Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War Review
When it comes to capturing the spirit, energy and satirical tone of the 1997 cult classic Starship Troopers, Auroch Digital has done a flawless job with Ultimate Bug War. When the director of Robocop and Total Recall released Starship Troopers, it was misunderstood as a biting satire about fascist, military forward, government agendas and Ultimate Bug War carries forward this tone as the game is told through a meta narrative lens about a video game developed for the purpose of recruitment.
As someone who grew up playing every FPS I could get my hands on including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Unreal, Half Life, and everything in between, I can very much see the appeal of the Boomer Shooter as it tries to recreate these memories. Simple, fast paced and over the top fun.
The big difference between then and now, is that almost everything has been done before. It either needs to be flawlessly executed or bring something novel to the table. Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War does neither, it might check a lot of the boxes for a great Boomer Shooter, but fails to fully embrace them. There’s fun to be had, but it will likely depend on your affinity to Starship Troopers as an IP.
5.5
If you want to read the full review with more nuance and detail continue below or watch the video.
ULTIMATE BUG WAR REVIEW
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War is the latest retro FPS or “Boomer Shooter” from Auroch Digital, the team behind Boltgun and the upcoming Boltgun 2, but this time they are tackling the Starship Troopers IP, which you might be surprised to know that the series went on to produce four sequels, but you’d be right if you assumed they all were direct-to-video, which also foreshadows where we are headed as you can only go back to the well so many times.
Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War is a single player only experience that sees you fly to different parts of the universe as you try to exterminate the arachnids. One of the biggest strengths of Ultimate Bug War is its commitment to the satirical tone of the original. The highlight is the original story full of excellent FMV featuring great performances that even include Casper Van Diem, who played Johnny Rico in the 1997 film. The Games and Theory Department of the United Citizen Federation have created a faithful training simulation that recounts the battle experience of decorated soldier Samantha Dietz.
Outside of the IP, the one way that Ultimate Bug War differentiates itself is through bug missions that unlock as you complete the human missions almost like a B-side. Staying committed to the meta narrative, the idea is that to be able to fight back against the bugs, we need to better understand them. In most of the missions, you play as the Assassin bug, who has the ability to morph into three different forms: Warrior, Hopper and Tanker, which all play like what they sound like. The most interesting of the bunch is the hopper, who has a very limited flight ability, but also has the power to dive bomb onto highlighted targets.
All missions, whether human or bug, take place in semi-open world environments, which were big and provided a nice sense of scale. The human missions always began with a flyover in the dropship showcasing how large the environment was. Each mission usually has multiple objectives and these are always easy to find on the screen.
Ultimate Bug War understands that it’s a retro inspired first person shooter. You move fast, the visuals have a 90’s inspired polygonal aesthetic, the narrative is paper thin, but there is a lot of shooting bugs, which can extremely satisfying at times. There are great moments like when you get on a turret gun, get into the mech, which is fully equipped with a chainsaw or even call down bombing run support on a tanker bug. In terms of modern touches, there is an extremely forgiving checkpoint system, there is an active reload system and you also have the ability to call down a supply ordinance package which operates on a cool down. This supply package can provide a well needed boost or armor or weaponry when you need it the most.
ULTIMATE BUGS
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War might have many of the necessary boxes checked for the makings of a great boomer shooter: massive arsenal, enemy variety, non stop action, and many other areas, but it fails to execute on them.
Having an huge arsenal of over the top weapons was a signature of shooters back in the 90’s and although there 30 different weapons including mini nukes and mechs you can pilot, you will spend the large majority of your time using the standard assault rifle. The mechs also self destruct for whatever reason when they run out of gas.
Making matters worse, you and the enemies are bullet sponges. In the studios previous game, Boltgun, you were a Space Marine and being able to sustain large amounts of damage makes sense, but in Starship Troopers, you are just a normal solider with a gun. With the enemies being able to absorb as much damage as they do, it removes a lot of the impact from the weapons. One of the effects of these bullet sponges is that it felt like you are constantly running out of ammo and need to restock often. Unfortunately, these restock stations, which are indicated by the red smoke flares, were usually few and far between.
Boomer Shooters should be full of enemy variety and there are a lot of different types of bugs, but just like the weapons, the vast majority of will be the iconic warrior bug. There are the occasional huge bugs, which require massive amounts of damage, which is rote, as well as smaller enemies that are mostly annoying. Even the behaviour of the enemies is problematic as they always head straight for you despite all of the other soldiers on the battlefield.
Retro shooters were about non stop action, but the mission structure and level design in Starship Troopers isn’t conducive to that experience. The majority of missions require you to go somewhere to push a button, defend from a horde, then rinse and repeat that formula. It’s mundane and unfortunately most missions revolve around the same structure, but with a slightly different backdrop. They also went on for far too long with an average missions taking around 30 minutes. For reference, Doom, the grand daddy of all first person shooters had an average mission time of well under five minutes.
Aside from failing on many of the aspects of Boomer Shooter essentials, the biggest failing was the omission of co-op, as this likely would've been a saving grace for Ultimate Bug War as you and a friend could blast hordes of bugs. It would have ensured that at least one other soldier on the battlefield was doing their part.
Final Thoughts & Score
If Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War released alongside the movie in 1997, it might be revered today. The commitment to tone was admirable, as the story was uniquely told through the lens of video game military propaganda, the FMV’s were excellent, and there were moments of pure first person shooting bliss.
Unfortunately, poor mission structure, unsatisfying weapons and lack of variety relegated Ultimate Bug War to just another average Boomer Shooter, which is disappointing after the studios great work on Boltgun, which has a better soundtrack, visual identity and gameplay. For most people, there are better options, but if you’re right in the middle of the Venn diagram between boomer shooter and Starship Troopers, then enlist right away because Ultimate Bug War will be your Utopia.
