Released a year ago on PC, multiplayer online shooter Starship Troopers: Extermination is now available on consoles. It is interesting because players will be hunting multiple types of bugs in this licensed offshoot.
It doesn’t take much to see this was designed as a PC game shoehorned into a console experience. Using the analog stick as a mouse to navigate the complex UI is difficult and frustrating due to the impossibly small, unchangeable text size. Unfortunately, the lacking visual presentation doesn’t stop here. Even with the brightness settings set to maximum, gameplay sessions are entirely too dark. So much so, that you cannot see the dozens of bugs and explosions that are directly in front of you.
Which is a shame because the foundation is here for a mindlessly entertaining “shoot everything” co-op experience. There are numerous classes available, each outfitted with some unique perks. There are weapons and abilities to unlock and upgrade. And coordinating with a dedicated team is exciting and engaging. So it is frustrating when all you want to do is shoot alien bugs with friends but the glitches, unclean UI, and complex (and dark) gameplay can get in the way.
Gameplay-wise, there is much more than shooting hundreds of bugs at any given time. Players also need to manage base building, supplies, and set up defenses where appropriate so there is plenty of strategy involved. It is cool the game wants you to do more than machine gun fire into swarms of larger-than-life insects, but this can quickly fall apart without quality teammates. The optional tutorial doesn’t instruct the player to the nuance either. Thankfully, matchmaking is available so the game can toss you into a game of likeminded human randoms, but the single player outing isn’t exactly top tier entertainment. But let’s be honest, no one is going to play this for the single player mode. And at the time of this article, only the first chapter is available but more should be released in the future.
Personally, I was hoping for a simple, large open-spaced, mindless Left4Dead-type experience but with bugs instead of zombies. Instead, at least in its current state, Starship Troopers: Extermination has its heart in the right place but bites off more than it can chew. The good news, these flaws and annoyances can potentially be fixed with future patches. The question, however, will they come fast enough, and will players still care if/when that happens.
SCORE: 6/10
Not As Good As: Zombie Army 4: Dead War
Also Play: the Star Wars Battlefronts
Wait For It: L4D3
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
X/Twitter: @ZackGaz
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