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Every so often, a game comes along that not only surprises me but becomes one of my favorite games of all time. It’s rare - especially as of late - that it happens, but when it does? I can’t help but gush about the game and Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is one such game. Not only is this one of the coolest and best games I’ve played so far this year? It’s also, quite easily, my third favorite game of all time and a prime contender for my game of the year. I’m serious, I’ve never had a game that made me smile this hard and gave me this many hours of fun since Earth Defense Force 2025. Yeah, there were games in between that release and this one that I had fun with and that also made me smile, but not to the extent I did with this title. Would you like to know more?
“Come on you apes! You wanna live forever?”
Let me start right off and say this might be the most meta idea for a game I’ve played since Eat Lead: Return Of Matt Hazard, but admittedly done better and less clunky. Instead of the usual Starship Troopers story one would expect, this is actually an in-universe recruitment tool to become a Citizen and member of the mobile infantry as it tells the heroic story of Sammy and her missions with the Mobile Infantry hunting and squashing the bug menace in a story that runs parallel to the first movie. This is one of the better ideas for a story I’ve seen in a game in a while and a clever one as well. They could’ve just made this a simple FPS and called it a day, but the developers went above and beyond the call of duty and developed a truly unique idea. Heck, I love how the game even includes cheesy full-motion videos, with Casper Van Dien returning as Johnny Rico (who I can tell seriously loves this role), that introduces each mission, alongside ‘advertisements’ for the mobile infantry and citizenship. One near the end got the biggest laugh out of me and I daren’t spoil it. I also have to mention the graphics. The various locals you fight in are nicely rendered and are very faithful to their film locations and every bug is rendered lovingly in 3D. The humans, on the opposite end, are rendered in Doom-like Sprites and, truth be told, it adds to the charm and does make what you need to kill easier to distinguish, which I love how there’s an in-game explanation for why the humans are sprites and the bugs are 3D. If I had to critique anything, I will say that there’s a few moments near the end that I wish did get a slight explanation of how it happened (though it does lead to a funny moment) and I do wish it was slightly longer for the human campaign, but that’s just nitpicks.
Notice I said ‘human campaign’. See, the game doesn’t just have one campaign, but two, with the second being a Bug Campaign where you take control of the new Assassin Bug and bring the pain upon the human scum. This is, no joke, the coolest idea for a campaign and admittedly a great stress reliever to boot. Yeah, it’s fun dumping thousands of rounds into hordes of bugs, but when given the chance to play as the enemy and do the opposite? That, to me, is pure catharsis. I must also mention the ending to the bug campaign got another huge laugh out of me and does bring up a few interesting questions as well, but I won’t spoil them here. Still, what helps aid this feeling of catharsis in both modes is the strong soundtrack, which has this epic, bombastic feeling that matches the carnage on screen and fits within the Starship Troopers universe. I do want to mention one thing about the music: During one section, I was thinking “I wonder why they didn’t use ‘It’s a Good Day To Die’ from Starship Troopers 3’ and, to my surprise, they actually address that in the in-game commentary and the reasoning for its non-inclusion actually made me laugh and also go “Hm that makes sense!”
Returning back to the human campaign, you begin the game at basic training where you learn the ropes with the controls and the squad mechanic, which basically means you have an extra set of hands to help with the bug menace. I do have a confession to admit here: I actually failed the training on my first go through. Yeah, at the very end, you participate in a capture the flag operation and I actually failed a few times thanks to the enemy AI being surprisingly effective. Not my best moment, if I may be honest. Least I didn’t get a team-mate brutally killed like Rico did. Anyway, training failure aside, you’re then sent to Klendathu in a loving recreation of the legendary scene from the original movie and this is where the game really opens up. Unlike most FPS nowadays, this game gives you a large open map to explore and complete objectives in any order you please, alongside secrets to uncover like a option to enable an ‘developers commentary’ which I won’t spoil but it’s one of the best commentary tracks I’ve seen since Battle For Naboo back on the N64. Once you complete the objectives, you’re then picked up by a dropship and either taken back to the ship to get your score or, in one map’s case, taken to a new area to complete a final series of objectives. While all the objectives do boil down to press a button or kill all the bugs, there is some variety here and there. Like a few defensive areas, including one on Planet P which brought a smile to my face, and one where you have to plant charges to destroy a location. Nothing too groundbreaking, let’s be fair here, but it’s enough to not make the game absolutely brain dead and boring. I do like how you have a dedicated ‘Taunt’ button and some of Sammy’s lines are pure 90’s cheese, with one of them, I’m wondering, was a nod to a certain goof in Elder Scrolls IV.
That’s also not to say it’s simply a walk in the park as the game’s difficulty, I feel, is challenging but, at the same time, perfectly balanced on all settings I tried it on. Most of the deaths during my gameplay were mostly from not paying attention to my surroundings or misjudging an explosive (whoops…). If anything, the real difficulty comes from the bigger bugs you’ll fight later in the game. While you got the main warrior bugs which, alone are no real threat, but a group of them may cause problems for you if you aren’t paying attention. You also have the Tiger Bugs which can call in back-up, the Tankers which can easily take off most of your health with its flamethrower (Yes, you can jump on its back like Rico and, yes, you can drop a grenade in it…but I haven’t successfully pulled it off yet, myself), the flying Hoppers - not associated with the Pixar movie - which are surprisingly pretty easy and fun to take out, and the titular Assassin Bugs near the end-game portion. There’s also new enemies to fight like acid spewing bugs that can easily wreck your day if you aren’t careful, Fireflies, which are fire-spewing variants of the Hoppers, and mind-controlled soldiers that you’ll fight in a few missions. The soldiers, while a cool idea and fun to fight, I will admit didn’t make much sense to me. Now, I haven’t watched the film series in a few years now, but I don’t ever recall mind-controlled soldiers in any of the films. I remember there being a bug that could enter someone in Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation (Surprisingly, not a bad sequel), but full on mind-controll I don’t recall.
“Guns…Lots Of Guns.”
Of course, in order to fight the bug menace, you’ll need an arsenal worthy of any Mobile Infantry and this game delivers a strong array of toys to play with. I should stress, though, that despite the weapon sandbox and fast paced combat? This isn’t a movement/boomer shooter. Yes, the movement is fast and the gunplay is solid, but you won’t be sliding around or bunny-hopping around like you would in most modern Indie shooters. Well, technically, you can slide, but your base movement is already quick enough so, if anything, sliding is more of a ‘just there to be cool’ function. I’d say the game is more akin to Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M on the N64 mixed with the open world gameplay of Delta Force 2. What I mean is that it’s very much a slower paced open-ish world FPS and that’s actually a good thing. I don’t mind the faster-paced games but, most of the time, I’d much prefer something slightly slower and Ultimate Bug War fills this role perfectly and that goes double with the weapons.
Starting off, you begin the game with the Mortia MK 1 Rifle which will be your main work-horse throughout most, if not all, of the game as its 60 round magazine and strong damage output can make quick work of many of the bugs. If the rounds don’t work, then its 8 round underbarrel shotgun will take care of the rest. Thankfully, reloading is fast enough to where you don’t have to worry about waiting for an overly complex reload animation to finish. It can also be done in an instant, thanks to the Gears Of War-like fast reload system; while reloading, a bar shows up showing how much time is length until you can fire again. If you hit the reload button too early or late, the time is doubled BUT if you hit it at the right area? You’ll reload the weapon faster than ever and be back to killing bugs in no time! You also have access to a scoped three-burst variant of it, which becomes single-fire once scoped in, and a fast firing carbine version, which I found to be very useful in certain situations. You’ll also get access to an absolute beast of a shotgun - modeled after the KS-23 - which is a four-gauge monster that can easily one shot many of the bugs that get in your way, and an LMG which is great for crowd control. Surprisingly, you also get access to two E-Tech weapons from Starship Troopers 2. These are energy based weapons and these, I will say, are weapons I didn’t use much as I felt their damage output wasn’t too strong, though the E-Pulse 88 did help in some areas. Lastly, later on in the game, you get the MK II variant of the Morita, which only briefly showed up in the first movie near the end, which includes a underbarrel grenade launcher and this one I found to be enjoyable and fun to use, especially against crowds of bugs near the end.
Outside of the main weapons, you also get four heavy weapons to temporarily wield. Alongside the E-Pulse 88, there’s a very useful flamethrower, a heavy sniper rifle that is effectively this games version of a rail gun and can one-shot many bugs, a massive machine gun, and the MK55 Tactical Nuke Launcher, which is by far the most fun I had with a rocket launcher. You’ll also get two types of grenades, explosive and fire-based, and special beacons you can collect. These beacons range from a missile with an explosive range of YES, an orbital laser, white phosphorus, a bombing run, and a mobile suit that can help you out in a pinch. Finally, you have special supply drops you can summon which can grant you all the above, alongside health and armor, once you rank it up in the mission you’re on. The way this works is that you start off only being able to get health but, after some kills, you can get some better weapons and, at max level (which is three), you get the heavy ordinance. I liked this idea and it was very easy to get to level three in every map, thanks to the bugs constantly spawning in. Sure, you can make some areas easier by blowing up bug nests with your weapons, but like an unwanted relative on the holidays, they just keep coming.
“Is there a problem?”
With all this praise I’m giving the game, you’d think I’d consider it a perfect game, yes? Well, yes, but I do have some qualms with the game. Nothing major or serious, just little nitpicks and issues I’d like to mention. For one, even though they are competent and can easily hold their own, the friendly AI is kinda stupid. While they will fight off the bugs and kill them if left to their own devices, sometimes they tend to forget what they’re fighting for and just stand around as the bugs use them for guacamole dip. Other times, they’ll forget that explosives hurt and will crowd around a bug as a grenade is tossed their way, which did lead to a few humorous moments. Now, I will stress that even if you accidentally shoot your team mates and/or kill them, you won’t get a game over like you would in other games. In fact, you’d just get a talking to by the team mate that’s in your line of fire and that’s it. But, who knows? Maybe this was done on purpose in-game to make Sammy seem like the better soldier and, if that was the case, then color me surprised. I’m also going to say the weapon selection, despite being a strong selection, is somewhat lacking. While it’s fun playing with the iconic firearms from the movies, I would’ve loved just maybe a few more weapons to use. Like, it would’ve been cool to use the Morita Mk. 3s from Starship Troopers 3: Marauder or those battlesuits from the same movie. Yeah, the game does include mobile suits you can pilot, which are armed with a heavy machine gun and a chainsaw, it still would’ve been nice to have the option, you know?
There’s also the inclusion of the Veteran's Rifle and this one I’m on two mindsets on. For one, it has a decent damage output and the fact the M1 Garand is still in service is pretty cool to see. But, at the same time, there’s already a sniper based weapon with the scoped Morita that does a bit more damage, so why this rifle was included does kinda confuse me. Actually, I got something else to mention and this one isn’t a complaint but just something I noticed and more of a personal notice. When your character chambers the Morita’s, I noticed that they chamber it near the back of the rifle where the ammo casings come out. I was actually under the impression that the cocking mechanism was underneath the carrying handle (that big triangle looking piece under it), but I guess not. Still, I think my biggest complaint would be that I wish it was longer. I mean, yeah, there’s the bug missions you can play and, while they’re fun, I do wish the main human campaign was slightly longer. I don’t mind short games, don’t get me wrong, and I get that not every game has to be 100+ hours. I guess I got so invested and into this game that, when the credits rolled, I was honestly surprised.
“I’m from Buenos Aires and I say kill them all!”
If you can’t tell by now, I love this game wholeheartedly. Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War is exactly what I look for in games: Fun, entertaining, and reminds me why I love video games. While I did have a few minor issues, they were minor enough to not detract from the pure enjoyment I had while playing. Yes, it’s cheesy and, yes, some may see it as ‘just another shooter’. But, to me? This is the best example of why I enjoy playing games and is easily now one of my favorite games of all time at number three.
