If there was ever a movie that was perfect for the videogame treatment, it would be this. So, it’s shocking that it’s taken until 2024 to finally get a full-fat multiplayer FPS set in the Starship Troopers universe. And, when news of Starship Troopers: Extermination dropped, you can bet your bottom dollar I was ready to do my part.

Canadian studio Offworld Industries have given Starship Troopers the Hell Divers treatment, releasing in early access on PC in 2023. The early access did see a bit of buzz around it, even though it was rough around the edges. But, then its inspiration dropped a sequel, and Hell Divers 2 stole all the limelight.

Starship Troopers: Extermination bug types

Expectant fans were hungry for that last-man-standing, fighting-the-horde experience, and, in a lot of ways, Extermination does deliver that. However, it’s more like a home-brand cola version than the real deal.

“No, We Have Starship Troopers at Home”

Starship Troopers: Extermination is simple. Kill bugs and never stop. That’s it. No more and no less. You fill the boots of a trooper who gets dropped into everchanging battlefields and other locations. Here, you’ll be tasked with three core objectives.

Build a base and defend it, while some machine does something. Collect stuff from a machine and bring it back to the base. Or, dig in and fight waves of bugs. While this is rudimentary, it does deliver that Starship Troopers feel.

There are six core Trooper classes to pick from. Sniper, Ranger, Demolisher, Guardian, Engineer, and Medic. Each has their own weapons and kit to make them feel different, and each have a different role to play when planet side.

Starship Troopers: Extermination base building boss battle

In the relentless heat of battle, you will blast numerous types of bugs, including Drone, Warrior, Gunner, Plasma Grenadier, and Tiger Elite. Even more bugs planned to be added as development continues. Brain Bugs and Flying Drones may well join the fight at some point.

Losing that Charm

Most players will play the game online where it loses a lot of the charm of the movies beyond a few nods and winks. You play as faceless cannon fodder, literally. You have a helmet on with a mirrored visor, and your life is as disposable as a paper handkerchief.

Starship Troopers: Extermination planet battle

Outside the online mode and a training scenario, there is also a single-player mode of sorts. Here, you tackle unique missions based in different environments. They aren’t particularly inspired, but they do offer more Trooper content in the form of a canon depiction of General Rico.

Casper Van Dien even reprises his role from the movie and spin-offs in Starship Troopers: Extermination. This should be a highlight, but, sadly, Van Dien makes a lifeless and unenthused go of it.

Somewhat Functional in Limited Ways

Gameplay, at its core is fine and functional. Left trigger aims down sights. Right trigger fires. Everything else beyond that is rough. Visual glitches, clipping, hard crashes, Starship Troopers: Extermination struggles to work at times, and soils what joy it can muster with endless irritating issues when it does kinda work.

Starship Troopers vessel name evacuation

It can sometimes feel like you are fighting Starship Troopers: Extermination more than the bugs. Or that Starship Troopers: Extermination has to battle a particularly hordesome horde of bugs just to into a match and keep it running. The overall performance is dreadful; dropped frames and spooling are almost guaranteed during more intense moment. I have even had 5-to-6 second freezes in the middle of a fight.

A Hot Mess

I wanted to like Starship Troopers: Extermination, but it’s a hot mess. It’s not even a ‘point at it and laugh mess’, it’s just sad. This review is a few weeks late as I felt it was only fair to give the devs some fix some issues. However, even with patches and updates, the core issues still persist.

This is a shocking state to release a game in in this day and age. It’s even more shocking knowing that Starship Troopers: Extermination was in early access on the PC, and for a good year before it hit the consoles.

Unwitting fans may see this on a shelf or on a digital storefront, and in its current state I feel sorry for Troopers fans who, desperate for some content to consume, pick this up.

Starship Troopers: Extermination mode FPS multiplayer PvE

There is a good game here in Starship Troopers: Extermination, buried deep under a bewildering number of bugs and issues. However, the current state of the game is truly shocking and it’s often hard to find the good.