With Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!, developers Auroch Digital have captured some of the feel of the cult 1997 film. With a truncated campaign and bland objectives, though, this tie-in is underwhelming compared to their previous work.
Paul Verhoeven’s satirical masterpiece Starship Troopers has had quite the renaissance in recent years, as its critique of boneheaded xenophobia and fascist militarism sadly become ever more relevant. In an era when tie-in, licensed videogames have shed much of their toxicity, Starship Troopers – its connection with Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 novel largely forgotten – has got in on the action recently, with strategy game Terran Command and the co-op shooter Extermination.
Previously previewed here in February, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is the latest addition to this stable, and takes the form of a retro-style shooter. Like Phantom Fury before it, this is an FPS indebted to the games of the early 2000s, a rich vein of influence to mine.
The main campaign puts players in the boots of Sammy Dietz, a rookie private signed up to the Mobile Infantry with the aim of smashing alien bugs and earning citizenship of the Federation. The seven missions run parallel to the events of Verhoeven’s film, and take in some of its locations including the bug homeworld Klendathu and the arid Planet P. The closest Ultimate Bug War! gets to the on-screen adventures of Johnny Rico and his grunts is at the endgame, when Dietz’s mission occurs at the same time as the capture of the brain bug.
The Buenos Aires missions are some of the more creative and distinctive ones
Unfortunately, the story is a complete bust. The only thread which ostensibly connects the seven missions is the pursuit of the “assassin bug”, a shapeshifting critter which kills one of Dietz’s war buddies early on. This idea is fatally undermined by the fact that this comrade is never seen on screen and therefore means nothing at all to the player. In fact, much of the plot, such as it is, hinges on unseen events.
The slightly more successful narrative element is the live-action cutscenes, which feature Casper Van Dien returning to the role of Rico. These are an admirable stab at replicating the satire of Verhoeven’s film, especially because they situate the entire game as a combination training simulator and propaganda exercise for the Federation. Score highly enough, and the player too can sign up for a prestigious posting with the MI.
In almost all respects, the gameplay of Ultimate Bug War! is strictly adequate. The guns are fairly satisfying, the bugs are plentiful and explode gorily. Tactical weapons, which recall Call of Duty killstreaks, can be very satisfying to use – especially the guided missile strike which makes quick work of formidable bug species and creates enormous mushroom clouds. Powerful mechs, which never made it into the film, can be used by Dietz and are fun to use until their sadly small fuel tanks are spent, at which point they self-destruct.
Unfortunately, Auroch Digital chose a spacious, open approach for all seven missions – presumably an effort to replicate the large-scale battles of the film – and this was arguably a mistake for a few reasons.
The enemy and particularly ally AI is in no way up to the task of navigating these environments convincingly. Often, whole packs of bugs can simply be ignored, as Dietz can easily sprint around them towards the next objective. Auroch seem to have realised this, as key battles trap the player into contrived arenas to force a confrontation. At these points, the sky changes to an ominous colour for the duration of the fight, as if to signal – this is where you have to fight properly, Dietz.
The player can add Mobile Infantry allies to a squad, but this is almost entirely pointless. The MI grunts are scarcely smarter than an imp was in Doom 30 years ago, and are constantly getting in the way. It is fortunate that new soldiers are forever being dropped in to assist, as sometimes it can seem that the player is blowing more of them apart than the bugs are. It is easy to wish that Auroch had gone for a design like Brothers in Arms, fighting alongside a squad that the player cares about in battles that are more linear, and more dramatic. There is something sadly loose and unsatisfying about these sprawling, open missions.
Some of the tactical weapons are genuinely spectacular, and easily turn the tide of key battles.
Startlingly, the seven missions can be tackled in something like three hours. As if to bulk up the experience, Auroch have also added a handful of bug missions, presented as simulations in which the player controls an assassin bug and wreaks havoc on Federation facilities. These feel disappointingly half-baked and inconsequential, and more human missions would have been much more desirable.
There are times when Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! briefly shines and these tend to be in those instances where it deviates from and complements the film. Two missions are set on Earth, specifically in the shattered ruins of Buenos Aires following the devastating bug strike which killed Rico’s parents. These locations feel more novel and distinctive, but still the loose, open structure and uninteresting objectives – get to this point, defend this point from bugs – undermine the experience.
Auroch Digital made one of the best retro shooters of recent years with the excellent Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. Sadly, Ultimate Bug War! never gets close to that level of quality. Its threadbare story, bland objectives, poor AI, short campaign, and especially its loose mission structure are serious problems which no level of love for the film can compensate for.
