Starship Troopers is a cult classic sci-fi movie that until around a month ago I hadn’t actually watched. I’m pretty sure my dad told me it was great when I was growing up, but I guess I thought I’d lose my moody teenager street cred if I actually listened to him. Well despite it being mother’s day as I write this, I have to admit that daddy knew best. Even today it stands up as a banger of a laser action romp, especially thanks to the cheeky propaganda sprinkled throughout that feels more real than ever before. Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War captures the charm of the 90s classic, as well as being a fun and frantic FPS throwback.
The story behind Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War is that it’s a video game designed by the United Citizen Federation to recruit more Citizens for war. It tells the tale of Samantha Dietz, a soldier who fought in the bug wars across both our planet and that of the aliens. Between missions there are FMV cutscenes featuring Dietz and General Johnny Rico from the 1997 movie, explaining the situation and generally trying to encourage enlistment throughout. You’ll also get slightly deranged propaganda and adverts alongside these, which are always entertaining. It’s the perfect setup for the franchise, and adds some colour between blasting various insects.
You’ll spend most of your time in the trenches with your trusty firearms though. Ultimate Bug War is a gloriously retro FPS experience, with fast paced action and hundreds of invertebrates to blast into green goo. Getting around is easy with a particularly swift sprint, jumping with added ledge climbing, and even a slide. More importantly though the gunplay feels great, albeit without some of those modern conveniences like the ability to aim down sights.
There’s a nice arsenal of weapons at your disposal in your war against the creepy crawly menace, with constant streams of machine guns, shotguns and snipers thrown your way. Often these aren’t quite powerful enough to take on armoured bugs or nests though, and you’ll need to throw grenades of two types at your foes. There are few things as satisfying as the squelch of a perfectly thrown grenade into a nest hole, and I promise that’s a lot less sexy than it sounds.
There’s only so much ammo and explosives that you can hold in battle, and with constant streams of insects scuttling your way you don’t want to be caught empty handed. Thankfully the army always has your back, and with the throw of a flare you can call in a supply drop full of all the weapons, health and armour you require. You can also find other forms of aerial support, like massive bombings, clouds of deadly phosphorus, or electric pylons perfect for defending an area. It’s all very Helldivers 2, in the best possible way.
The old school gunplay is a lot of fun, but it’s actually the structure of missions that makes Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War really engaging. Each level of the game takes place across a massive map swarming with friends and foes, and you’re given three different objectives to tackle in an order of your choosing. You’ll need to make your own way to each point of interest, and as you journey you’ll find plenty of resistance (alongside powerful weapons or secrets if you’re lucky). Admittedly a lot of the objectives involve a lot of defending areas from bugs, but there’s no fail state other than death to worry about so this isn’t as frustrating as it sounds.
If Ultimate Bug War was made up exclusively of these missions it would be a great game, but there’s a whole other alternate campaign to complete alongside it. These stages put you in charge of the bugs, which will hopefully help the Federation better understand their powerful foes. You play as an assassin bug that can charge, fly and shoot out fire to decimate human encampments, and you can summon extra allies and heal by activating nests around the map. These destructive levels all admittedly feel rather similar and involve a lot of smashing and running, but they’re still a wonderful change of pace.
When you’re done with all the campaign missions you’ll still find plenty to do. There are four difficulty levels to take on if you’re feeling particularly brave, or if you’d rather do something more exploratory you can look for secrets. Finding secrets unlocks different cheat modifiers and bonus content, with everything from extra gore to creator commentary available to access for eagle eyed citizens.
There’s so much to love about this delightful Starship Troopers game, but it has a few small issues. There are a lot of very similar machine guns, and I found myself wishing for a bit more weapon variety. The enemy variety isn’t particularly expansive either, with around six or seven main types of insects you’ll encounter across the whole game.
Despite releasing twenty nine years after the first movie, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War is the exact game I’d want to play in its universe. The vibe of the sci-fi franchise is captured perfectly, and the action is good old fashioned fun from start to finish. If you want to prove your loyalty to the Federation then this is the only way to do so in the comfort of your own home, so make your family proud and enlist today.
