It's fair to say that Starship Troopers: Extermination's 16-player, class-based co-op is the definitive Starship Troopers experience, even in its Early Access state. Although a handful of Starship Troopers games have made the attempt over the years, such as the 2005 Starship Troopers first-person shooter game, none have quite captured the chaos and carnage like Offworld Industries' rendition. For Starship Troopers: Extermination's upcoming 1.0 release, it's introducing a single-player experience featuring Casper Van Dien as General Johnny Rico, and this is meant to be the first of many storytelling moments for the game over the next few years.
Game ZXC sat down with Casper Van Dien and Offworld's head of marketing Gareth Woods, among others, to talk about Van Dien's reprisal of the Johnny Rico role and how it compares to his experience working in the films. Van Dien spoke about how the game often feels more real than when he was acting in the films and how the game pulls inspiration from the entire film franchise rather than just the 1997 hit. Additionally, Woods spoke about how it was important for players to feel as if they were extras on the Starship Troopers film set.
Starship Troopers: Extermination – Best Perks, Ranked
Each class in Starship Troopers: Extermination has Perks that can be upgraded, but which ones should be prioritized?
Starship Troopers: Extermination Feels Like Being A Movie Extra
If anyone is an authority on whether or not Starship Troopers: Extermination feels like the movies, it's Casper Van Dien. Having portrayed Johnny Rico, he's been a part of the film franchise from the beginning, and in his estimation, the game is a faithful adaptation. The carnage left behind after annihilating hordes of bugs, the thrill of defending a fortification against wave after wave of arachnids, and the chaos as troopers work together to survive are key elements that Offworld hoped to capture. As Van Dien said,
It feels like I’m in the movie when I’m playing in the game. I hope that’s going to be the experience everybody else has as well, so that it feels like you get to be in the movie, but the movie is now 10 times bigger or 1000 times bigger.
There are more bugs, there are different bugs, there are more details, there are cool troopers, all these different characters you can be. I get to yell at them and try to encourage them to do better in a very loving, fatherly way–which I’m really good at, apparently, thanks to my resting murder face.
Van Dien says he feels like he has grown alongside Johnny Rico, and the man and the role indeed feel inseparable. It wouldn't be a definitive experience without Johnny Rico, and his return in a new story is incredibly exciting. Much like how Lieutenant Rasczak held a fatherly role over the Roughnecks in the film, General Rico will be an "encouraging" presence for troopers in Extermination's single-player story.
Starship Troopers: Extermination Doesn't Just Look At The First Film
Woods says that it was important for the game to make players feel as if they were on the film set, and in fact, Van Dien remarked that it's even more real than that in some ways. After all, filming involved shooting at dirt and actors were surrounded by green screens, while players in the game are truly facing the bugs and reacting to a present danger. It was also important to include many elements seen in the film: the fortifications, arachnid variants, weapons, and scenarios needed to feel authentic. As Woods said,
It needs to be as if you were an extra on the set, and now you get to continue that journey that we all wanted to do in 1997 but didn’t have the technology to. The best we had was some RTS games and some mobile stuff. This is the first time we've got the technology to be able to play in first person with hordes and hordes of bugs with 15 other troopers and relive the experience. It's so great to hear Casper see our homework and go, “Yeah, this is what it was like."
Starship Troopers: Extermination doesn't just pull from the original film, however. The team also looked to the rest of the franchise for inspiration, understanding that despite those films' poor reception, there were plenty of game-worthy ideas to explore. The electric fences and pitch-blackness of Starship Troopers 2 along with some of the more unique bug variants throughout the series all help Extermination feel like a more fully-realized Starship Troopers experience.
Starship Troopers: Extermination
Offworld Industries' Starship Troopers: Extermination is a co-op first-person shooter that is currently in early access on PC. Featuring multiple classes, customization, and base-building, Extermination drops 16 players in a war against the Arachnids, an overwhelming army of bugs.
