Starship Troopers

Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Review By Kael

Starship Troopers is an FPS based on the original film and was developed by Strangelite. I've red the book, I've hated its totalitarian and militaristic views, I've seen the movie but luckily I had popcorn with me to handle the boredom so when I learned about the game I was a bit prejudiced about it. Fortunately it turned out to be quite an enjoying ride with one BIG problem only, it's one of those been-there-done-that kind of games.

STORY: You are an unnamed marine, or to be more precise an elite Marauder and you battle against the bugs in their planet five years after the events of the original movie. I can't say that the story was something to die for, there is some sort of mystery in the first hour of the game but after a while you see that nothing spectacular will happen. The plot is very simple and I would've given it a lower score if the game was based in its storyline but it isn't. Also the game does a very good job in creating a very good atmosphere that draws you in the game.

GRAPHICS: Although not topnotch compared to other games, Starship Troopers have a quite decent graphic quality making you feel as if you are actually in the original movie. The most notable aspect of the graphic engine is the tricks it uses to bring forth an enormous amount of enemies in your screen. You see in this game you'll be killing bugs by the dozens so the game actually renders only the closest ones to you at top quality and all the distant ones are rendered with lower polygons and overall quality and for the FAR distant ones I think that the game uses 2D images, (like in old FPS games). 

Also battles are quite dirty with all that green alien blood and bug parts scattered around. Levels have very good design and range from mysterious dunes and abandoned human-built structures to the strange and dangerous alien nests. Special effects like explosions and such are very well done with the nuclear explosion being the most fascinating one. The human characters are too simple and their faces are a bit too ape-like but that's not a problem since 99.9% of the game is about bugs, bugs that range from the simple ones to the big armored cockroaches!!! The one major problem is the fact that the game needs more than it delivers. I'm playing F.E.A.R., Doom 3 and Far Cry without problems while in the same machine I have some unacceptable frame drop rates while playing Starship Troopers. 

SOUND: Nothing worth mentioning, music that will come and go and ok sound effects that create the right atmosphere making you feel as if you are watching the actual movie.

GAMEPLAY: Overall Starship Troopers is your typical old school FPS, all you do is shoot, shoot and shoot! But unlike some games all these shooting in here is quite fun. First of all your weapons although are the typical machine guns and shotguns are very balanced and have their weaknesses and strengths forcing you to use them cleverly. The only problem here is your main weapon, which conveniently recharges its ammo and is quite fast but will be used a LOT because the ammo for the other guns is quite scarce for a game with so much enemies. Get ready for a lot of shooting with bugs appearing from all possible direction, surrounding you and overwhelm you with their large number. The main bugs apart from being quite cool don't go down so easily for 2 reasons, first the fact that you have to shoot them in their hard to aim eyes and the fact that even with a leg or two off they are still dangerous, (and fast).

Here is a typical level in starship troopers. You start along with some allied forces that I gotta say that they are quite stupid due to bad friendly AI and start running towards a certain area, some bugs appear, you kill them, you reach an area, for example your base defend it from bug swarms and then go out on your own and enter caves and pits killing even more bugs. This is what Starship Troopers is all about making the gaming extremely linear and repetitive!

OVERALL: If you don't like fast paced FPS games with lots and lots of shooting avoid this game but even if you do like it don't expect from it to become your all-time favorite. It is one of these games that you'll only play once and then let it collect dust…

NAME: STARSHIP TROOPERS

SYSTEM: PC