On May 17, Starship Troopers: Extermination was released on Steam in Early Access. Although the game does not offer much yet, players are already excited. Especially fans of the film should definitely check out the shooter, according to reviews.
What kind of game is this? In Starship Troopers: Extermination, you play in the Special Forces of the Mobile Infantry and shoot your way through hordes of various alien bugs with a variety of weapons. The game offers:
- First-person gameplay with 3 classes
- Co-op against the (bug) AI
- a kind of building and construction system
- currently one map and 2 different game modes
The game comes from the indie studio Offworld Industries, who previously worked on Post Scriptum and Squad. Squad suddenly captivated tens of thousands of players in 2022.
How Starship Troopers: Extermination is received: On Steam, the new shooter has a “very positive” rating with 93% positive reviews out of a total of 7,202 votes (as of May 22). According to steamcharts, over 16,000 players played simultaneously in the first days.
The gunplay and replayability are especially praised. Due to procedural progression, it’s not even a problem that there is currently only one map. Even bugs are hardly present, which is almost an exception for PC releases at the moment. So, except for the “bugs” you are supposed to shoot, of course. There are plenty of them.
There is constant chaos, which somehow fits the idea. Especially fans of the films swear that they would have liked to play this game earlier. However, you have to do without a proper story at the moment. Starship Troopers: Extermination is currently available on Steam for €24.50.
Cult film becomes co-op shooter
The indie game is based on the sci-fi film “Starship Troopers” (1997) directed by Paul Verhoeven, which in turn was based on the novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein from 1959.
Starship Troopers was nominated for an Oscar and 16 other awards at the time, receiving 3 awards (via IMDb). Reviews are somewhat mixed, but the film was generally better received by audiences than by the press (via Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic).
Although Starship Troopers may be primarily a space action film for many viewers, the film actually contains a decent amount of criticism. Colleagues from Filmstarts write, for example:
“Starship Troopers” throws around fascist symbolism, inciting slogans, and glorifying militarism. This is underscored by a bombastic score that is characterized by ruthless detachment. […]
What “Starship Troopers” lacks to be an absolute masterpiece is a bit more distance and a tighter plot. The film can be too easily misunderstood […]
Today, the film is still relevant on the internet, because at least the “I’m doing my part” meme comes from Starship Troopers. This is also one of the most common ratings on Steam, which has made the evaluation a bit tricky…
If you are less in the mood for alien bugs and more in search of post-apocalypse, you might like Ashfall:
New MMORPG shooter could provide competition for Fallout 76 – starts its free beta in July
