Some games are great because they live up to their epic ambitions and blow audiences away with the scale of their vision. Other games are great because they somehow capture a moment in time, a feeling or an idea — even though the execution is a bit hokey. I’d put Starship Troopers: Extermination in the latter category, which is ironic really since that’s pretty much what I love about the 1997 movie that it’s based on as well.
Starship Troopers: Extermination is a 16 player cooperative game that transports players into the shoes of a Mobile Infantry soldier as they tackle one of several missions on planets that include desert, rock and even lava. Missions vary from collecting gas and ore from extractors that are often far away from the main base, to general tug-of-war style confrontations and then others that involve building and holding bases against increasingly dangerous hordes of enemies.
A quick search on the history of Starship Troopers: Extermination tells me that the Xbox version I am testing has already benefited from several iterations of the original PC release. Crossplay is available and all versions now feature some gameplay aspects that differentiate Starship Troopers: Extermination significantly from others in the genre — mainly, the persistence of enemy corpses which effectively become additional scenery over time.
Another feature added to the PC release since its original launch is that of class loadouts — which of course you would generally consider to be a completely standard feature of a game like this. Players can choose from classes like Guardian, Sniper or Medic, and each class comes with a different loadout, some inherent differences in stats like speed and armour, and a class-specific ability. As you would expect, new weapons, perks and unlocks come with time — although as I’ll mention later, not very much time.
With a class chosen, players can choose to dive into what I would describe as quite a basic single-player campaign which teaches the basics, but does little to show off the more fun features of the game. Trudging mainly through uninspiring cave systems, the first half of this campaign at least is very clearly intended as a functional tutorial at best. Hey, I’m not complaining because it’s better than nothing — but if your intention is to play on your own, this probably isn’t the game for you.
Multiplayer is completely different gravy — and when I say that, I mean it’s “ahh Bisto!” The gunplay is immediately satisfying and familiar, with everything from the SAW light-machine gun to the Peacemaker sidearm feeling fantastic to use. Grenade launchers give off a satisfying “pop” whilst the flamethrower looks great and gives you the impression that it really is immolating whatever it happens to be hosing down.
Equally, the base building is fast and satisfying. All players share a pool of resources as they place a simple enough selection of walls, turrets, sentry guns, towers and gates on the specific buildable space. Once a blueprint is set, it can then be built with a repair tool — which also (surprisingly) repairs buildings that will come under negative attention from the Xenos during later stages of the mission.
Despite being fast and simple, the building sections of Starship Troopers: Extermination don’t feel tacked on. Structures are fundamental to your success and the resulting base usually feels like a sensible, logical structure that it is actually possible to defend. This is probably helped by the many experienced PC players that I was interacting with via Crossplay, and it is absolutely clear that teamwork is needed for success in Starship Troopers: Extermination.
That said, this high level of existing competence may actually be artificially advancing me through the game, since after about eight hours of play, I am yet to lose a single mission and have reached about level 30 already. Starship Troopers: Extermination often feels challenging in the moment — with warnings about low reinforcement numbers remaining and desperate back to the wall fighting quite commonplace, but for all that, the players always seem to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
The enemy variety in Starship Troopers: Extermination is significant, considering what you may recall from the first movie. Grunts, warriors and gunners make up the majority of the threat, but larger warrior variants known as Tigers make frequent appearances in later waves, as do grenadiers, plasma grenadiers and firebugs. You’ll remember grenadiers from the movie, and whilst these appear smaller in Starship Troopers: Extermination, the blue plasma bombs that they shoot at human structures are very evocative, as are the blue mushroom clouds that explode from them upon defeat.
Most of these creatures simply charge at the nearest player, and pathing intelligence is definitely an issue on some levels. This gets much worse as the enemy bodies pile up and the bugs struggle to find a viable route through. This is rarely noticeable during gameplay unless you’re looking for it, though, as in most cases the sheer weight of enemy numbers remains a constant threat. I know I’ve already given my view on the overall difficulty of Starship Troopers: Extermination, but I will also say that in almost every game I played, the bugs always managed to break through the walls in one or multiple locations — and the sense of jeopardy is ever present.
For longer term play, there’s a concept in Starship Troopers: Extermination called the Galactic Front, which seems to promise unlockable content for the whole community if certain goals can be reached. I can imagine that kind of thing (plus the many unlockables at both account and class level) will appeal to many players and the information presented by Starship Troopers: Extermination is clear and accessible in terms of progression.
Whilst I don’t tend to play multiplayer games like Starship Troopers: Extermination for a prolonged period of time, this one is without any doubt my favourite for ages. Games are accessed quickly without a load of overwrought modes and complex options (as I often see in Call of Duty these days) and when in a game, the objectives are clear. You can contribute to the fight in meaningful ways quickly and at the end, the rewards flow quickly enough to maintain my engagement.
Starship Troopers: Extermination is at the very least a super fun interpretation of the original movie IP, with great gunplay and gameplay that feels completely in-sync with the source material. There are moments where the execution feels a bit off or lacking in one way or another, but the overall excitement of blasting hundreds of bugs from behind your hastily constructed base more than makes up for them.
Starship Troopers: Extermination is available now for PC, PS5 and Xbox systems
