The Starship Troopers universe has been no stranger to being represented in various forms of art since the first book was written decades ago. While the most famous adaptation of the novel is Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 film, we’ve seen quite a few games over the years take major inspiration from the story, from the insectoid Zerg in StarCraft to the Tyranids of Warhammer 40,000, to more recent games like Helldivers 2 using similar forms of satire and style for its storytelling and tone. Tapping into similar themes of the latter, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a new shooter by Auroch Digital—a studio we’ve seen previously flex its boomer shooter credentials with Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun.
First and foremost, one of the most fun things about Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is its presentation. Even with its main menu, Auroch Digital has focused on recreating a fun interface where, rather than simply picking from a list of options for “New Game”, you get to click on various parts of your home base to access the appropriate sub menus. This is also where you get the first major twist of the game: there are separate modes for playing as humans and as the bugs. But we’ll get to that aspect later on.
"While ostensibly a boomer shooter, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! takes its game design cues from more recent releases."
As for the game itself, its story revolves around essentially being a work of interactive propaganda. Various cutscenes from throughout the game—fully acted out by real people—make no secret of Ultimate Bug War being an in-universe game that was released by the Federation to further boost enlistment efforts in the never-ending war against bugs. To achieve this, the main plot is structured around being like a loose parody of old-school action movies, complete with all the violence and melodrama that was endemic to the genre.
While ostensibly a boomer shooter, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! takes its game design cues from more recent releases. Its structure, while still level-based, revolves around throwing you into larger levels with a number of different objectives that you are then encouraged to tackle in just about any order you might want. All of these objectives tend to be part of a larger overarching plot about how the Federation is on the back foot thanks to the bugs being on the offensive, and culminate in a larger setpiece-styled objective that caps off the level.
The second-to-second gameplay is just about what you’d expect: fast-paced action that will keep you on your toes thanks to the tendency of the bugs to surround you from just about every direction. Since Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a callback to an older style of shooter, there is also no regeneration for your health or shields. If you run low on either, you’ll either have to explore the map to find pickups, or call down some supplies. The combat never really gets boring thanks to enemy health being in a good spot between tanky and fragile. Most standard enemies, like warrior bugs, will go down in around 15 bullets from your full-auto gun. More specialized bugs, however, like tankers or archers, will take up more of your ammo.
Enemy variety is also decent, with the game constantly throwing a mix of warrior bugs and aphids to constantly chase you down for melee attacks, while archers will often take up vantage points at a distance to bombard you with projectiles. Every once in a while, you’ll also get to fight much more challenging enemies, like centurions or tankers, that will require more in the way of tactics. These fights can often become frantic enough to force you into using up your more powerful attacks, like an airstrike, or the last bit of ammo in your high-power sniper rifle.
"The second-to-second gameplay is just about what you’d expect: fast-paced action that will keep you on your toes thanks to the tendency of the bugs to surround you from just about every direction."
Speaking of which, there are plenty of weapons and toys to play with. Missions will throw you into a map with nothing more than a Morita Assault Rifle with an underslung shotgun for some extra support. Exploring the map, however, will often result in more choices, which can range from carbines to burst-fire rifles, sniper rifles, or my personal favorite, the shotgun. Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is one of those games where shotguns feel incredibly satisfying to use thanks to a mix of sound design, visual feedback, and the fact that they can take out most warrior bugs in a single shot. While you can only have two regular weapons equipped at any given time, you also get a third slot dedicated to special weapons. While also fun to use, the implementation of these special weapons is one of my major gripes with the gameplay.
Whenever you pick one up, you HAVE to use it. You can’t put it away for the time being and switch to your regular weapons to clear out hordes of standard enemies. Switching weapons will make you drop the special one, and while this would be fine in any other game, the sheer amount of chaos and bloodshed you experience in a typical encounter in Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! means that you’ll also ultimately misplace it. This means that either you have to spend precious time to find a good, memorable hiding place for your special weapons while hordes of warriors and aphids are at your heels, or you’ll simply have to use it up to deal with the current threat, rather than saving it for a tanker or something.
Movement is another area where Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! seems to have a mechanic in place just for the sake of being an annoyance to players. While running and jumping around as you would in a boomer shooter typically works fine, there’s also a sprint button that allows you to cover large distances more quickly. However, the sprint is tied to a stamina bar, which, when depleted, knocks you back into your regular running speed.
While far from a bad mechanic on its own, the annoying part is the fact that leaving the sprint key alone results in all of your stamina regenerating in a second or two. This means that, every ten seconds or so, you’ll simply have to stop sprinting for a quick moment before you can continue along your way. Again, this wouldn’t really be an issue in a game designed around more linear levels. However, the large, open maps of Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! means that your attempts to get to the next objective are slowed down just enough to be a minor annoyance that constantly claws at you.
"Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is one of those games where shotguns feel incredibly satisfying to use"
The bug missions, on the other hand, don’t really offer any real annoyances. However, the missions are incredibly short, often lasting for little more than ten minutes at a time, and seem to be designed around giving you a break from the more stress-inducing human missions. The bug missions put you in the role of a simulated “Assassin bug”, which can seemingly take down hordes of Federation soldiers without much effort. Missions are mostly unlocked every time you finish a few human ones, and will allow you to roam around in the same maps, albeit in an empowered form, complete with transformations that allow you to switch between Warrior, Hopper, and Tanker forms. The missions are largely just a drawn-out power fantasy, and even in terms of the story, the “Assassin bug” is hinted to be yet another form of Federation propaganda to inspire more players to enlist.
On the technical side of things, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a well-made game, and considering its lo-fi visual style that melds 3D environments with 2D artwork depicting humans and bugs alike, I was able to maintain a solid frame rate of 144 FPS throughout my time with it. The game was tested on a PC running on an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU with 32 GB of DDR5-6000 RAM, and a Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU with 16 GB of VRAM.
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is an incredibly fun shooter that makes use of several mechanics that have been popularized by titles like Helldivers 2. The title offers a variety of difficulty options, which ensures that just about anyone can have fun with it, and the variety in missions, as well as the overall framing of the game’s story, made all the time I spent with it quite enjoyable. Even the campaign’s pacing is quite well done, breaking up the more intense human missions with power fantasy bug missions that allow you to essentially just go on a rampage through maps that you had to shoot and claw your way through.
This game was reviewed on PC.
Excellent story framing; Core gunplay and systems work well together; Exploration-centric mission design allows for many intense battles that will push you to your limits; The bug campaign is a great way to take a break from the challenges of the human campaign; Live action cutscenes are phenomenal.
Tying sprint to stamina feels unnecessary since stamina regenerates in a second anyway; The inability to switch away from special weapons without throwing them down feels awkward.
