Have you noticed in the last say, ten years or so, how it's impossible to have a discussion about Starship Troopers without at least one person going "Uhm, akshually. Did you know? Akshually, uhm, that the Starship Troopers novel is about fascism?" And then some other dummies go "Oh no. I was thinking of reading it but now I won't" like they'll catch cooties if they read it. Seriously, that is all just so mind bogglingly stupid. It's like they think they're the first people that ever figured it out and had to warn the world about something that was well known for 60+ years already. Shut up, dorks.
I will say it's entirely possible to read the original novel purely as a sci-fi war journal, but if you do that the previously mentioned people will definitely think you're some knuckle dragging moron. Well, excuse me for first reading it in high school in the late 90's and not already being hyper sensitive to the hidden meanings between the lines because an orange moron and his cult of idiots hadn't ruined the country yet. Excuuuuse me.
Anyway, I say you should read the book if you haven't. It's actually a lot like Halo - in fact, the Halo: Fall of Reach novel is really, really similar to Starship Troopers - and the Halo power armor is honestly what I always imagined the power armor in Starship Troopers to really be like. You know, instead of the lame plastic body armor and bicycle helmets the movies and every other piece of Starship Troopers media has used.
The Starship Troopers movie is another beast entirely, and is a satire of the fascist undertones in the novel. The reason why the over the top propaganda in the movie works is because it plays it totally straight. It doesn't rub the fact it's actually making fun of the subject matter in your face. It's always presented seriously and it's up to the viewer to put the pieces together about what it all actually means. You can also, of course, watch it purely as a sci-fi action movie and you'll get no judgement from me, though others might "uhm akshually" at you about it.
This game, Ultimate Bug War, unfortunately, seemingly doesn't understand why the satirical tone of the movie worked so well. It uses the same "Would you like to know more" military recruitment presentation from the movie - and even has Casper Van Dien back as Johnny Rico - but kicks the absurdity up to eleven. The issue is that it doesn't pretend to play it straight anymore. There is no subtlety. They constantly wink and nudge at you to basically say "Look how incredibly stupid and over the top this is!" One early cutscene is about recruiting children as soldiers and offering their parents a license to have another child as an incentive to send their kid off to die. It's so insanely over the top and blatant. There is no subtlety or nuance or room for interpretation. They bludgeon you with nonsense right from the start to make sure you "get" it. I was just annoyed by it, honestly.
To go off on a slight tangent, that's also how I feel about Helldivers 2, to be honest. It thinks it's doing one thing - a clever homage to Starship Troopers and Earth Defense Force - but then takes it too far over the top because they didn't understand why EDF worked as a parody or Starship Troopers worked as a satire. They just thought "be even more ridiculous and be louder about it" was good enough and missed the point. When satire is too heavy handed and obvious, it loses its intended effect either because the audience misunderstands it or because it's too obvious to be subversive or thought provoking anymore. I think Helldivers 2 and Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War both fall into that description.
So what about Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War as a game? Well, it's a pretty generic point and shoot boomer shooter. It doesn't do anything especially poorly, but it doesn't do anything to really wow you either. The missions are all variations of "Get to Point A, Defend it for X minutes, Get to Point B" over and over again. It has to be said that the bugs aren't especially fun to fight against. They're bullet sponges - in a world with shockingly limited ammo - and easily overwhelm you to the point it's kind of frustrating. I guess that's probably the point - the bugs suck to fight and the soldiers are all expendable - but it isn't very fun. Unless, that is, you take advantage of the game's built in cheats and turn on god mode and unlimited ammo and super jumps. Then you actually feel like a badass super soldier wearing power armor like I always imagined Starship Troopers was supposed to be.
There are also a set of missions where you actually get to play as the bugs, but they really aren't that fun. You play as a newly discovered "assassin bug" that can fly and shoot fire and melee attack and, most importantly, call in other bugs and command them. These levels just aren't fun, though. They're really repetitive and boring and the assassin bug kinda sucks. It's the main threat in the human story and is supposed to be really powerful and scary, but it is really, really underwhelming both to fight against as well as play as.
In the end, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War is rather disappointing. I had high hopes since it was developed by Auroch Digital, who made the fantastic Warhammer 40k Boltgun, but Ultimate Bug War is just a bland game and a bad Starship Troopers experience. It did launch at a great bargain price, though, and despite my complaints it's still probably worth a look for the $25, or less, you can snag it for. Just keep your expectations in check.
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