Played on PC
This year, our free time has been filled with an unusually large number of cooperative projects dedicated to fanatical warriors and their unequal struggle against hordes of beetles and other threats to humanity. In February, players carried democracy in Helldivers 2, in September they faithfully served the Emperor in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, and just a month after the “Wahi”, Starship Troopers: Extermination flew out of early access for release. Due to such a dense neighborhood, the time slot for a full exit from Early Access looks extremely unfortunate, and the third project in a year with the central concept of team shooting at countless hordes of “beetles” already seems like too much. Unless the developers from Offworld have a secret weapon in store that will allow them to compete with the colossi of the subgenre…
If you want citizenship, go ahead to the front line!
⇡#This is the base!
Interestingly, instead of reducing the team size from four players to three, as their colleagues did, the authors of Starship Troopers: Extermination went the other way and increased the number of participants in one sortie to sixteen people. This, of course, is a tribute to the original source, where heroes always fought side by side with their brothers and sisters in arms as part of large combat units. The threat, naturally, corresponds to the increased number of fighters – there are a lot of arachnids of different shapes and sizes, they are tenacious, incredibly fast and capable of dealing with a fighter with one or two crushing blows of their mandibles. It is simply impossible to survive in open areas alone here, no matter how accurately you shoot.
However, even a fully equipped detachment is unlikely to withstand a sea of beetles in an open field. Therefore, most tasks involve not only unrestrained action with shooting creeping legions, but also the mechanics of building fortifications: with towers, turrets, walls, bunkers and boxes of ammunition – similar to a completely simplified Satisfactory. True, it will not be possible to build a base anywhere and anytime – only around points important for the operation in a designated segment of the operation. On different missions, this element will be used at different stages: during sorties from the “swarm” category, players do not leave the base location and only defend themselves from endless hordes; in missions like “defending SAPA”, the arrangement and strengthening of the base is one of the phases of the mission, and, say, forays like “hunting hives” generally do without fortified points.
The final stage of the mission is evacuation. As a rule, it is also the most difficult, since the rescue shuttle lands far from protective structures
After constructing defense lines, players prepare for what they came to the project with Starship Troopers in the title for: a desperate defense against endless hordes of arachnids. And how successfully the developers from Offworld have embodied the very essence of combat clashes in this universe. Creatures hungry for the blood of earthlings climb from all directions, a symphony of shots is interrupted by a chaotic cacophony of explosions, green blood floods the view, and at some point you can simply drown in the bodies of arachnids, because corpses do not disappear here. And while you are frantically trying to get out from under the rubble, you can easily receive an unexpected fatal blow from a half-finished bug from behind or from above. The true chaos of battle: dirty, merciless, terrible – just as it was presented in the legendary painting by Paul Verhoeven.
⇡#Life for citizenship!
Surviving such uncompromising skirmishes will require not only planning, construction and marksmanship skills, but also class skills that will allow the entire squad to reach the evacuation shuttle in relative safety. Particularly useful in this matter will be doctors who can effectively resuscitate the wounded using a special drone. No less important for survival will be the Defender class fighters, who in siege mode turn into a small but effective barricade holding back the hordes of arachnids with the help of the Morita MK3 heavy machine gun. A comfortable distance will also be provided by a destroyer capable of firing a full-fledged artillery salvo at a crowd of beetles, and the Dragoon hand grenade launcher copes excellently with dense enemy formations – it’s a pity that the ammunition runs out quickly.
In Starship Troopers: Extermination, the turret is one of the most important elements of defense, and the success of the entire operation often depends on the effectiveness of its use.
The role of snipers in Starship Troopers: Extermination is classic – to look out for especially strong or dangerous arachnids and inflict colossal damage on them; and with the help of a rocket accelerator, a deft shooter can also occupy a relatively safe height. The Engineer, on the other hand, is perhaps the most unusual of all – this class can erect some buildings even far from the headquarters, and the flamethrower will fry nearby arachnids to a crisp. The Ranger is an ordinary fighter with a standard assault rifle and high mobility – just the thing for first forays and connoisseurs of simple and understandable tactics.
In general, the gameplay for a particular class feels different, everyone has weak and strong sides, which creates interest in trying each and finding something of your own. Personally, I liked the defender the most – both the damage is high and the survivability is decent, unlike my colleagues. And it’s much more pleasant to shoot from a heavy machine gun than from other types of weapons. Alas, at the tactile level, the arsenal in Starship Troopers: Extermination is not outstanding – the shooting is not bad, but it does not reach the level of recoil and “juiciness” of the same Space Marine 2.
For each outing, the team has a total limit for revival – as soon as it runs out, death becomes permanent
⇡#Uneven battle with bugs and bugs
Starship Troopers: Extermination falls short of its high standards in terms of polish. It would seem that after more than a year of early access, the technical side of the project should have been brought to a decent state. However, during forays, unpleasant bugs quite often occur: players fly off the map, heroes begin to move jerkily, the frame rate drops to single digits – all this in such a project, as a rule, leads to the rapid death of a fighter and loss of pleasure from the game . And the most unpleasant thing is that Starship Troopers: Extermination often throws you into the main menu right at the beginning of the mission.
Fortunately, the waiting time for a match does not exceed one and a half minutes (not fast, but not a “queue simulator”). And the squads are almost always fully staffed, even despite the low online presence on Steam (the peak figure after the full release was three thousand players) – thanks to the support for cross-platform play. However, how long this will last given such technical problems is an open question.
Alas, the trademark grotesque propaganda from the film is practically absent in Extermination. The only thing that reminds us of absurd ideological devices is the loading screens
Also… the tasks on some missions are not always clear. More precisely, there is a description of them, a sign with goals hangs in the corner of the screen, but no one completes the task itself. And this is not the players’ fault – the very design of the operations in the “defense of SAP” section, the longest missions in the game, does not provide for the possibility that players will simply not complete the mission objectives, but instead will dig in at the base and shoot off wave after wave of enemies. I have found myself in similar situations several times, and this experience is not pleasant – for about forty minutes you and your squad just aimlessly hold the defense, slowly starting to yawn, until everyone either leaves the server or until the limit on revivals runs out. The problem is that the actions required of us are counterintuitive, because the mission design itself encourages us to hold the defense rather than run after gas cylinders. This embarrassment could have been avoided with a couple of simple elements – such as limiting the time it takes to complete a mission, making targets more explicit, or fining Star Marines for shirking their duties. This and other problems clearly indicate that Offworld was in a hurry with a full release.
***
Despite the game design flaws and technical problems, Starship Troopers: Extermination is a good project that provides a truly original and exciting experience. I would like to hope that the game will not sink into oblivion, will be able to get out of the consequences of a not very successful release, fix bugs, attract the attention of more players and become, perhaps not a hit (it’s too late for that), but a strong niche project that will be played at least a couple of years. Extermination really deserves it.
Advantages:
- Intense and exciting battles with hordes of arachnids;
- The mechanics of building and strengthening a base refreshed the standard genre formula;
- A variety of classes, each with their own unique approach to battle.
Disadvantages:
- Some tasks are plagued by flaws in the game design;
- Frankly weak technical part – uneven optimization, regular connection problems, frequent stutters, etc.
Graphic arts
The standard picture for Unreal Engine is all moderately realistic, quite detailed and impressive when it comes to explosions and drops of arachnid blood flowing down the helmet. But, as often happens with this engine, mediocre optimization comes with it…
As for the design of the locations, it accurately conveys the surroundings of the Starship Troopers universe: sultry deserts, impersonal military bases, cramped lava caves. However, don’t expect that the local landscapes will take your breath away – the scenery is standard, albeit recognizable.
Sound
Shooting from all calibers, explosions of plasma and grenades, the vile screech of arachnids – the sound design is implemented at a high level and perfectly immerses you in the chaos of a bloody war with a countless horde of beetles.
And the musical content pleases with recognizable chords from the 1997 film, although the arrangement here is clearly simpler. And those same motives are not heard as often as we would like.
Single player game
Only training missions of little interest.
Estimated time of completion
One sortie takes twenty to thirty minutes, but how many of these sorties you want to make directly depends on your love for the subgenre and the Starship Troopers universe, and also on your tolerance for technical flaws.
Collective game
A vigorous cooperative action game with unusual game discoveries, a good range of tasks and a set of classes offering different combat tactics.
General impression
Fans of Starship Troopers will definitely appreciate both the action component of Starship Troopers: Extermination and the interesting discoveries with base construction. However, I recommend waiting for a couple of patches that will fix the main problems that are clouding the gaming experience right now.
Rating: 7.0 / 10
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