When I reviewed the Starship Troopers: Extermination Early Access build, there was nothing else quite like it on the market: an actual Starship Troopers shooter, set in the universe of the movies and putting you directly in the shoes of the mobile infantry. Die-hard fans of the series (of which there is still a surprising number, considering the movies came out over twenty years ago) were pleasantly surprised by the release and quickly flocked to what promised a one-of-a-kind experience.
However, since then, we have had the equally surprising breakout success of Helldivers II, a game that seemed to be the only thing on anyone’s mind for months and continues to be incredibly popular. While not a game set directly in the Starship Troopers IP, the setting bears enough resemblance that you can outright call it a parody, and it has captured a significant amount of the Starship Troopers fanbase as die-hard players.
While the two games have their differences, they bear enough similarities and attract enough of the same people that it has to be asked if they can really coexist; comparisons between the two are constantly made throughout the game’s Steam reviews, and frankly, after playing both, I don’t feel right reviewing Starship Troopers: Extermination without making the comparison myself.
Can the games exist together without cannibalizing the same audience, or do the two lack enough concrete separation that I can say fans of the Starship Troopers franchise should just play one over the other?
Starship Troopers: Extermination is an extraction-type shooter that pits 16 players of varying classes against the franchise’s infamous bugs. Your goal is often the same: push forward through a large map, collecting and defending small resource claims along the way until you eventually capture a large build zone. You are then given a chance to build a base before defending it against a massive horde of bugs, and if successful, you race to extract and complete the mission.
I will first say that the game’s use of base building and wave defense is a really interesting change for the extraction shooter genre and one that feels really at home for the franchise. The whole segment feels like that scene from the first movie, and I have no doubt it was specifically designed to appeal to nostalgic fans of that very moment.
Each player takes the role of various tank, damage, or support classes to create a cohesive unit of 4 squads. Teamwork is essential here because each player can very easily be decimated by bugs on their own, with minimal opportunity to kill more than one warrior before being overrun. Like the movies, the game really wants you to hunker down and hold the line with concentrated firepower and not rush out and try to win the day all on your own.
In theory, these are all really good ideas when paired with the Starship Troopers IP. In practice, however, things start to fall apart.
One of the biggest issues with Starship Troopers: Extermination is the game’s performance problems. Players shouldn’t be surprised to encounter frame drops or crashes when trying to play this title. These were issues present in Early Access and ones I expected to be taken care of before the game’s launch, but you can still see problems in the live version of the game.
In a game all about fighting bugs, you expect not to be held back by… well, bugs of a different nature. The game’s poor AI is one of the most significant issues you might deal with; often, I was met with the sight of warrior bugs running into walls and getting stuck or hordes failing to approach our location. It sure was fun watching the game happen way off in the distance as I stood there, waiting for my team to show me what to do next, unbothered by the insect menace that couldn’t find our location.
On top of these scripting errors, there were many visual malfunctions that made the experience worse for me. Often, I’d look toward my teammates to see jittering, awkward animations, or weird clipping through terrain. It felt like everyone was lagging, no matter the state of the match or my connection status.
Alongside these unintentional issues, I’d say the gunplay felt pretty barebones and uninteresting. Recoil was often heavy, and there was little variation between the different guns, at least that I could pick up on. Overall, I didn’t feel a lot of satisfaction using my arsenal of weapons. Aiming down sights especially felt sluggish and awkward; I never really felt like my hits were registering, and overall, the system just felt bare bones.
Bare bones is a great way to describe Starship Troopers: Extermination. The game lacks enemy variety, game mode variety, intuitive or interesting mechanics, or character customization. There are multiple guns to unlock for each class, but generally, personalization was a huge missing feature in the game as well, aside, of course, from the $10-a-pop cosmetic day-one DLC that changed your outfit’s textures to some other camo pattern.
Starship Troopers: Extermination might be the dream game for the world’s biggest Starship Troopers fan. However, I feel as though the game is pretty bare-bones, relying on nostalgia for franchise visuals to make up for a lack of real content. My initial excitement from the Early Access version of the game diminished now that I see they have hardly advanced anything beyond the game’s “Beta” state. The game feels undone, lacking in content, and pretty buggy, and not even in the way they want it to be. Personally, I would recommend franchise fans stick to Helldivers II, a game with much more to offer the Starship Troopers fan than just nostalgia bait.
The Final Word
Starship Troopers: Extermination feels bare bones, buggy (pun intended), and frankly unfinished. While the game has nostalgic visuals for the fans of the Starship Troopers franchise, this reviewer feels like it doesn’t have much else to offer.
Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Starship Troopers: Extermination is available on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation.
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