Preview: Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! Is Perfectly Attuned To The 1997 Cult Classic And Retro Shooters

The first-person shooter has evolved rapidly over the years since it broke out with titles like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. The overarching narratives have gotten more complex, the underlying gameplay has become more nuanced, and the visual styles have become more inventive. Even as modern developers have pushed the genre into exciting and unexpected directions, there’s still an underlying connection to the history of the genre and how it’s simply a lot of fun to shoot monsters and feel like a hero.

No recent game has quite understood that as well as Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!, which indulges in the gameplay touches of something like Quake while still benefiting from modern quality-of-life improvements. Auroch Digital released a demo for the game that highlighted the sheer scale of the action and the underlying satirical tone of the source material. The result is a game that feels like it was plucked out of a time capsule in the best of ways and a great new FPS for fans looking for a little less complexity in their bug hunts.

Ultimate Bug War! Is A Throwback To Older Generations Of FPS Gameplay

Auroch Digital’s retro FPS-inspired Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a bombastic blast from the past that is a perfect companion piece to their earlier shooters like Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. Set within the world established by the cult classic film, Starship Troopers, players take on the role of Mobile Infantry grunt Sammy Dietz. In the one mission made available for players, Sammy is tasked with helping protect Zegema Beach — revealed to be both an idyllic vacation destination and the site of a major weapons developer — from an onslaught of Arachnids laying siege to the area.

The “Bug” armies are giant bullet sponges, whose insectoid alien design makes them a clear target amid all the chaos of a battle. The gameplay is a throwback to older generations of FPS games, with plenty of enemies racing towards the player and serving as training practice. The large map has a vivid sense of color, helping make the purposefully blocky graphics pop. The result is a decidedly retro experience that’s a blast to dive into, similar to the way the developer’s previous title, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, was so much fun. There’s a sense of highly kinetic movement and nonstop action that feels reminiscent of the earlier Doom games, all expanded upon by the broader sense of scale and scope that modern game design can allow.

The retro vibes extend to the weapon choices and gameplay style, with a handful of machine guns, rifles, and grenades making appearances in the game. It’s not the most difficult experience, with Sammy’s natural speed and impressive armor making her a particularly tough fighter. The liberal ammo and health placements also ensure that players get plenty of chances to deploy mech suits. Even a section towards the end of the level where the player is ordered to hold a relay dish from an onslaught of bugs is fairly straightforward. So long as you don’t allow yourself to be surrounded, it’s pretty easy to run and jump to success. That overpowered commando gameplay is part of the inherent appeal, however, as it fits nearly into the tone of the film that inspired it.

Doing Your Part

What helps further separate Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! from other FPS games is the decidedly dark satire just under the surface. The 1997 Starship Troopers film presented itself as a cheesy sci-fi action film but quietly contained a lot of deceitfully cutting commentary about the military-industrial complex, fascism, and imperialism. While most of this satire is clearest in the pre-level cutscene that alternates between the tone of a timeshare pitch and a serious mission briefing, there’s still an undercurrent of that tone throughout the FPS gameplay. The game does a solid job of recreating that effect, with the beach resort vibes of the military base and piles of slaughtered civilians doing little to undercut the bravado of Sammy or the triumphant score.

Cutting down unnamed allied soldiers with friendly fire is almost a necessity to fight back against the hordes, leaving unconcerned soldiers exploding into big bursts of red pixels all around you. Sammy’s gung-ho attitude only adds to the deceptively brutal gameplay, taking it just to the line of outright parody without ever losing sight of the underlying enjoyment of the gameplay. That overpowered commando gameplay is part of the inherent appeal, however, as it fits nearly into the tone of the film that inspired it. Casper Van Dien even reprises his role as Johnny Rico, now a General who gives a bit of flavor and exposition before the mission begins.

That tone fits the over-the-top action gameplay and non-stop violence, with the NPCs spouting patriotic nonsense while getting themselves killed, and feels right at home with the source material. In that sense, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a real success on two fronts. On the one hand, it’s a solid adaptation of the film series that understands the satirical heart that made it so enduring. On the other hand, it’s a gloriously fun throwback to an older generation of shooters, where the combat is simplified but no less frantic. Feeling like the game tie-in that 1997 wasn’t quite prepared to give the film, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a delight for fans of the movie, old shooters, and bombastic games in general.