Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! Review – Failed to Capture the Chaos of the Movie

Starship Troopers is a fiercely nostalgic series for those of us old enough to remember life before the internet. There have also been several attempts at turning it into a gaming franchise, but none of those attempts have really hit home for me.

Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is an attempt to recapture the essence of video games from the ’90s, while also capturing the chaotic fun from the movie. So, how does it do on these fronts? Let’s have a look, shall we?

Something’s Missing

Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War is a single-player FPS “Boomer Shooter” developed by Auroch Digital and published by Dotemu and Game Source Entertainment. It’s also worth mentioning that I really want this game to be good.

It’s an awesome experience seeing members of the original cast acting in a video game, and these early moments are fun. We’re then thrown into some basic training (when you get there, don’t shoot at any of your fellow soldiers, trust me), which is a bit of a confusing mess, but it does get the core gameplay mechanics across.

We then get to go to war against the bugs, and I honestly enjoyed the first battle; it was a fun time. It felt chaotic at first, like the movie does, but then I did start to get used to it. I played a couple of missions as the assassin bug, which is a really overpowered bug, and then went back to the human missions.

It’s around this point that I realized this game simply isn’t for me. It starts with the graphics and goes all the way down to the game design.

The graphics are meant to be nostalgic, harking back to a simpler time with a ’90s aesthetic. The problem is, there’s a reason we left this style in the ’90s. It’s simply not a pretty game, and I feel like the graphics could have been a lot more polished without entirely losing the nostalgic feel.

Then there’s the sound and effects. There’s simply no satisfying feedback when killing bugs. There’s a bit of a screenshake, but the sound is kind of flat, the effects look like they do belong in the 90s, and it’s all across the board just a flat attempt at creating a Starship Troopers game, at least for me.

It’s also a mindless type of game. There’s no real strategy, just run and gun. See a mission marker, run towards it, complete the mission, and go home. That’s how it cycles, and I didn’t see too much variation.

Should You Buy Ultimate Bug War?

If you’re a fan of the series or a big fan of retro shooters, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War might be worth a go. The only time I would absolutely recommend this game is if you could team up with your friends and crank up the difficulty to max. That would be a fun time.

Sadly, there’s no multiplayer in the game at launch, and no mention of plans to implement it. So, for a very niche audience, this might be a good buy. For the majority of gamers, however, it simply won’t hit the mark.

Verdict

Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War is an okay game. It does nothing special, but it doesn’t completely fail at being a game, either. It’s a middle-of-the-road retro shooter that you can tuck into for a few hours if you miss the ’90s.

Apart from that, the game really doesn’t have much going for it. Fans of the original movie will enjoy seeing some of the cast act in the game, but there’s not much to it beyond that. It’s just a plain old retro FPS.

5.5

Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!

Overall it's a dead average game. It can be fun for a few hours, it's certainly fun to see the cast of the original movie, but overall it just doesn't do anything special. It's a decent pickup for rabid fans of the original movie, but beyond that I don't see it catching on.

Pros

• Mindless fun
• Higher difficulties introduce some chaos

Cons

• No multiplayer in a game that needs it
• The fun wears off quickly
• Feels dated beyond just being retro themed

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PC.