Video game history is rife with disappointing movie adaptations. As a general rule, a game that shares a title with a film is almost guaranteed to be a garbage-tier cash grab. So too is anything with the words “Starship Troopers” in the title, made after 1997. For a studio to produce an exception, all they need to do is make something adequate.
When I previewed Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War last month, I was mildly shocked. It wasn’t just adequate — it was pretty good. I came away expecting a solid, story-light retro shooter that tone-matches Paul Verhoeven’s satirical masterpiece.
It had everything a fan could want: hordes of arachnids to explode into glorious pixelated bursts of rainbow-colored ooze; swelling orchestral music to complement the patriotic battle cries and death rattles of my teammates; Casper Van Dien in battle dress uniform. What I appreciated most was that it didn’t seem too concerned with the story. Only vibes.
“Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War is diegetic propaganda.”
It was also one of the few instances where the aesthetics and gameplay of a retro shooter actually served a purpose. The simple streif-and-fire mechanics and low-poly models read like a love letter to golden-age FPS games from the late ’90s to the early 2000s. It felt authentic, like the best Starship Troopers game we could never rent from Blockbuster.
When the credits rolled on the demo, I wrote a glowing little preview, but I felt in my heart I had already seen the best of what Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War had to offer. After all, how far can you push a retro tribute? Well, as it turns out, hearts are idiots and shouldn’t be trusted. When there’s a team like Auroch Digital behind your retro tribute, it can be pushed pretty damn far.
In fact, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War isn’t a tribute at all. It’s a standout piece of satire in its own right. The game applies Paul Verhoeven’s criticism of pro-war propaganda films to video games. It’s a ten-hour joke that scorches the recruitment initiatives lurking just below the surface of everyone’s favourite military shooters. The result is nostalgic fan service crossed with Spec Ops: The Line wearing clown shoes.
Am I overthinking this? Possibly. But I don’t think so. There’s real craft at work here. The developers tilt their hand in the first five minutes, so I have to give a mandatory spoiler warning.
The opening FMV cutscene features General Johnny Rico thanking you for buying Ultimate Bug War, a game developed in-universe by FedDev, a state-sponsored software studio. Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War is diegetic propaganda. You are not the characters on the screen. You are someone in the Troopers universe, presumably a child, playing a game designed to indoctrinate you.
The story recounts the heroic deeds of Mobile Infantry trooper Samantha Dietz. Sammy is an every citizen who just so happens to appear at every major battle of the war. Her tale unfolds across eight levels, each a sprawling map with open-ended objectives. Most of those objectives involve shooting things or placing demolition charges, but like all journeys, it is really about the bugs you kill along the way. We’re repeatedly assured that this game is the most realistic depiction of war ever made and that the story is totally true.
The gameplay itself is very basic, but faithful to the era it imitates. Movement is fast-paced and floaty but perfect for circling around swarms of damage sponges. Enemies can come from anywhere and have a wide variety of attack patterns, but the difficulty has less to do with diversity than with sheer biomass. As the game progresses, the swarms grow larger and the environment more hostile.
Pacing-wise, the action is somewhere between Serious Sam, Halo, and Medal of Honor.
The level design is gorgeous, but sometimes tedious to traverse. The problem is that you do not always get to choose where you are going. You may set out to complete one objective, only for swarms of bugs to push you toward another, bouncing you around the map in the least efficient path possible. This, too, is faithful to the time period, though it is one element of retro design I did not particularly miss.
After completing a level, you can replay it from the perspective of the bugs. The gameplay in this mode is even simpler, yet just as satisfying. You take on the role of a shape-shifting assassin bug, the game’s primary antagonist. These sections are also propaganda.
“It is first and foremost a silly, ultraviolent sci-fi retro shooter made by Starship Troopers fans.”
The Assassin bug is portrayed as a mindless killer whose only objective is to terrorize the Federation. You scurry, scamper, and fly across the map, ramming, clawing, and burning Federation defences until the command post is vulnerable enough to attack. The retro inspiration here is a little harder to pin down, but it reminded me most of the PS2 classic War of the Monsters.
There’s no hiding it: there isn’t much variety in the gameplay. The developers’ solution was simple. Keep the game short. The five- to ten-hour runtime works; it’s a great experience that never overstays its welcome. When the loop starts to feel a little too familiar, the promise of the next FMV cutscene is enough to push you through the umpteenth wave of bugs. The game also wraps up before the comedy loses its edge.
Once the campaign is finished, there isn’t much left to uncover beyond the two secrets hidden in each level. These are surprisingly fun, unlocking things like extra gore effects and challenge modes. The most interesting, however, are the hidden developer commentary files from the fictional FedDev team. They’re worth replaying the game to find, filling in plot holes and explaining some of the story’s in-universe strangeness.
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War isn’t a game you’ll be playing for years. It’s an experience you have once or twice, and then it’s over. But you’ll remember it fondly, mostly because it leaves you with a single tight experience to process, rather than endless multiplayer sessions that congeal into one blurred memory. The standout feature here is that it actually gives you something worth processing.
Don’t let my elderly ramblings fool you, though. It is first and foremost a silly, ultraviolent sci-fi retro shooter made by Starship Troopers fans. Even if you’re not familiar with the franchise, the gonzo gore-fest action sequences are worth checking out. For fans of the series, though, it plays like the game we wish we had twenty years ago while also feeling like the follow-up and reflection we can appreciate now.
