Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War Review – Do you want to know more?

The Starship Troopers franchise has always been a strangely neglected one. The original novel and movie are stone cold classics, the latter in particular skewering the propaganda and marketing of warfare and xenophobia in a way that regrettably continues to be culturally relevant decades after their release. However, aside from some straight-to-DVD level sequels and a number of less than stellar gaming forays, the legacy has never really been continued. Of course, Helldivers 2 has very much filled that gap, taking the look, feel, and satirical approach and turning it into a huge success, but now there’s Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War. What does it have to offer and is it doing its part?

Coming from developers Auroch Digital, who are now best known for the fun Warhammer 40k Boltgun boomer shooter, Ultimate Bug War often feels a lot like an old-fashioned mod pack for that title. Much of the FPS combat feels very familiar to that game, but without the bombast and power fantasy of being a Space Marine. Instead the game offers a strange sense of fragility as you are a very squishy human who can quickly be overwhelmed and swarmed by bugs.

The many NPC troopers fighting alongside you exist seemingly only to die, a factor emphasised by them all having names, and still being hellbent on walking in front of you and dying by friendly fire. I assume this is a deliberate decision to render their AI so moronic as a nod to the extreme casualties of war against the bugs, but I think I killed just as many of my troops as the aliens did.

Graphically, Ultimate Bug War feels like a step down from Boltgun. The 2D sprites of the troops contrasted with the 3D bugs is distinctive, but areas are pretty nondescript and have little of the architecture or style of Auroch’s previous game. Aside from a handful of vertical sections in oversized buildings, most of the game features nondescript and frankly dull open areas with large spaces of nothing between the mission objectives. There are vast numbers of bugs to fend off, but you’ll often find that ignoring them and running to the next part of the mission is far more effective than standing your ground – although this might be a deliberate subversion of the boomer shooter norms.

Infantry troopers all look identical but there are around a dozen different bugs to fight off, most of these with different attack patterns and challenges. The massive Tankers and deadly Titans stood out as particularly difficult at times, but it is often the sheer number of bugs (and the relative scarcity of ammunition) that offers the greatest obstacle.

What does stand out, however, is the game’s overall presentation. The authenticity is helped immensely by bringing back Casper Van Dien, the star of the original movie, as a hard-nosed general version of Johnny Rico, complete with eyepatch to show his hard-won experience. The framing device used is that you are playing a training simulator based on the career of Major Sammy Dietz, a new character who feels eerily similar to the parody of a parody in Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph. Your progress through the game takes you to the main highlights of the series and culminates in a fight against the lethal assassin bug.

There are an assortment of weapons to be used from assault rifles to rocket launchers and everything in between but the gunplay feels far less satisfying than Boltgun’s. Generally switching weapons is reserved for when you run out of ammo – something which happens far too often for this sort of game. You can summon a supply drop on a cooldown and also use consumable support skills such as air strikes or calling an assault mech, but nothing feels particularly satisfying. Even the occasions when you get to pilot a mech are underwhelming as the fuel runs out incredibly quickly.

Interspersed between the missions (each of which take around 30 minutes to complete) there are attempts to emulate the propaganda media barrage of the original film, but while these are welcome they feel pretty low budget and forced at times. Games like Journey to the Savage Planet are more successful in incorporating such satirical advertising, so this feels a little underwhelming.

Speaking of underwhelming, this game proudly proclaims that it offers the first time you can play as the bugs, which sounds like an incredible addition – the reality is sadly far from a highlight. There are a series of bug missions unlocked as you progress through the relatively short human campaign but these play out as relics of action-RTS hybrids with frustrating controls, no mission variety and not much fun. You play as an assassin bug who is able to shift into different forms to fly or deal heavy damage for a limited time and have to find spawn points in the form of bug hives to add extra units to your squad, and that’s the extent of the strategy required. Attacking involves holding down the button until the enemy or building is destroyed and then moving on. In many ways, this reminded me of cancelled third person titles like Starcraft: Ghost but without the new ideas of those.