Starship Troopers Extermination – The Art of Bug Killing
Starship Troopers is an interesting franchise. The original book was a satirical tongue-in-cheek response to the suspension of nuclear weapons testing during the early stages of the Cold War. It wasn’t until 1997 that the movie brought the franchise back into the limelight. Watching the movie as a young lad, I was blown away by the sheer gratuitous violence and just badass depiction of humans coming together to repel an Arachnid invasion. No doubt, when I heard about the Starship Troopers Extermination was leaving early access, I knew I had to suit up to kill some bugs. However, bug-killing isn’t all it’s made out to be.
Developer & Publisher // Offworld Industries
Platforms // PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
MSRP & Release Date // $49.99, October 10th, 2024
Reviewed On // PC
Taking Horde Mode and Cranking it Up to 11
Starship Troopers Extermination is all about filling the shoes of a Federation grunt. You’re thrown into a hot battlefield where you must fend off Arachnid hordes while establishing bases. When loading up a match, players are treated to the classic tongue-in-cheek newscast outlining what the troopers are doing on the planet.
Once the troopers touch down, they quickly set up a bunker and some refineries and begin harvesting ore that has to be taken back to the bunker to cash in some resources. Of course, expect bugs to attack refineries while taking back ore depots. Then, players will advance and establish a FOB where you and your teammates can set up perimeters, defenses, and supplies before a horde of Arachnids try to wreak havoc while you have to defend it for a certain amount of time. Once this phase is done, you evac out, rinse and repeat.
All in all, the Starship Troopers Extermination gameplay loop is simple and enjoyable at first. The missions don’t take too long to complete at no more than 30 minutes per mission. But after some time, it does get stale. Especially with repetitive environments the mission objectives do get samey after a while. The novelty of constantly collecting resources, dropping them back, and defending your Forward Operation Base (FOB) wears out pretty quickly. There are some missions where they have 2 phases of resource collections, but it feels like padding more so than any meaningful addition to the gameplay loop. However, what is noticeable is how easily you are killed when moving up difficulties. At some times, you can be eviscerated in a couple of seconds by a normal Warrior Arachnid.
Currently, the only single-player option available is through the optional Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien from the movies) extended training program. It’s 25 missions that dive deep to show you the ropes across different biomes. The Johnny Rico missions are decent, but they serve merely as an appetizer for online match-making. Luckily, there is cross-platform so jumping into games isn’t an issue as of this review.
Galactic Front
When it comes to the Galactic Front in Starship Troopers Extermination, it’s hard not to draw parallels to Helldivers 2’s High Command Dispatches. Both systems are community-based objectives that reward players with cosmetics in the case of STE. There is a generic briefing that attempts to give context to the Galactic Front objectives in the same tongue-in-cheek manner. However, it’s clear that this is not the final form of Galactic Front, but it could use more creativity in its objectives.
Persistent Corpses
When eviscerating bugs, one expects a bunch of corpses to litter the battlefield. However, as gamers know it’s very common for corpses to disappear to save technical resources and improve performance. However, I was shocked by some of the mountains of bug corpses after decimating hordes. This is called “persistent” corpses in the game’s roadmap and I have to tip my hat to developers Offworld Industries. Although it’s a simple concept, to see these corpses it’s amazing and undoubtedly adds to the game’s atmosphere.
Shooting Mechanics are Fine
When it comes to the shooting mechanics in Starship Troopers Extermination, the game performs fine for the most part with a few idiosyncrasies worth mentioning. Each weapon has its distinctive feel to it. The Assault Rifle felt good to shoot and is a generally competent weapon for up close to medium distances. It wasn’t too heavy and produced a high ting sound just as the mag emptied (think of the M1 Granad rifle).
In contrast, the Moertika MK3 Saw LMG felt heavier and sluggish when moving. Especially when turning around and the accuracy was all over the place. However, despite those shortcomings, the LMG is excellent at mowing down hordes of bugs like it’s nobody’s business. It is reminiscent of the LMGs in Helldivers 2, where aiming can be wonky when moving to help create immersion. Overall, STE feels fine when it comes to aiming and shooting, but nothing to write home about.
Classes and Progression with Tons to Unlock
There are a total of six classes for players to choose from: Ranger, Demolisher, Guardian, Engineer, Medic, and Sniper. Each class starts with one ability and one passive attribute. The Guardian primarily wields LMGs and the main class ability is Bulwark, which creates a 360 barrier and hunkers you down. This ability is handy when you find yourself in the middle of an Arachnid horde. Moreover, the Engineer class can build supply depots almost anywhere, which is incredibly useful during intense Arachnid hordes.
The grind is there, and there’s plenty to unlock for each class. There’s always something to work towards in STE, whether it’s new weapons, weapon attachments, or cosmetics. I was surprised how much I enjoyed playing as the Engineer class. The class’s default weapon is a flamethrower and it’s always satisfying when torching some bugs. Not to mention building ammo stations pretty much anywhere was always welcomed by my teammates. It gave it similar vibes to the engineer class from the Battlefield franchise.
Your Company is Your Clan
More usually than not, joining a clan or a group of players with common objectives to achieve is a staple of any co-op-based game. In Starship Troopers Extermination clans are known as companies. Each company can have up to 30 members and is an essential part of the Galactic Front. Part of the XP you are rewarded with goes to all of your company members as well. In other words, the game wants you to join/create a company ASAP.
Base Building
One of the key features in Starship Troopers Extermination is the base-building. I’ll admit, that I’m not the biggest fan of base-building mechanics. I already play house in my real life and I don’t need that in my entertainment of choice. Luckily, STE did a good job of streamlining this mechanic.
First off, there are certain points where players can build bases. This usually comes in the form of bunkers, refineries, or FOB. The first two building requirements are really simple, just build whatever is required and deliver extracted ore to the bunker to get resources for your FOBs. Speaking of which, it’s only the FOBs where you will channel your inner Minecraft Steve. It’s at FOBs where you can build walls, gates, turrets, towers, ammo points, and more. It’s only a specified area that hosts the FOB, which is nice so you don’t have to consider finding that perfect spot. It may seem overwhelming at first, but it’s not that difficult.
Two Build Modes to Rule Them All
Pulling up your builder, you can select two modes: Build and Place. The former builds/repairs whatever it is you want to build. Place mode is where you actually select and place the structure/item you want to build. You can easily rotate the item with the mouse scroller. However, after placing an item to build, you have to manually switch over to build mode which is annoying. Luckily, it’s a minor inconvenience. But if building isn’t your forte, you won’t have to worry too much.
Seeing that Starship Troopers Extermination is a 16-player co-op experience, chances are you’ll be match-made with at least 15 other players that can quickly build up a FOB with proper defenses and ammo. Trust me, you will need them when the bugs come out to attack. During attacks, you can quickly repair any of the structures, which is important especially if you’re trying to plug holes in your FOB defense. Of course, it gets hectic and the player base, in general, has been forgiving and cooperative in most of the matches I played.
Graphics, Art Style, and Technical Performance
Being built on Unreal Engine 5 has some expectations when it comes to graphical fidelity. To my surprise, Starship Troopers Extermination looks decent, nothing too spectacular, but just fine. Though the outdoor environments look quite forgettable and bland, and the structures that you will be building also look like from the Xbox One/PlayStation 4 era graphics, but again it’s serviceable.
There are different biomes such as an ice planet, a wasteland-like planet, and cavernous caves. But they don’t stand out in any meaningful way. Moreover, the UE5 Lumen lighting looks decent, but nothing to write home about. However, one thing that the STE does nail is the enemy design.
Top-Notch Enemy Designs, While the Others Are Fine
The Arachnid models in Starship Troopers Extermination are top-notch. Especially the Warrior Arachnids, which look like they were ripped straight from movies. There is also a decent amount of enemy variety, from the smaller drones to the massive Plasma Grenadier Arachnids. The latter are massive bugs that launch plasma and just pelt your bases into oblivion.
While the troopers themselves look decent and fit the universe’s world nicely, just keep your expectations in check. Each class has a helmet with a visor that omits any facial features, which again is not a problem as it fits nicely in the grunts you’re controlling. The armor, and weapons all look good and are respectful of the source material. Moreover, the Federation Dropships look exactly like the ones from the films. You can tell a lot of attention to detail went into creating the assets in Starship Troopers Extermination that are respectful of the source material.
Technical Performance
By default, Starship Troopers Extermination has Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen lighting system on. There’s no real way to turn off Lumen, with only the “Low” option available in the Video Settings menu. Besides that strange discrepancy, the game operated well on a Ryzen 5700x CPU, 6950xt GPU, and 16 GB of 3200Mhz DDR4 RAM. The game was averaging around 150 FPS with AMD FSR 3.0 set to Quality Mode. I did experience some slowdown during the more hectic horde moments, but for the most part, the performance held up nicely.
There were some hiccups worth noting. For instance, animations were quite janky, especially when looking at other players. In contrast, the Arachnid animations were all smooth. Also, when first trying to connect the Epic Games Service account to my Steam account, it continually gave me errors. Furthermore, another frustrating issue I’ve noticed is that my graphic settings would always reset, despite applying and saving changes made. In other words, I would always have to calibrate my graphics settings every time I booted up Starship Troopers Extinction.
Audio Design
Starship Troopers Extermination does a great job in the audio department. Gun sound effects sound heavy and have resonance to them. The soundtrack is filled with patriotic orchestral tunes meant to pump you up for the United Citizen Federation. However, voice work is more of a mixed bag.
Casper Van Dien lends his voice to the Johnny Rico training mission briefs. Of course, it’s consistent with the whole tongue-in-cheek vibe the films and this game goes for. In contrast, the Galactic Front briefing voiceovers were quite flat and uninspiring. The briefing is very monotone and void of any patriotic enthusiasm that we would expect from an official United Citizen Federation order. Perhaps it would be better to leave the briefings as text only.
Oh Yes, There’s an In-Game Store in Starship Troopers Extermination
Starship Troopers Extermination does contain a store that sells cosmetic packs. Fortunately, they are reasonably priced at $9.99 for a bundle. In the bundle, you get some trooper and weapon cosmetics, which do look cool. Unfortunately, these cosmetics are not earnable in-game. The only consolation is the earnable cosmetics from the Galactic Front Orders.
Limited Accessibility Options
When it comes to accessibility options, Starship Troopers Extermination is a bit limited. There are colorblind filters, subtitles, screen shake, and text-to-speech options, and that’s about it. While we don’t knock points off for lack of accessibility options, we do support these efforts and want to bring its attention to developers so more people can enjoy their games.
Final Thoughts on Starship Troopers Extermination
Filling the shoes of a grunt in Starship Troopers was a childhood dream of mine. However, I can’t help but feel that although Starship Troopers Extermination does a decent job after a brief Early Access period, it still has its work cut out for it. Despite having a ton of things to unlock for each class, more content is desperately needed on the gameplay side. Especially if STE wants to compete in the already crowded online co-op shooter market. It’s reassuring that Offworld Industries acknowledges this through its roadmap, and I fully expect the game to change for the better with time. Despite an early stalemate, the United Citizen Federation’s future is bright with you enlisted soldier.
Final Score: 7.0 / 10
Pros
- Great Arachnid Designs
- Tons of Things to Unlock
- Hordes Are Immensely Fun to Fight
- Persistent Corpses Are Awesome
- Great Weapon Sound Effects
- Highly Respects Source Material
- Fair Monetization Pricing
- Easy Building Mechanics
Cons
- Gameplay Loop Gets Boring Fast
- Animation Hiccups
- Video Settings Keep Resetting
- Lack of Content
- Environments are Forgettable
Note – a PC key was provided for the purpose of this review.