Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — A CITIZEN’S DUTY TO EXTERMINATE BUGS Would you like to know more? I enlisted in Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! expecting to defend humanity against the most vicious, disgusting, eight-legged menace the galaxy has ever produced. Instead, I discovered something far more terrifying: The campaign ended. That's right, citizens. After years of preparation, rigorous training, patriotic indoctrination, and purchasing the game with my hard-earned Federation credits, I was deployed to the front lines— —and then command told me: “Good job, Trooper. That's all the war we have.” THAT'S ALL?! Do you have any idea how many bugs are still alive?! The Federation has billions of citizens, an infinite supply of propaganda, and enough ammunition to level a small moon, and you're telling me we've only got this many missions?! THE GOOD NEWS: BUGS ARE STILL VERY SHOOTABLE Ultimate Bug War! is exactly the sort of gloriously stupid, violently patriotic retro FPS that the Federation would develop after deciding that subtlety was an enemy of democracy. The game absolutely nails the presentation. Johnny Rico is back. The propaganda is back. The absurd military enthusiasm is back. The bugs are back. And, most importantly, the bugs are still extremely killable. You get guns. Lots of guns. The bugs get legs. You can probably see where this is going. The combat is fast, crunchy, ridiculous and satisfying in precisely the way a Starship Troopers game should be. There is something deeply therapeutic about standing in front of an advancing wall of Arachnids and responding to their carefully coordinated military offensive with the strategic deployment of AN ENTIRE MAGAZINE DIRECTLY INTO THEIR FACES. Military science has truly peaked. THE PROPAGANDA IS WORKING The presentation is one of the game's biggest strengths. Everything is presented with the enthusiastic confidence of a government that has absolutely no interest in letting you know how badly the war is actually going. You are not being sent into a hopeless battlefield. You are being sent into a GLORIOUS OPPORTUNITY FOR CITIZENSHIP. You are not surrounded by thousands of hostile insects. You are experiencing AN EXCELLENT TRAINING EXERCISE. You are not screaming internally because twelve bugs just climbed over the wall. You are demonstrating TACTICAL INITIATIVE. And if you happen to die? Well, citizen, perhaps you should have exercised more initiative. BUT THERE IS ONE SMALL PROBLEM... I WANT MORE. No, Federation Command, I am not suffering from exhaustion. I am suffering from insufficient bug extermination. The campaign is so much fun that finishing it produces the peculiar sensation of being handed a delicious steak, taking one bite, and then having a government official appear and say: “Congratulations! You have completed your nutritional requirement.” I HAVE NOT COMPLETED MY NUTRITIONAL REQUIREMENT. I have barely begun eating. Give me more planets. Give me more missions. Give me bigger swarms. Give me stranger bugs. Give me increasingly irresponsible weapons. Give me a mission where the entire objective is simply: “There are approximately 40,000 bugs in this valley. Make the number smaller.” I will accept this mission. I will complete this mission. I will die completing this mission. And I will do it FOR THE FEDERATION. BUG MODE? MORE LIKE BUG MODE: PLEASE MAKE IT LONGER The ability to play from the Bug perspective is a fantastic idea, and naturally it raises the most important question any responsible citizen should ask: WHY IS THERE NOT MORE OF IT? If you're going to let me become an enormous murder-insect capable of turning Federation soldiers into organic confetti, I would like this privilege to last considerably longer. Give me an entire Bug campaign. Let me evolve. Let me unlock increasingly horrifying biological weapons. Let me command swarms. Let me destroy increasingly ridiculous human fortifications. Let me become the reason some terrified Federation propaganda announcer has to go on television and explain that everything is completely under control while an enormous bug is actively eating the broadcast studio behind him. WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE? YES. THAT IS LITERALLY THE PROBLEM. FINAL VERDICT Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a fantastic little slice of Federation-approved bug genocide. It's funny, it's fast, it's suitably ridiculous, and it captures the spirit of the movie wonderfully. The presentation is dripping with propaganda, the combat is satisfying, and every part of the experience makes you want to scream: “COME ON YOU APES! YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER?!” My only serious complaint is that I DON'T WANT TO BE DONE YET. I want more. More missions. More planets. More bugs. More weapons. More propaganda. More Johnny Rico. More opportunities to commit heroic acts of violence in the name of vaguely defined democratic principles. The Federation has apparently determined that this is enough war for one soldier. I DISAGREE WITH THE FEDERATION. And since I am a loyal citizen, I shall be submitting my official request for additional content immediately. Not because I am dissatisfied. Not because the game isn't excellent. But because THE BUGS HAVE NOT BEEN COMPLETELY EXTERMINATED. And until the last Arachnid has been reduced to paste, my service is incomplete. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Would enlist again. Would request DLC. Would happily pay for an unreasonable amount of additional bug-killing content. FOR THE FEDERATION. FOR DEMOCRACY. FOR CITIZENSHIP. FOR GOD'S SAKE, GIVE ME MORE BUGS.

Excellent retro FPS action from a developer experienced in the art! I'll break the more in-depth review into two parts: gameplay and authenticity Gameplay This is a retro FPS game. Based on the gameplay and graphics, I'd place it more in the N64 era where polygon-heavy enemies and scenery still coexisted with lots of sprites. Except obviously this game does not have any of the limits of the N64. The levels are absolutely enormous, there are mulitple objectives for each stage, and they change during gameplay. This simulates that this is a large-scale war, and running into fellow soldiers is normal. Difficulty-wise, this game can get very hard, very fast. That's fairly normal for retro FPS titles. This developer likes to add god mode and unlimited ammo cheats into the game's menu, which is useful if you're enjoying the game and suddenly get overwhelmed by bugs. The game does not penalize you for using these cheats. I like having them this easily available, because if we're emulating games we played in the past, we all knew the cheat codes to the games we played, and there ususally were no consequences to using them. If you wanted a challenge, that was up to you. The same can be said of this game. If you're reading this review, you're probably here for sci-fi bug-killing mayhem. The game totally delivers. Authenticity Extremely authentic to THE MOVIE (not the novel). Casper Van Dien, who played main character Rico in the movie, returns in many of the game's cutscenes. The game immediately breaks the fourth wall, and identifies you as a person playing a video game...a person in the starship troopers universe. The CSs immediately introduce the game as having been developed by the government as a recreation of one soldier's experiences in the war. Not long into the game (and believe me, this is not a spoiler), it's farily clear that the game was intended as propaganda, and as a way to glorify military service to attract young prospective soldiers, and to instill loyalty in children along with the dream to one day serve. The CSs are obvious propaganda and can become over-the-top, and at the same time, come off as effective and well designed (in universe) as well as heavily sarcastic in that we know the Terran Federation is not a kind government. Your character and others talk throughout the game, and while the violence in the game definitely qualifies as over-the-top, the actual gameplay portrays a more or less serious story. The game itself does not play like propaganda, though it does trivialize certain aspects of war in a way that will make you smile (a dying soldier saying "I didn't want to live forever anyway!"). This is hardly a game you'll dump hundreds of hours into, but it has exciting single-player bug smashing along with secrets that enable new options to mutate gameplay. Oh, and there are several side-missions that allow you to play as one of the bugs, fighting alongside the other bugs. If you're still reading this review, just go ahead and play the game already. You'll love it.

One of the best movie to game adaptations ever made. Got to relive my childhood with this game. Love the movie and this game. Hopefully they make DLC expansions and a sequel. This game a lot of fun.