1997’s Starship Troopers was met with negative reviews from critics who didn’t seem to understand the movie’s satirical message. Despite this, the movie received a cult-like following from audiences, who either praised the movie’s satirical take on military culture or (more often) loved watching giant bugs get mowed down in hails of lead. The movie has retained such a huge fan base even to this day, which is how we see games like Starship Troopers: Extermination made almost 30 years later.
Starship Troopers: Extermination shows the kind of passion a fanbase can have in an IP, both when it comes to making creative tributes and playing them. The game feels like it was made by people who absolutely adore the franchise, and you can feel the love in the players experiencing it. In my very first lobby in Starship Troopers: Extermination, the absolute excitement of the people playing couldn’t be any more obvious as they shouted movie references and faux screams into the voice coms.
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Starship Troopers: Extermination is a 16-player co-op first-person class-based shooter that seamlessly combines several genres of games into its play. In a single match of Extermination, players will find themselves battling to control and hold objectives, building bases, and surviving waves of enemies in a horde-defense-like final stand. The huge variety of mechanics present in a single match sets Starship Troopers: Extermination apart from many FPS games on the market right now.
Your standard Extermination match will open up with you landing on the planet Valaka with your fellow Mobile Infantry. From here, you’ll pick from a list of open squads to join. Each squad has four members and is graded alongside the rest at the end of the match based on your performance.
Your first objective is going to be to push to a mining outcrop, build some machinery, and extract precious ore from the ground. You’ll do this about three times, defending against small hordes of Bugs as the mining equipment extracts the resources you’ll need for later. The support class is especially useful for carrying the extracted ore, but I’ll go more into that later.
Next, you’re tasked with building a base around a stationary objective and defending it against waves of bugs. This is by far my favorite part, because I love base-building in any game. You’re given a pretty liberal variety of structures you can make, from tall walls, bunkers, towers, and gates. I feel like the space you’re given is a little small, but future maps might see the buildable space expanding.
This whole part of the game is clearly inspired by the Outpost 29 battle scene from Starship Troopers, a scene that fans have been wanting to see in a game forever. Even on normal difficulty, I found myself thinking “This place crawls, Sir” as hordes of warrior bugs began to pile up and slam against the gate I had a part in building. It was a pretty tense experience, and it was the one part of the match where nobody in the game was on comms, too focused on not becoming bug food.
After a successful base defense, the match ends with an extraction. After battling our way to the ship, I as well as the other Heavy class players held the line just outside the ship while the rest of the players piled in. Losing just three players in the end, the thirteen that made it out were celebrating with calls of “I’m doing my part!” and a single “I didn’t do my part” as the ship took off and the match ended.
Besides being a love letter to fans of Starship Troopers, Extermination is a fun little team-based shooter with enough diversity in its mechanics to keep it interesting without being too complicated. At the moment, the game contains three classes, each one fulfilling a different role on the battlefield. The game’s sole progression lise in advancing these classes to unlock better weapons and gear to take into a match.
The Hunter is the assault class, built for killing bugs. It gets access to hard-hitting weapons and long-range scopes to take out high-value bug targets from afar. It also gets jump-jets and increased movement speed to reposition quickly in a match.
Bastions are the frontline heavy infantry. They’re equipped with LMG patterns of the Morita Assault Platform and get extra armor. They’re the class I like to play, and are meant to hold the line against waves of bugs so the other classes can do what they do without getting swarmed.
Operators are a support class that plays a flexible role on the battlefield. They also have access to long-ranged weapons, as well as a grenade launcher if you’re feeling froggy. Most importantly, they come equipped with healing supplies and the ability to carry extra canisters of that ore you’re tasked with extracting.
Each class has pretty straightforward progression. Each starts with the same Morita MK 1, but new weapons can be unlocked fairly quickly by seeing a match through to the end. Utility tools, grenades and perks can also be unlocked to further customize your class’ playstyle.
At the moment, Starship Troopers: Extermination is a fun little FPS romp that pays homage to a beloved IP that’s gone without much love in the video game market. However, what really excited me about Starship Troopers: Extermination is the future the developers have planned for it. With new worlds, more classes of bugs and further progression promised in future updates, Starship Troopers: Extermination is one of the more promising early-access games I’ve played.
If you’re a fan of Starship Troopers who isn’t sure about the game or if this preview was sent to you by a friend trying to get you to join them on the killing fields of Valaka, my recommendation is to give the game a try. There’s a lot here for fans, and if you’ve never seen the movie, Starship Troopers: Extermination just might convince you to check it out.
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