Starship Troopers was an immense film for its time 27 years ago, I remember being desperate to see it at 12 years old. Now remembered as a cult classic that blossomed a few more movies afterwards, it never quite reached the heights it probably should have. The original sailed massively under budget and was seen as a failure in terms of revenue. Never did I think we would see a video game adaptation in 2024 on consoles, but here we are. After some time in early access phases on PC, we now see the full launch of Starship Troopers: Extermination arrive on Xbox Series X|S and also Playstation 5.
This one has been on my radar for some time after enjoying Helldivers 2 on Playstation earlier in the year, many have said this has many similarities. I wish I could say it brings the same qualities and shine to the player, but unfortunately in its launch phase, it isn’t great. That said, when the game functions how it is supposed to then there is plenty of fun to be had, either solo or with a bunch of online friends.

Come Together & Fight The Bugs
The huge intrigue I had with Starship Troopers: Extermination was the 16-player co-op first-person shooter element. There isn’t anything quite like it on the market where so many can come together at once across vast terrain all fighting for the same outcome. The concept is magnificent and its execution is pretty great as well. Whilst I found content across the game to be sadly lacking, what I did play when it worked was fun. Cross-play is present so I managed to get a few of us on Xbox and a few from PC and after some tinkering around to find each other we managed to get going. Brushing aside the frustration of constant crashing, which I’m certain they will already be working to fix, we did have a blast.
Missions are pretty similar from one game to the next, push forward, and achieve the objective until you get to the last point before the dropship arrives. Here you’ll get to build a base and work together to defend it during the final waves of enemies. There are tutorials to help you understand the basics of base building and further gameplay elements. Once the dropship arrives, survive until they take off and try and ensure you’re on board for liftoff. I enjoyed how unique the base building was to the genre and I loved that people work together. For instance, a random player was manning a turret and I was able to keep reloading his ammo for him to continue slaying bugs. There are several classes to choose from and you can join a series of fire teams so that you are in separate squads of four.

How’s The Gunplay?
Whilst I enjoyed rotating through the different classes of soldiers during my time with the game, my main gripe was with the weapons. It was difficult to find a gun I was comfortable with, most had heavy recoil and never felt punchy or satisfying to use. Alongside the light and floaty feel of the weaponry, aiming down sights and firing at enemies didn’t seem to register with hits every time, though I didn’t know whether this was down to the poor game performance. Whilst there are several weapons to choose from throughout the game, there didn’t seem to be much in the way of customisation options. The little I did see if you wanted a paint job, was locked behind a paywall, which leaves a bit of a sour taste for a £41 title that feels completely unfinished.

Visuals & Audio
It pains me to be honest here as I do think this game has lots of potential when it comes to the presentation, but sadly the first impressions aren’t memorable at all. For the four consistent days of long bouts of playing, I could probably count on two hands the number of matches that finished without the game crashing. After a little research, there were suggestions of switching between performance and quality mode to prevent the crashes from occurring, but neither worked for me on an Xbox Series X. Loading into games brings blurry textures and assets popping in late along with a myriad of bugs (excuse the pun) that are instantly noticeable.
Visually I knew to expect a game of double A standards when it came to the aesthetics but with all the jank, terrible frame drops, texture issues and crashes. It really is hard to get a full picture of how this game looks when it is running well. There are some stunning backdrops against the rugged terrain and they have nailed the terror of several monstrous bugs advancing towards you, I just wish I could admire it all in a stable environment. I was surprised not to see much in the way of cosmetic unlocks apart from some frankly overpriced DLC packs which are individually tagged at around £8+ each and offer one gun skin, a banner and an avatar. When it comes to the audio, there appear to be no issues here and the design team has captured the chaos and intensity of hordes of giant-legged creatures, explosions and gunfire.

Final Thoughts
After around 20-25 hours with Starship Troopers Extermination, I wish I could recommend it for purchase. But in its current launch status, it is a bit of a mess. During my playtime, almost every single match crashed and threw me to the Xbox dashboard. During gameplay, there were endless frame drops, and textures loaded slowly, and overall, the performance is frankly terrible at present on Xbox Series X.
With this said, I’m almost certain the team will be working on bugs (excuse the pun) and other issues. When the game plays well it is an absolute blast to experience and whilst content seems lacking, there is a roadmap with more on the way. I’m rooting for this game to be something special because it is ambitious, but perhaps it should have had some rigorous beta testing on consoles before launch. I’d advise waiting for confirmation of fixes before taking the plunge.
Overall
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50%
Summary
Pros
- Playing co-operatively with 16 players is awesome
- Captures the atmosphere with so many bugs on screen coming at you at once
- Objectives encourage great teamwork
- When it functions, the game is genuinely fun to play
Cons
- Crashing on Xbox Series X almost every single game
- Performance issues in terms of bugs and frame drops
- Visually looks dated
- Content feels barebones