Starship Troopers: Extermination Early Access Review

Starship Troopers is an IP that many may vaguely recognize as it is a name that shows up occasionally through books, movies, or animations. In the 90s and early 2000s, there were many mods and custom maps found throughout games that would be inspired by the original movie, but aside from that Starship Troopers saw little official video game activity. However, recently the development team at Offworld Industries has been working on the newest piece of Starship Troopers media in the form of Starship Troopers: Extermination.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is very much one of those games where no experience with the franchise is needed. It is a video game with little to no story, and what is there is merely context to the battles going on out on the battlefield. Obviously having context to what is going on will give a bit more enjoyment in the subtle references but it is not required in the slightest.

The gameplay in Starship Troopers: Extermination is incredibly complex, but not hard to understand and that's honestly one of the greatest parts of the experience. The game’s matches go on for around twenty minutes, and the majority of the gameplay will be gun-based combat. However, in a match, there are several other aspects to keep the moments between waves of enemy bugs entertaining.

There is no player vs player in Starship Troopers: Extermination, instead the game is player vs environment and is loosely based upon waves of enemies. It is objective to objective, whether it's moving ores, killing the enemy bugs, capturing territories, defending zones, and repairing structures. There is more, and there surely will be more the longer the game is out, but to make it simple it is basically about killing alien bugs and completing tasks.

The gunplay is rather basic but it is still satisfying as it goes on. Starship Troopers: Extermination’s repetitive nature allows for several games or matches to be played back to back without feeling all too much the same. With different classes, maps, and squads, there comes more types of weaponry to tear through the bugs with. It is those little choices that allow for several matches to be played in succession and for the gameplay to still feel fresh and exciting.

One of the main gimmicks of Starship Troopers: Extermination is the building mechanic. At hearing that at first, one may think of fit as being something akin to the building offered in something like Fortnite, but rather it is more of building objectives and support structures. It is this element of the game that may confuse many players but the game limits the location that the payer can build in, effectively limiting it to the bases, so there is little to stress about understanding the building concept.

There is an incredibly helpful tutorial that is offered at the beginning of Starship Troopers: Extermination. It is kind of long so getting through it may be a bit tedious, but it really helps to get through the game. It goes into depth much better than most menu-offered tutorials from other games. For the majority of the tutorial, it just explains the basics as to how things work, and how to do things in game. It is recommended to at least play a game on the easiest difficulty to completely get a sense of how the in-game action is.

Speaking of difficulty, Starship Troopers: Extermination offers several difficulty options to provide more challenge for those who seek it, and a more lax time for those looking to just play around with the game. The difficulties are very stark in difference, as going from easy to normal the enemies become way more abundant and threatening. Easy mode really seems like either the entry-level to understand the game or the lax mode to chill with some friends. Whereas going up in difficulty is where an actual challenge can be found.

Even when finishing with the tutorial there is one part of the game that may come as difficult to get used to or understand for the newer players. In the moments of a game, there can be several on-screen things in terms of intractable objects, enemies, and markers. Jumping into the game all of this can be overwhelming. Some of these details can be fixed simply by going to the settings, but when there is so much on screen, the split-second decision-making that is crucial in a game with tower defense elements gets a bit blurred and delayed. Eventually, players will get accustomed to the things on screen but it does take time.

The settings in Starship Troopers: Extermination are a bit lacking for a modern PC game. While the majority of the visual changes and control settings are available, there does seem to be a noticeable lack of accessibility. The most notable omission is the option to change the language the game is set in. While not a huge deal for some, there will certainly be a handful of players who would like the option to change the language. In addition, many other PC games offer little changes like color blind modes or other types of modifiers to help players have a better experience, and Starship Troopers: Extermination seems to not be in the same boat. However, the game being in early access, it is likely this is something the team is actively working on, but just isn’t their primary focus as of right now.

There is a loadout option for players to mess around with as well. As a player goes through playing matches of Starship Troopers: Extermination they will level up and unlock things for the three classes. Each class has its own level to track, meaning each class also has its own loadout. There are weapons and perks behind this, allowing for a change-up in terms of gameplay. This is another element of the game that can keep players coming back, as unlocking new things even to mess around with for a game or two can result in some good fun.

The presentation of the Starship Troopers: Extermination is rather nice, but nothing to absolutely write home about. Both the music and voice acting are of good quality but with the nature of the game, the two elements aren’t as important as they would be in other titles. There is a voice-over that acts like a news report before every game that is very reminiscent of the movie from the late 90s. In terms of music, it is all fitting war-esc music, the kind of music that makes the player feel like they are doing some heroic actions for the greater good.

The in-game audio that isn’t music or dialogue is also really good. Explosions feel crunchy, the bugs screech as they attack, and machines whir and click as they construct themselves. It all feels very satisfying and can provide as a helpful reminder of the surroundings as the games go on. If someone in a group is building the audio is enough of a queue for that, so a player could jump in on that audio-based queue and make the process quicker. The same can be said for attacks, as the ground begins to crunch and crumble as enemies make their way to the surface of the battlegrounds. Again, it’s nothing mind-blowing but it's all good and of high quality.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is still in early access so there are so clear bugs and not the bugs you’ll be fighting out on the field. The biggest issues are simple visual issues, like delayed animations, t-posing enemies models, and some visual stutter. These issues could easily be due to the online connectivity, but it is still something for the team working on the game to keep note of. The actual stability of the game is rather solid for an early-access game, with there seemingly not being any major bugs that cause crashes or hard freezes.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is a co-op game first and foremost, and it offers the experience for parties as large as sixteen players. This is fantastic for those with large groups of friends that want to play a game together rather than against each other. The big drawback of this is that playing by yourself will result in being placed in a group with other random people online. It really isn’t a large issue for interactivity, rather it is so much more entertaining with friends than it is with randoms. This can be said about any game but with the large number of available slots it just feels better working with other friends.

Having this much promise in an early-access game is kind of crazy for this small of a company. Of course, studios that work on large more known names are going to consistently do early access games and still have quality. But with Starship Troopers: Extermination it really seems like the biggest thing going on is the early access portion of the game’s description is the small amount of content. Clearly, this game offers a lot, but more so in terms of maps, character models, and modes.

The strangest thing about Starship Troopers: Extermination is that it feels almost like it is late. The film that started it all came out in the late 90s, and the series really hasn’t had a ton of attention since. However, there are rumors of a reboot or remake of the series in the works. It is just a matter of time that will decide if this game is tied to that or not. Even if those rumors of the series making a return are true it is possible that Starship Troopers: Extermination is completely unrelated. Regardless of brand relevancy, there is no requirement for knowing the source material so it can still be fun.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is a really fun experience, and it is amplified by the interactivity with friends. To make it feel like a full release, it really just needs some more content and some polish. The lower amount of game modes available and the lack of variety in said game modes lessens the experience, but with the main mode being as fun as it is the problem becomes a bit lessened. In terms of the visuals, as mentioned prior, it is just small issues that need to be cleaned up to make the experience feel that much better.

Starship Troopers: Extermination needs more content, but the game receives several updates rather quickly, showing that the team is constantly working on making their game better. This hopefully proves that the game will have a good lifespan and will offer a lot for players to behold later down the line. The satisfying loop of gameplay is great and having a more diverse way to experience it would be even more great fun.