gamers, and now with the current hardware, it seems like the perfect time to make a hoard-based shooter with big bugs and all that!


It’s a Bug hunt!


Interestingly enough, 2024 has had a few heavy hitter squad bases, a few against the many types of shooters. Helldiver 2 made a huge splash earlier this year, then Space Marine 2 smashed all expectations and records, and even something like Earth Defence Force 6 got a chuckle from the die-hard fan. It’s crazy how so many games of this genre have come out, so it left me wondering where Starship Troopers fit in.

A game by all accounts, should be the best example for the concept.

Taking us back into the war against the “Bugs”, we play a nameless soldier who is recruited by someone other than Johnny Rico (Voiced by Casper Van Dean again) into the S.O.G, whose main goal is to be the frontline and most brutal reckoning for the bugs. You’ll be venturing onto the bug home world, joining squads of other troopers, and doing your best to blast the enemy into chunky gooey bits! Simple yet effective!


Would you like to know more?


What has made Starship Troopers a household name in the cult community is the satirical edge, wonderfully implemented by director Vanhoven back in 1997, that edge still carries over nearly 30 years on?

There is some weird discourse between fans and the director, which I still can’t get my head around. But to note, the game is much more akin to the film in every way possible, delivering a compelling look at war, military propaganda, and knowing your enemy. Be it more with a focus on the bugs being the bad guys.

I do feel that something like Helldivers and even Space Marine out excel the thematic elements, in more profoundly enjoyable ways. There are still the over-the-top news reports and all that. But there could’ve been easily more snip-bits of world-building, and mocking propaganda that escalates the humour and unbelievable yet believable nature of the world and the war. The best stuff from the film, and another great satire by Vanhoven, Robocop, were the weird ads that sold utter garbage for the sake of capitalism. I love those and more of that was needed here.

Starship Troopers in terms of presentation is fine, looking decent enough and having all the effort in the right places, such as the bugs and world design. My playthroughs went smoothly for the most part, with only an occasional dip in the framerate when the bugs on the screen got to insanely high levels. I did lower my settings a bit to ensure I could run the game, but you might want to double-check if your rig can run this fluently. The last thing you want is a choppy framerate when the bugs are coming.  

As for the bugs themselves, there is a good if not a blandly safe roster here. We get the typical Arachnids which still look amazing and make great foes to battle it out with, along with other classic breeds from the films. Including that Tanker Bug that gets a grenade in the mouth in the 97 film (great moment!). The main cast are all here but this was a perfect chance to include some more of the weirder ones, like the brain bugs, or new ones to add to the lore. It’s fine, if not a little too safe for my liking.

And else-wise, the game looks fine if not a little last-gen, with much of the environments looking a little empty, and devoted of personally, unlike Helldivers, Gears 3, and Space Marine. It needed some buffers, or set dressing to be more visually appealing outside of the gigantic battles.


The only good bug is a dead bug!


The core experience of Extermination is that moment in the 97 film, where Rico and his squad are stuck at an outpost and have to fend off wave after wave of bugs until help arrives. That’s the core gameplay loop, you and some buddies go and set a base of operations, wait for the bugs to come, defend your position and pray to survive.

This formula has been done before, like in Gear’s horde mode. But this time, you do have full control of making a base your own, planning more thoroughly the layout, defences, and strong points while you fend off the weaker ones. The format for base building is simple but engaging while providing a lot of choice in how you fortify yourself and your teammates. Building is as easy as picking the creation tool on your person, pointing it and picking what you need on the spot. But much of your building is in steps, so building a foundation for a wall is not as simple as placing a wall, but rather placing the pivots in a row, then adding a wall, and making sure it ain’t blocking anyone aside from the bugs.

There is a lot of thought, and methodical thinking in how you want to defend yourself, and time is critical as the bug threat will constantly rise over time. Repairs and maintenance can be done here and there, but teamwork is the core of survival, as defending those buildings and repairing them is vital.

It’s overall a good system, one that’s easy to grasp and carry out on the spot between the waves that approach fast and heavy.

And you will want to be capable and quick in building and repairing as Starship Troopers Extermination hits hard when the bugs are coming. The mode most people will play is likely the horde mode, and for good reason.

One, the “single player” campaign is rubbish, just being a glorified training level which doesn’t have any interesting beats or boss fights. But is there for new people to get to grips with the game’s mechanics and all.

But the horde mode is quite grand, and considering that Gears of War 2 brought this type of gameplay into fashion 16 years ago, and there have been plenty who’ve replicated it, Extermination does a good job with the material. The bugs are ruthless and never-ending at times, presenting a challenge fiercer than your pack of typical zombies from time to time. But interesting is the tactics of the bugs, how they tend to work together to flush you out, divide your time, and pick you off when possible. Fighting them is gruelling but immensely fun when everything clicks together. And this is why teamwork is so vital.

In some other games, you can get by without talking to one another, and being in a team of randoms doesn’t get in the way of things. Here, you need to communicate as bases can be big, teams can be big, and enemy sizes and forces can be devastating. It would have been nice to get a few more communication tools to help randoms speak to one another, and coordinate on what the hell is happening and what to do. But as long as everyone aims, fires and repairs the base when needed, people can generally get on with their own thing and still have a lot of fun I feel.


Everybody fights, nobody quits


Other modes are Assault/Secure and the Hive Hunt, along with Arc which I’ll get to…

Hive Hunt is more of an assault on the enemy base, reversing the roles where you blow up bugs, big bug eggs and all that. It’s far more straightforward, where smaller teams venture into enemy strongholds and blow s*** up, but the level of difficulty increases massively, as the bugs are big, and you don’t have a wall to block them.

It’s a brutal, yet tantalising mode that throws a lot at you and gets you to bite the bullet in the most severe ways possible. It’s gruelling but rewarding once you reach the end and blow up the heart of the stronghold. And thankfully the gunplay, weapon variety and handling are solid, and “crunchy” when blasting bugs to bits. The impact of your weapons is felt, and considering that these bugs are often 3 times the size of you, a well-placed magazine of bullets does wonders for stopping and making a bug dead.

And progress is a decent affair if not a little grindy. But thankfully you do have some good character classes, mixing up attack patterns in your team, and delivering some fantastic action when needed.  

The other mode to mention is Arc, which is your typical defence a vital object until the match ends. You will build a base around and defend the Arc until the waves stop coming. A mode which was my least favourite, as often games would go on, and on, and nothing truly dynamic would happen to spice things up. I do feel that bosses like in Gears 3’s horde mode would have been warmly welcomed.

But Assault/Secure is a much better version of Arc, as it’s more sprawling, builds up momentum organically and gives interesting objectives other than wait here, protect big growly thing for 20 minutes. With these modes, I’m not sure why Arc is here … might as well have capture the flag!


Overall?


Starship Troopers Extermination I feel, like the films, will have a massive cult following, and for good reason. But it would have faired better coming out last year or next, considering we’ve had giants like Space Marine 2, and Helldivers 2 taking the top spots for the horde shooter genre in a long while.

I liked everything I played in the final release, felt the base building was reliable and swift, the gunplay brutal and enjoyable, and the bugs were a great imposing force to reckon with. But I wanted more, more lore, more interesting environments, more aliens, more modes and just more stability in the long run.

Like I said, there will be fans, and I hope that Starship Troopers gets more in the future as it has a solid foundation and core gameplay experience. But further pushing the experience and giving us something much more engaging was needed.


++ Decent core gameplay
++ Excellent horde-style combat
+ Fairly stable and smooth for me when playing

- Single player mode is rubbish
- More diverse modes were needed
- Progression is quite grindy


The publisher kindly provided a review code for Starship Troopers: Extermination for this review