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Kill lots of bugs, and maybe report them? | Early Access Review - Starship Troopers: Extermination

1K View2023-05-21

Starship Troopers: Extermination

9.6

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Starship Troopers: Extermination invites players for an early access to join the ranks of the elite Deep Space Vanguard Troopers in an all-out war against the Arachnid menace.

🟩Pros

+Authentic Starship Troopers experience

+Engaging class-based gameplay

+Multi-phase mission structure

+Challenging base building and defending action

+Fun cooperative gameplay

🟥Cons

-Limited content for now

-Outdated graphics

-Performance and bugs that comes with being in Early Access

Starship Troopers: Extermination 16 player co-op FPS for PC that has just recently been released in early access. Players can experience the thrill of battling hordes of bugs alongside fellow troopers.

Right from the start, Starship Troopers: Extermination immerses players in the world of the iconic sci-fi franchise. The game captures the essence of the movies with its attention to detail, including propaganda ads for its presentation that create an immersive atmosphere portraying the Starship Troopers universe. The sounds of the guns, radio chatter, and the relentless waves of Bugs charging towards the team all contribute to the feeling of being part of the action. Players will really feel like they’re part of the movies.

The cooperative nature of Starship Troopers: Extermination allows players to squad up and take on the Arachnid threat together, bringing the teamwork and camaraderie that is integral to the Starship Troopers universe. The experience so far has been a very positive one, with the community having an amazing population of players that are in on it, and just purely embraces the team-based fun that is the game.

Starship Troopers: Extermination features a class-based system for the players, which offers three distinct roles: Hunter, Bastion, and Operator. The Hunter class excels at mobility, utilizing a jetpack to navigate the battlefield with ease. Bastions, on the other hand, are the fortified tanks of the squad, boasting heavier armor and the ability to deploy an instant 360-degree shield for impromptu defenses. Operators focus on objectives, providing support to the team through healing and reviving fallen comrades.

Each class has its own progression system, unlocking various abilities, weapons, items, and perks. This adds depth to the gameplay and encourages players to experiment with different classes and playstyles. Whether you prefer swift mobility, robust defense, or vital support, there's a class that suits your preferred style of play, and there's something else to play if you get tired of your own playstyle.

Starship Troopers: Extermination features a multi-phase mission structure that keeps the gameplay fresh and engaging. The offensive, defensive, and survival phases offer different objectives and challenges for players to overcome. During the offensive phase, players undertake randomized objectives such as securing landing zones, capturing territories, repairing structures, or delivering resources .

The ARC objective at the end introduces a frantic base building element that adds an exciting layer of strategy and urgency. Players must construct defenses within a tight time limit, creating an adrenaline-fueled experience as they scramble to fortify their position against the incoming hordes of Bugs, making players move faster than they can think .

The feeling of successfully defending the base, especially on higher difficulties, is satisfying and amplified by the cooperative nature of the game. Even if your team fails the objective, the game still continues and gives the players a chance to escape the level alive, not entirely wasting the session.

However, it's worth noting that the building system controls may require some adjustment. Initially, the controls may feel unintuitive compared to other PC games with base building elements, leading to occasional mispresses and misclicks. While this is a minor inconvenience, it could be improved to provide a smoother experience for players.

After reaching rank 5 which is currently the max, you can now queue the slower base building / defending focused mission type. This is basically the third phase of the first mission but is focused on giving players a non-frantic base building gameplay.

As said earlier, The gameplay feels like I'm part of Starship Troopers. The sounds of the guns, the radio chatter, the hordes of bugs coming to get your team, mowing down these bugs with guns in full auto is surprisingly a better experience than I expected.

Starship Troopers: Extermination only features one map and two mission archetypes so far, but with dynamic sub-objectives and time of day (night time is amazing). Many of the gameplay elements are currently tagged as coming soon or in-development at the moment, such as missions, weapons, perks, and items.

As with many early access titles, Starship Troopers: Extermination does have a few — possibly temporary — shortcomings. The lack of text chat and limited customization options can hinder communication and personalization.

I’ve also encountered some literal (software) bugs such as delayed sound of guns firing, or clipping through objects or structures. Nevertheless, it's encouraging to know that the developers have plans to expand the game with more game modes and additional locations or planets to explore.

The graphics are honestly not modern looking, and look much closer to PS3-level graphics than PS5. However, it doesn’t detract that much from the overall experience which is about bringing cooperative Starship Troopers experience to combat hordes of bugs.

The game can easily render hundreds of enemy bugs at a time and with a whopping 16 player max coop, the game is a blast to play. It’s worth noting though that the game currently has both a very high ceiling and a very low floor in terms of performance. Reaching up to 300 FPS in my i7-8700k, RTX 3080 PC in low intensive scenes, while tanking the performance down to below 60fps when the screen is filled with enemy bugs, effects, and explosions.

Overall, the game is already fun to play even with its highly repetitive form, especially if you're playing this with friends. As long as you don’t expect a lot of variety when it comes to the maps and missions, as it only features one map and two missions for now.

Conclusion:

Starship Troopers: Extermination delivers an authentic and thrilling cooperative FPS experience set in the Starship Troopers universe. With its class-based gameplay, engaging mission structure, and immersive atmosphere, it successfully captures the essence of the franchise. Although there are some early access hiccups, such as the unintuitive building system controls and limited content, the game remains enjoyable, especially when played with friends. It has just released in Early Access, so it will only get better.

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Starship Troopers: Extermination

9.6

Get

Would you like to know more? | Early Access Impressions - Starship Troopers: Extermination

Starship Troopers: Extermination is a 16 player co-op FPS for PC that has just recently been released in early access. Players can experience the thrill of battling hordes of bugs alongside fellow troopers. The cooperative nature of Starship Troopers: Extermination allows players to squad up and take on the Arachnid threat together, bringing the teamwork and camaraderie that is integral to the Starship Troopers universe. The experience so far has been a very positive one, with the community having an amazing population of players that are in on it, and just purely embraces the team-based fun that is the game.

lyndonguitar2K2023-05-21