Starship Troopers: Extermination
Released: October 11th, 2024
Developer: Offworld
Publisher: Offworld
Systems: PC, PS5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S
As a child, I loved Starship Troopers for how cool its killer space bugs looked. As an adult, I loved it for the satire. It’s a wonderful film, a deliciously sneaky mockery of fascistic military fetishism. And y’know, it still has really, really cool killer space bugs in it, so what’s not to appreciate?
Of course, a lot of people merely enjoy the movie as a big dumb action flick, and that’s perfectly valid too - there’s plenty of violence and outright silliness to enjoy. Starship Troopers: Extermination very much emphasizes the action factor over anything else, focused almost entirely as it is on shooting alien monsters.
That is also valid, and very fun too.
It’s a shame Extermination plays it straight, keeping anything satirical well out of the way, but I suppose we have Helldivers for that. Still, it seems like a wasted opportunity to have the official license and make something so thoroughly serious with it.
Given how Helldivers was inspired by Starship Troopers, a game literally based on it will draw inevitable comparisons. Both titles are cooperative shooters where players mow down hordes of insectoid creatures, but Extermination goes for scale over style. It’s nowhere near as tightly designed or polished as its alternative, but with 16-player action and a whole base building element, I’d say the game pleasingly earns its keep.
Just about.
I mean, I genuinely love Starship Troopers: Extermination, having gotten very hooked on it, but dear lord is it janky as all fuck.
What we have here is a first-person shooter where the main thrust of the action is all about holding out. With a simple building system that works exactly the same as the one in Fallout 4, players put up walls, craft bunkers, and add various fortifications to withstand massive assaults from cool killer space bugs - and I mean massive.
Arachnid forces burst out of the ground in numbers that steadily increase as a mission proceeds, throwing themselves at the base. While there are a few different objectives throughout a mission, they all end with players desperately pumping every resource they have into repelling hundreds of monsters hell bent on breaking down the walls and overrunning the place.
The building aspect is restricted to basic architecture and a few offensive erections. You can also create ammo stations, which are crucial considering how many bullets are spent fighting even mid-sized bug attacks. Any player can place, fix, and unbuild structures with their handy-dandy repair tools, though there’s a limit on how much can be placed.
Surprisingly I’ve seen almost no conflict between players, most of whom aren’t talking to each other - they’re just getting on with it. I’ve seen bases both simple and complex, but most stuff gets built with common sense. I think part of the reason for this is that players who aren’t placing stuff can still help make it, and getting a base up quickly requires that help.
Once a structure is placed it still needs to be physically fabricated using the tool’s repair mode, and the more players doing it, the faster it’s made. This allows everyone to take part, as those disinclined to playing the architect can still pitch in and earn a handful of easy XP at the same time. Hell, there’s a class based on building things and I felt like I’d not enjoy it because I’m not a good designer - the Engineer’s faster repair skills make it fun for me anyway.
Since this game loves the movie’s iconic “I’m doing my part” line, it makes sense that all players are encouraged to pitch in. Whenever I’m zapping walls into physical being I’ve admittedly found it hard to resist saying the line myself. I am doing my part, after all!
Despite never caring much for the building in Fallout, the streamlined and specific presentation here has gotten me far more into it. I’m not laboriously managing a settlement and stressing too much over where everything should go. A fort is something I can get my head around.
At first I simply helped, but after a while I started adding walls and towers myself. I also love to run around during a bug attack, keeping the base maintained and hurriedly rebuilding walls when Arachnids break through.
It can be quite a panic when the bugs get in. As well as tearing apart anyone they can, they’ll attempt to strike at your base’s core and destroy it entirely, which ensures defeat. It’s pretty awesome.
Almost every gun feels heavy and effective, satisfyingly chewing into Arachnids with a real sense of impact. Not every armament is a winner - I personally hate the grenade launcher’s low ammo and disappointing damage - but with a host of rifles, handguns, and heavy weapons to try out, there’s plenty to like.
Battles are frantic and reach a point of total chaos as more and more bugs join the fray. You’ll face a ton of Drones and Warriors before larger and more exotic Arachnids show up. Gunners, Grenaders, and Inferno Bugs all deliver different ranged attacks while the Tiger is an overgrown Warrior that endures piles of damage and gleefully fucks shit up the moment it comes into close quarters.
Despite all the anarchy, Extermination does a surprisingly good job of visually telegraphing priority bugs with their colors. The bright yellow carapace of a Tiger or glowing orange patches on a Gunner are pretty easy to spot among the ludicrous amounts of death and debris.
Gunners are twats, by the way. They should be killed both on sight and principle.
Amusingly, bug corpses won’t disappear unless manually disposed of, meaning that before long the environment is saturated with chitinous corpses, a sight I’m endlessly entertained by.
These bodies are also a gameplay component since you can’t just clip through them. They still take up physical space, blocking passages, keeping gates from closing, and piling up to the point where living Arachnids use them as ramps. While bodies aren’t always a problem, they do need clearing out with melee attacks or specialized equipment sometimes.
There are six classes to choose from, each with their own unique skill as well as a bespoke set of perks and utility equipment.
Your class determines what weapon you start with and which ones are obtained as they level up. Some armaments are class-exclusive, like the Engineer’s flamethrower, and every class will have access to the regular assault rifle somewhere in their progression - it’s generic but useful if you like a class but aren’t fond of its more specific weapons.
The Demolisher and Guardian are your Heavy classes. Demolishers are all about ordnance and can effectively clear bug corpses with unique explosives, while tanky Guardians have a “siege mode” that anchors them in place with a personal defense structure, effectively becoming a human turret.
Assault classes come in the form of the long-ranged Sniper and all-purpose Ranger. Both use jetpacks, the former’s allowing them to boost up to high spots, the latter’s giving them a horizontal burst of speed. Either class can also scan their surroundings in different ways to highlight enemies.
Then you have Support. The Medic has a drone that can be commanded to revive fallen allies - a great tool when it actually works. The Engineer is a more effective builder and can also craft a small range of structures beyond the regular confines of a base.
Every class is useful in some way, though not all of their unlocks are great. The Medic gets a lot of stuff that just isn’t good - a perk that lets them revive by shouting at players is one example, as it requires looking very precisely at a downed comrade amongst all the bugs and bodies while trying not to die. It’s just too fiddly to be practical.
Many interactions, in fact, are fiddly. Trying to revive or activate certain items can border on pixel hunting since the area of interactivity is weirdly restrictive - opening crates is particularly annoying since only one small part of it will bring up the required prompt. Especially for a game this hectic, it could stand to have wider detection for interactions.
Another annoying thing is that Extermination’s one of those games that don’t recognize certain inputs until the animation for a previous action has played out in full. If you’re reloading, for example, attempting to aim down the sights simply won’t work if the reload process has so much as a millisecond left to go. This also applies to switching weapons or bringing out equipment, which can get really irritating when trying to pull out a healing stim and use it, both acts being a separate command.
Not many games have this strangely insistent disabling of input, and I never appreciate it when they do.
Aside from these issues, the controls are pretty solid. Both the shooting and the building commands are responsive and intuitive, working quite well on console as well as PC.
I’ve had very few issues with matchmaking, the only consistent problem being that the first few moments of a game are always extremely laggy with nauseating stutters. It’s only temporary, but it’s nonetheless not a nice way to kick off.
Regular missions involve incrementally capturing territory and building refineries in set locations, then ferrying resources to a base’s building site. This process leads to a big building session before an army of bugs turn up, after which point the players hold firm for a set period of time. Missions end with everyone running for an imminently departing drop ship.
There are some optional missions that crop up, such as repairing generators in the field or eliminating particular enemies. Also, if the base is destroyed and the mission’s failed, the drop ship will still take anyone who’s alive and successfully retreats.
Horde Missions present a classic wave-based affair where you need to incrementally build a base between Arachnid assaults. It’s a more streamlined experience, but can often be harder since build tools are disabled during a wave. In the early goings, you’re poorly defended, and by the time you’ve got a decent base going the horde will have become viciously intense.
It’s a good time though.
There’s something I’d only begrudgingly refer to as a “single-player” mode. It’s more like a glorified set of tutorial missions with a useless trio of AI-led companions. Missions are so pointlessly brief that if you’re on the brink of leveling up and want some quick XP before a proper mission, you can do that.
It’s not worth anything else though, and I barely cared to touch it. Getting orders from Rico out of the films isn’t much of a draw, not least for how he’s represented by a mere still image that looks like the kind of thing you’d see in a browser game.
Despite its gameplay largely remaining the same throughout, I’ve been happily playing Extermination over and over again. Between the different classes, ever variable base formations, and the fact you never know exactly how overwhelming the bugs are going to be each time, I’ve found plenty to keep playing for.
Some more Arachnid types would definitely be nice. As well as the bugs already mentioned, I’ve come across Royal Guards and little exploding pill bug dickheads, and had one single encounter with the iconic Tanker beetle. While mowing down hordes of Warriors is plenty engrossing, I’d love to see some flying Hoppers or more variants unique to the game.
Speaking of variety, an area in which the game truly disappoints is its cosmetics. There’s hardly any, and what ones there are utterly suck. Most cosmetics take the form of mere color options and the colors available are fucking awful.
While I understand that hot pink clothing might go against the aesthetic, a particularly drab selection of muted greens and browns are so unappealing. Things like visor colors on the helmets offer more colors, yet they’re all so dark and desaturated you won’t notice much difference. The armor that covers most of you can’t be recolored at all, just the clothing under it.
To make matters more disappointing, a significant majority of the paltry selection is locked away inside DLC packs. Even then, the DLC skins are barely any more interesting than what’s in the base game.
While it’s no dealbreaker, it’s still a shame. Being able to personalize your Troopers beyond a single helmet decal and some truly miserable colors would be most welcome.
Now like I said, this is one janky piece of software. It would be far too easy to say a Starship Troopers game is full of bugs, which is exactly why I’m going to say a Starship Troopers game is full of bugs.
This Starship Troopers game is full of bugs.
For the most part, Extermination’s roughness falls under the “charmingly janky” classification. It’s a messy production, but it’s still a load of fun and you can get a giggle out of the physics occasionally going haywire and sending bug corpses through the air in ways that defy gravitational convention.
Unfortunately, Starship Troopers is prone to full-on fuckups that can cost a lot of progress. I’ve had the game lock up or crash during lengthy missions multiple times, and if a mission’s not fully complete all the earned XP is lost. Suffice to say, I’ve been screwed out of a lot of cumulative progress thanks to the game‘s instability.
It says a lot that I’ve not been more put off by these crashes, often jumping right back in whereas with other games I wouldn’t want to play anymore. Still, as much as I’d love to praise everything fully, I can’t just look past it being broken to this degree.
The graphics aren’t hideous by any stretch, but they’re far from the most lavish, having traded prettiness for scale. It’s the right choice, since a Starship Troopers game should be more concerned with getting as many monsters onscreen as possible rather than going all-in on fidelity.
The Arachnids look perfectly fine, skittering out in vast droves and hacking wildly at whatever they can get near. When they die, limbs go flying and your vision will be routinely smeared in green from the bugs’ spilled goop.
Also there’s screeching. So much screeching. It’s a very loud game, stuffed with bug squeals, explosions, and the stomping beat of endless gunfire. If you’re prepared for the sound to be as noisy as the visuals, then it’s all good.
One interesting thing is that you can’t choose your own voice when picking a character. In fact, you don’t make a character at all, with all customization being based purely on class. Your voice and/or gender changes every single time you start a match, which is… clever.
It’s the one area in which Extermination is thematically on-point, hinting at the horrifyingly high turnover of Starship Troopers’ warmongering arc villain, the Federation. Of course you’re not making a character - you’re merely stepping into the boots of a random soldier, one of the hundreds of thousands that’ll die today. Next time you’ll simply be stepping into the boots of another.
I wish more of the game had shit like that. While there are cute touches like propaganda posters on the loading screens, plenty of references to doing one’s part, and a pleasantly pointless ability to salute flags, it’s all surface level. It’s fine enough for that, Extermination totally works as a straightforward “dumb action flick” of a game, and that’s what most of the audience likely wants anyway. Nevertheless, I yearn.
Starship Troopers: Extermination may share similarities with Helldivers, but it absolutely does enough to distinguish itself and I think I prefer it. With 16 players and massive hordes of Arachnids, the sheer scope of chaos is both intimidating and enthralling. Building a base from scratch is straightforward and lots of fun, as is trying to keep the thing from toppling over.
It’s just sad that it’s so unstable. On the one hand, I’ve gotten so much enjoyment out of the game. On the other, it’s crashed to a degree that really isn’t cool. Such an experience is always hard to rate, weighing how much I enjoy it as a videogame against its quality as a product.
Then again, reviews are inherently biased, and when it comes to ensuring they remain so, I’m doing my part!
Take my score with the bias it’s intended to be taken with.
8/10
