Starship Troopers: Extermination Review (PS5) – Do You Want To Kill More?

Starship Troopers is, let’s be honest, a great bit of filmmaking. To a kid not old enough to watch it, it’s a cool action movie with blood and bugs in it. For the smarter types, it’s a high budget B movie perfectly satirising the American war machine. Seriously, it is, Paul Verhoeven knew exactly what he was doing when he adapted Robert A. Heinlein’s novel.

Yet in video game form, besides the RTS’, it’s not had the same effect. One dreadful FPS in 2005 was pretty much it… until now. Following the spirit of the film, in the “Oh crap there’s a lot of bugs!” sense, Starship Troopers: Extermination is what we all wanted. Troopers versus arachnids on sci-fi planets, sixteen players to a horde. It’s as chaotic as it sounds, much like those battles in the film (singular, the rest don’t count).

But let’s not beat around the proverbial elephant, or however that goes. The question on everyone’s mind is apparent: is Helldivers 2 a better Starship Troopers game than this Starship Troopers game, and/or is Extermination just too late to hold its own? Let’s find out.

An Ugly Planet, A Bug Planet

If you weren’t aware of said satire, allow me to give you an abridged version. Also, don’t immediately rush to the comments to “h’actually…” me, this is just a broad overview. The dig is aimed at both the “American war machine” and Heinlein’s original, right-wing-ish novel. Painting The Federation as the righteous good, and how they feel the universe is theirs.

Extermination, by contrast, doesn’t so much lean into it one way or another, but instead acts more of a counterpart. The bugs are nasty and very good at colonising other planets, the Troopers are here to put an end to it. Legions of troops sent to planets to squash said bugs is the general theme, for patriotism and such. You, the player, are one of many fighting “the good fight”.

There is a solo play option, under orders of Casper Van Dien’s now-General Johnny Rico. The eyepatch-sporting general puts you in the Deep Space Nine Vanguard, the best of the best. What this is, essentially, is a tutorial to begin with. It spreads out across twenty five missions, but it’s more to prime you for multiplayer.

C’Mon You Apes, You Wanna Respawn Forever?!

At its core, Starship Troopers: Extermination is a multiplayer game. Besides the aforementioned solo parts with General Rico, the rest is up-to-16 player online bug brawls. This, as most shooters go, manifests as several game modes:

• Hive Hunt – a fireteam-based mission that sees players enter a hive (surprisingly enough) and nuke the nests before extraction.
• Advance and Secure – Troopers find a suitable spot for a mobile base, secure that, before moving on to a bigger base and defending it against hordes.
• ARC Defence – similar to AaS, but players start with a base that needs fortifying with external supplies before expanding.
• Horde – as is standard in most games, similar to Gears of War. Fireteams have a budget, and must use that to fortify a base and defend against waves.

In essence, Extermination isn’t reinventing the wheel. The AaS and ARC modes require players to build refineries to bring back a certain amount of canister-based supplies, adding some excitement. Hive Hunt is probably the most unbalanced, which we’ll get to, but in my time I spent most of it on either Horde or ARC. Of the several modes, those to captured the Fort Ticonderoga essence of the film for me.

So Class-y

Now, I could start listing of all of the individual classes in Starship Troopers: Extermination. I could go through all the pros and cons, what works best in terms of builds and such, but I won’t for two reasons. One, this isn’t a guide and two, ultimately if you’ve ever played any kind of class-based shooter, you’ll know what to expect.

Everything here is a composite of other titles, but not necessarily a bad thing. Of the six classes, including a sniper, a medic, a heavy, an all-rounder and an engineer, I opted for the Ranger (above). In a sixteen player game, split into non-changeable squads of four, it helps to have some variety.

The Medic is great, being able to revive from afar, whilst an Engineer can repair items outside of build phases (more on that soon). But an Engineer in Hive Hunt is pointless, because there’s no building requirement, just nuking nests. So, in essence, the trick is to find what works for you as individual to your playstyle.

This Is My Rifle… Look At The Paint Job

The other customisation aspect I’ll touch on is, well, the customisation aspect. To use another comparison, Extermination borrows a weapon upgrade and unlock system akin to Call of Duty. Well, Modern Warfare specifically (and the last one I played properly). As players rank up a particular class, new items will be unlocked for said class. For the Ranger, as that’s my main example, it meant a better range of scanning equipment to deploy in the field. Scanning as in, “finding out where the arachnids are coming from”, specifically.

There’s more, though, in the form of weapon proficiency. That’s right: the more you use something, the better you’ll get with it. What a concept. Here it manifests as better or different weapon types per class, but also as unlocks for those guns. So say I’m getting better with the Makita MK1 rifle, I’ll unlock a scope for it, or more-damaging ammunition. So whilst it’s fun to sit on a turret, which admittedly I do love doing, players won’t improve with their class weapons if they don’t actually use them.

Lastly, there’s cosmetic skins. These manifest as different visor colours, different armour patterns and decals for helmets. Largely pointless to the player in question, as it’s a first person shooter, but you know someone’s going to be excited about how they look to others. There were a few hidden behind DLC packs, which is always annoying, but considering they have no impact or bonus on the game itself, it doesn’t rankle me that much.

Everybody Fights, Nobody Quits

So, I’ve set the basis for what to expect when you start, but what about how the game actually plays? If I were being unkind, I would say it’s just a standard FPS with the same configuration and style as anything else in the last twenty years. And it is, but that’s not really the unique selling point of the game. No, what differentiates Starship Troopers: Extermination from the hordes is… well, the hordes. That is, the sheer number of the bug-gers on screen at any one time. That picture above is from one wave of a horde, and at that, only one side of the base.

Whatever mode it is, the action in here can become quite insane. On Easy, not so much, but if you want the authentic experience, Hard is where it’s at. If anything was to capture the spirit of the movie, it’s defending a makeshift base against literal hundreds of on-screen bugs. From the standard drones and warriors, to the bigger Tiger variants, it gets wild. Then throw in some gunner bugs (yeah, they’re a thing now), or flame-catapult-type big ones and you’ve got some tension.

Defeating a wave, using that sparse time between waves to rebuild or fortify existing barricades, chucking a turret down or building a watchtower, it’s genuinely fun. Hold out long enough for an objective to finish, or withstand the last wave, and that should be enough right? Nope, players then have to hightail it to an extraction point. Sometimes a reasonable distance away, at others seemingly impossible, it becomes a hellish gauntlet to live, let alone return fire. Hold out for the extraction timer, only then will players reap the benefits they have sown throught a mission. Only to do it all over again.

Build It Or Not, They Will Come

“So far, so Helldivers” you might be thinking, yet Extermination does have a neat little addition that I’ve touched on. The base building is simple in concept, but a free-for-all in practice. Each game starts with a balance, that little blue figure in the top-right of the above picture. Depending on the mode, that can be a decent chuck to build a base, or low and needs topping up with gas and ore deposits. As you might expect, items have different values to them. So walls and gates, naturally, are low end whilst automated turrets and electrified fences are the “later game” unlocks, if you will.

Common sense would dictate that, at the beginning of a match, walls go up and a few towers to give a fighting chance, then focus on the more exquisite items. But anyone who’s played online multiplayers knows that no-one answers the call of Mr. Common Sense. So often, a match would start and some bright spark builds a turret and taps most of the budget. Admittedly, I did that a couple of times, because I knew where they’d come from. I’ve seen the film enough times.

In a full sixteen player match, provided things are going well, it won’t take long to build a fairly competent base. But then, it also doesn’t take long for a 200-strong wave of bugs, including the grenadier and ball-of-flame-throwing units to tear down the walls and breach. Or worse, breach and allow some of the absolutely nails Royal Guard variants in. These are the moments where the game comes alive.

I’m Doing My Part

In the grand scheme of things, at least in the progression sense, Starship Troopers: Extermination again doesn’t really do much to further the already-established online community aspect. The Galactic Front, above, is akin to that other popular game, in that in shows how big the online player base is, and what’s going on in the in-universe lore side. But honestly, whilst it’s not exactly Bioware-levels of story, it’s alright as a little bit of filler to the shooting of many bugs.

The other community aspect is the Company system. In theory, it’s a system that allows players to make their own squads and have up to thirty members in. Do you want to Robbie’s Roughnecks with its imaginative title, or something wacky like the Itsy Bitsy Bug Squishy Party? Well, you can… but there’s a catch to the system (at present). Players can’t send invites out, so if they do want their friends to join, it’s a case of refreshing the Company tab until it appears.

It’s the same with trying to find your actual friends, too. One cannot simply search, instead one has to coordinate with said friends to try and find the same game. Only then can a friend request be sent. Once that’s done, it’s easy enough to party up in the lobby afterwards. But by god is the initial setup seriously in need of work. Hopefully Offworld Industries get on it soon, or it will cripple the community side entirely.

We’ve Got Bugs!

Oh come on, we all knew that would be the header for the negativity section. I cannot be the only person to have done it, either. Anyway, as much fun as I’ve personally had with it, a lot of that has come from playing with friends. Were I reviewing this from only playing solo, my review would be a lot harsher. For you see, when playing and chatting, the niggles become shared and disseminated, rather than a focal point. But sadly, there are some that can’t be ignored.

Whilst I may not understand the intricacies of making an MMO shooter, I would at least expect a developer to make sure something was cooked before feeding it to us. A lot of the maps suffer from terrible pop-in, or worse, an absence of colour that just pitches everything into darkness. If anyone’s using a flamethrower, it creates this horrible overlay and distortion to everyone’s view. It is also an absolute wet tissue of a weapon, by the way.

Bugs spawning out of thin air is another issue, especially behind a player focusing on a charging wave. I don’t mean them saying they didn’t see it, I mean I’ve seen arachnids pop in behind people. The other massive problem, that I honestly hope gets prioritised, is the gunner bug. There is no fathomable way that a hive-minded insect can shoot more actually 100% of the time than Mark Wahlberg in Shooter. But alas, if one of those hits you with one shot, it’ll hit you with the next six. Which is instant death, and absolutely cheap.

I honestly hope, because I want it to do well, that Offworld Industries keeps this going and listens to feedback. There is fun to be had here, and it’s a game that will solely thrive on its community element. I just hope that the issues that I, and presumably others, have faced will be rectified.

Never Pass Up A Good Thing

To summarise, Starship Troopers: Extermination is going to get a positive review from me. But it’s a positive review with a few caveats. Firstly, it’s easy enough to accept that with any kind of launch there is always wrinkles to iron, more so with online multiplayer titles. As mentioned, maybe Extermination could have done with longer in Early Access, but I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes.

At its core, if players can get their friends on board, or make new ones, the firefights get chaotic and are absolutely incredible. The classes and progression systems are varied enough to keep the spark going, if one is into shooters with those elements in. Whilst the maps are a bit limited now, if Offworld put more out without putting them behind unrealistic paywalls or whatnot, then this game should continue to thrive.

As part of the Starship Troopers franchise, the only aspect that really ties it to the movie is the frenzy of battle. Having Casper Van Dien is a good grab, yet his performance smacks of bored resignation and comes across a bit flat. However, as part of the universe it’s in, Starship Troopers has always been a bit B movie and campy, so it passes. It is lacking the satire though, so in that area, Helldivers 2 absolutely widdles all over it.

The base-building and team-playing survival nature is, at its heart, a joy to behold when it works. As I say, if the support from both player and developer are there, Extermination could go on to bigger things. Maybe in the lull of one another could rise, or both rub anatomy together as two separate-yet-similar titles. For now, it does need love and some more ironing, but here’s to the future. Let it be Extermination in name only, and not a pun we’ll be using on its demise.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series S|X and PC via Steam. A physical version is available on Limited Run games here (if you’re quick).

Developer: Offworld Industries
Publisher: Offworld Industries

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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