I really enjoyed the first Starship Troopers movie, though I felt it was one of those movies that should’ve been a one and done deal. Sure, Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation was watchable, Starship Troopers 3: Marauder is probably the worst sequel I’ve seen in a long time, and the CGI films I heard are OK (I personally only seen Invasion and that was decent), but I still feel that the first film is probably the best movie. Still, movies aside, you’d think a movie like Starship Troopers would be prime real-estate for games, right? I’d thought that, too, but outside of two real time strategy games and a 2005 first person shooter, there really hasn’t been much in the way of video games for the series. Until recently with the release of Starship Troopers: Extermination; a game that, no joke, is a prime candidate for my Game Of The Year, even with a few issues I have with the title. Would you like to know more?
I’m just going to get straight to the point: This game is AWESOME! Never in all my years of gaming have I played a game that is this much fun and chaotic since Earth Defense Force 2025! As part of the elite Deep Space Vanguard, your job is dead simple: Teaming up with your buddies or other players, you’re to journey to various worlds and wipe the bug menace from the galaxy in the name of freedom. Each level begins with you on a drop ship being, well, dropped off on a planet and then are tasked with setting up bases and completing objectives before the final last stand begins until you can evacuate off world. It’s here where the game really ramps up in chaos. Not since EDF2025 and the Dynasty Warriors series have I seen this many enemies on screen at once! I mean, holy bug splatter, it’s almost insane how many bugs can be on screen without any frame-rate hiccups! I even like how the corpses actually remain on screen and are actual objects to interact with, meaning they can actually prevent both you and the bugs from moving around unless you fully destroy them. I don’t think I've ever seen anything like that in any game before as, in most games, the corpse usually stays on screen for a while then vanishes. I mean, just imagine seeing something like that in Dynasty Warriors…on second thought, maybe not as that would probably be a bit more nightmare inducing. Still, the fact that a landscape can go from looking pristine to looking utterly nightmarish with all the bodies strewn about is insane. It honestly, at times, feels like you’re reliving the iconic first movie, especially if you have a full squad of buddies with you. Seeing bugs exploding left and right, with all guns blazing, and your fellow soldiers standing their ground is enough to get that adrenaline flowing through you and make you scream “It’s a good day to die”!
Of course, in order to lay waste to the menace, you need guns and, here, the weapons are separated into six classes: Medic, Ranger, Engineer, Guardian, Demolisher, and Sniper. For my playstyle, I played as the Guardian class as they came equipped with more health and a useful ability to bunker down, allowing me to have more accurate shots, better recoil handling, and be able to survive longer against swarms. Each class also has a small selection of weapons to choose from, which consists mostly of variants of the iconic Morita rifle and they can then be leveled up and customized with attachments like extended magazines and scopes to camos. With the Guardian, they have access to this beast of a machine gun called the MK3 SAW and this monster can chew through arachnids like they’re nothing more than paper dummies. Mind you, the recoil is a pain and a half to handle if you’re firing full auto, but that’s where the Guardian’s bunker down ability comes into play as this removes the recoil and makes it more manageable. Each class also has access to various perks, like upping your reload speed, better damage resistance, and a better build tool.
The build tool, on that note, ties in to this game's other mechanic and that’s base building. Now, don’t worry, this isn’t like a survival game like 7 Days To Die or Minecraft. Instead, the base building is mostly there as a means to up your chances of survival against the final swarm of bugs near the end of a mission. In order to build the base and its defensive mechanisms, like turrets, you need ore which is very easy to obtain as one of the objectives you’ll have is to build ore-mining devices. Once a container is full, you can then take that back to your base and drop it off and you’ll have the resources necessary to build walls, turrets, and, most importantly, ammo and med caches for you and your team. Repairing structures is also dead simple as all you do is just switch your build tool to repair mode and hold the trigger, which on Veteran mode, you’ll be doing a lot. I’ll be honest, when I first saw this in the tutorial, I did get a bit worried, but once I saw how darn simple it was, it didn’t bother me at all and I found myself rather enjoying the mechanic.
Lastly, this game sounds beautiful. From the screeches of the bugs to the score that gives you that feeling of empowerment, the sound design is top-notch. Even the weapons, something I was hoping would sound good, are a joy to listen to, with even the lowliest of pistols sounding like a howitzer going off! I will say the only thing I’m iffy on is the voice acting. Rico sounds good and all and it’s awesome hearing Casper Van Dien reprise his role, but the rest are just OK at best. I wasn’t really expecting voice acting to the level of something like, say, Call Of Duty (odd comparison, I know), but the voice acting here, at times, really doesn’t sell the tone of the game, so to speak. It’s hard to explain, but the first movie had this militaristic yet tongue-in-cheek tone with the dialogue that fit what it was going for well. Here, though, it’s more leaning towards tongue-in-cheek which does somewhat clash with what was already set-up in the world. It wasn’t enough to take me out of the game but it was enough to get me to raise an eyebrow.
So, despite all the praise I’m giving the game, what is preventing me from giving it a perfect 5/5? Well, there’s a few reasons but I say the biggest are the lackluster single-player mode and some of the maps. The single-player mode is, basically, a tutorial to get you ready for the co-op. On the surface, that’s fine and all, but with how much this mode was advertised, especially with it spouting the return of Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico, you’d think the mode would have just a tad bit more effort put into it. Like, maybe have a mission inspired by the iconic Outpost 29 battle from the movie or, I dunno, maybe make it a proper sequel to Starship Troopers and retcon Starship Troopers 2 and 3. Again, what’s on offer is fine but I would’ve loved a bit more meat here. Though, if I can go just a bit off topic, I will give Starship Troopers 3 this: The Morita Mk. III looked cool and I did like those massive battlesuits near the end of the film.
The other main issue is the maps themselves. Now, some are nicely designed and are fun to blast bugs in, but the fact of the matter is that, most of the time, you’re underground exploring dark caves that are either lit with flares or another small light source, making what you have to shoot at hard to distinguish from your buddies, with the only times you’re above ground being the beginning or end of the levels. However, there is one map in the entire game that amplifies this issue ten-fold: Agni Prime. This being a lava planet, you’d think it’d be lit up and have some cool visuals, what with it being a lava world and all. But, I’m not joking here, this planet is DARK! The only way I knew what to shoot at was either when I was getting swarmed, an arachnid walked in front of a nearby lava packet, or I saw what my co-op buddies were shooting at and I followed suit. Because of the darkness on Agni Prime and the other maps, it is very easy to get overwhelmed or cheap shotted by arachnids and die and that did lead to a few bits of frustration from me. Not enough to get me swearing up a storm or acting like a stereotypical angry Twitch streamer, but just enough to get me to grunt in annoyance. Now, apparently, this is due to a modifier on Veteran difficulty that makes some maps darker and, OK, I understand the point of modifiers and I don’t mind them for the most part. But, having a modifier that makes a map dark to the point where I can see my own reflection, despite how good looking I am, on the TV and not what I’m supposed to be shooting at is where I have a problem.
Still, even with those issues I had, I friggin’ loved my time with Starship Troopers: Extermination. I was hyped for it ever since it was announced and, suffice to say, it lived up to my expectations and then some. Yes, I would’ve loved a more substantial single player, but what is on offer with the co-op is enough to make me want to go back and keep playing, slaughtering the arachnid menace in the name of freedom!
