The Starship Troopers franchise already counts a few videogames under its belt, but none of them was remarkable or adept at conveying the terrific feelings and satire of the first movie. Fans of this kind of wacky bug hunting action were better off with a chapter of the Earth Defense Force series, at least until now – Offworld Industries is hard at work in Starship Troopers: Extermination, a co-op FPS that finally properly puts you in the frontlines of the desperate human war against the arachnid threat. There’s excitement, there’s bravado, and… not much else so far in this Early Access release.

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The original Starship Troopers movie was misunderstood at the time, but ultimately became a cult classic as soon as viewers started to understand that it wasn’t glorifying militarism; instead, it was deliberately mocking war and fascism, sometimes in such a cold and straightforward way that many assumed it was being genuine about it.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is now in Early Access and unfortunately doesn’t delve deep into the satire part of the movie, but thankfully offers joyful and chaotic bug battles where confusion and panic are brothers in arms, teamwork eventually pushing forward after a few initial rounds where everyone seemed to be going everywhere, lost in the arid and expansive map, in fact a clever theater that leads you down a streamlined road of randomized objective locations.

Offering 16-player cooperative shooter action is much better than the traditional skimpier numbers for games of the ilk. This may not be to the scale of the battles in the movie, but it’s enough to make the battlefield look chaotic and messy for most of the time. Teamwork is necessary but not overly complex as to require constant communication, as sticking close to your fellow soldiers and performing the actions that are expected during a given mission should be enough to get you alive and well up to the extraction point. Throwing friendly fire into the mix is both terrific and terrifying, as you need to always keep your line of fire clean, something that is easier said than done with so many soldiers and bugs running amok.

Gunplay is pleasant, but not perfect due to a noticeable lack of hit feedback. The bugs act as sponges and don’t react in any way to your bullets apart from a shriek, and there isn’t any limb damage, something that could be a great gameplay twist when fighting arachnids. The movie doesn’t hold back on bugs twitching and being pushed back when shot at, but here they just go out with a whimper.

What’s cunning about Starship Troopers: Extermination is the mix of first-person shooting and base building in a scenario of huge stress. While far from groundbreaking, the two modes materialize in a solid and intertwined way, encouraging you to alternate between keeping the bugs at bay and using your build tool to deploy and repair structures in the heat of the moment. Understanding who should be up in the towers blasting arachnids and who should be running around the base repairing and rebuilding walls and towers is of utmost importance. Naturally, you are limited to specific build zones, as the sprawling alien world is mostly unprepared for this kind of gameplay. The severe limitations in structure numbers don’t leave much room for imagination or supremely vast bases, as you may find the limit reached in a minute or so.

One of the issues with the current state of the game is that there’s not much variation to the events. The current gameplay loop is a simple matter of achieving one objective, shoot, run to the next, shoot again, build some barriers and towers, defend, and run to the extraction point, shooting all the way. This is a rough but reliable draft of what you and your mates will be doing for several hours, about 20 minutes per match, with no real game changers in the middle – there’s only one map, no different mission types tasking you to go into a cave or something like that, no ordering one of the teams to tackle one objective while the others go for a different one… The game feels stale in the long run, despite its obviously successful attempt at creating a convincing atmosphere.

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Lack of content is the major problem right now with Starship Troopers: Extermination. Well-rounded and immersive, it just doesn’t bring enough variety to keep a large player base excited for long. There are only three classes: Hunter (Assault), Bastion (Heavy), and Operator (Support), each one with a utility slot and two perk slots, but even some of these gadgets and abilities are common throughout the classes. Leveling up unlocks new weaponry as well, a progression loop that doesn’t bring any surprises to the table.

And then we have the meager two game modes: Advance and Secure, and ARC, with a Horde mode coming sometime later. The first one was briefly detailed above, as your squad completes a couple of objectives, protects a base, then runs to the extraction dropship while all hell breaks loose. ARC mode is about building the base, gathering ore and gas, and defeating the arachnids. And… that’s it. Too slim, warranted by the Early Access label, but slim nonetheless.

Performance is another aspect that hopefully will see some improvement when the full release arrives, as the huge number of bugs onscreen occasionally takes its toll on the frame rate. Still, knowing the developer’s track record on Squad and the roadmap for this game, Starship Troopers: Extermination will eventually come to life with new planets, more game modes, a bug hive elimination mission, among other things. It’s too early to make a proper judgment on a game that has a solid skeleton, but still needs  a lot more meat on its bones.

The quality of Starship Troopers: Extermination isn’t in question anymore, and fans of the uneven but unforgettable movie will have a blast taking out hordes of bugs, despite the potential for better gunplay; the thing that you should ponder on is the sameness of the Early Access version and if it’s worth enlisting right now, or if you’re better off waiting for other citizens to fight the war and join in when the game has fully released, hopefully having evolved into something more compelling, deeper, with a more enthralling mission structure and map variety. You may still have a great bug hunting time as it is, sure, but this life of a soldier will probably wear you out quickly.

MP1st was given access to the Early Access build of Starship Troopers: Extermination for our hands-on session. The Starship Troopers: Extermination full release is planned for PC after roughly one year in Early Access.