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Starship Troopers | ||||||||||||
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| Strategy? I don't think so. | |||||||||||||
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| October 31st, 2000 | |||||||||||||
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| Starship Troopers is a little different than most real time strategy (RTS) games you are used to. You aren't required to harvest resources, build bases, train troops, or anything else that we've been introduced to ever since classics like Warcraft and Starcraft. You start out with 21 troops that you must use throughout the entire campaign. As you progress through the levels, your troops will gain experience with each kill and also get promoted as you go. And for those who aren't familiar with the book or movie, it's all about bugs. The story (and game itself) is drawn from both the novel and 1997 movie of the same name. It's a war against Earth and a race of giant, extraterrestrial insects. During the game you assume the role of a Lieutenant, given charge of a platoon at the commencement of the 3rd Terran Space War. This is a war between humanity and the giant arachnids of Klendathu. Given the technological superiority of the Terran war machine, Games and Theory predict that the war will be over quickly. The Bugs, however, are not so easily defeated. The game has a training mode which is always a great feature. There are 4 different lessons to teach you the controls and how to move around in the game. Before each mission you are given a short briefing explaining the objectives required in order to successfully complete it. Objectives range from destroying bug holes to rescuing civilians. You also have to setup your team before heading out into enemy territory. Depending on your rank, you'll be able to select from a variety of weapons to take out on the field. Weapons include lightrifles, lightcannons, flamethrowers, and grenade launchers among others. Accessories such as health boosters, armor vests, and binoculars (increase firing range) can also be equipped to each trooper. The ability to configure your unit like this sort of reminded me of the classic strategy game X-Com, if you can remember that one. You can check your trusty Xenograph to find out what enemies you will be facing during the mission and what their known weaknesses are. Now for the actual gameplay... it's actually done quite well. Controls are very easy to use, just like other strategy games (Starcraft, Ground Control, etc.). You have your basic stop, move, and attack commands, as well as, the ability to guard, or patrol. Commands can be given with quick keys such as [M] for move, [A] for attack, [S] for stop and so on. Plus you have 8 different formations, accessible by using the F1-F8 keys making it very easy to change formations on the fly. Your troops can also be set in different modes, aggressive will have you fire at everything, while stealth will make your team a little quieter and not so trigger happy. As you progress through the campaign, members of your platoon you will also get to have specialized assignments such as a Medic or Engineer. This adds a little variety to the game and can also make the missions a little easier. For example the Medic can always heal your team, while the Engineer can always repair the robotic suits that the Lieutenants can wear later in the game. Unfortunately, the gameplay is one of the only good things I've found about Starship Troopers. After the first few missions the game gets very, very repetitive. When you realize you're still fighting the same bugs over and over even 5 or 6 missions into the game, the novelty starts to wear off pretty quickly. Add to the fact that missions get longer as you progress through the campaign, doesn't make them any more enjoyable. If the game incorporated any sort of strategy whatsoever then the repetitve missions wouldn't have been nearly as bad. The only strategy involved in the game is making sure you don't get too close to a bug hole. In most cases you can stand a safe distance away and blow up the hole with a rocket laucher, and take out the remaining enemies from the same distance. Most of the time I found I could walk towards a group of enemies, stop a few feet away and watch my team take out every alien that came into range. AI in general is not very good either, the bugs will usually come in and attack you one at a time as you approach, which hardly makes for a challenge. In fact the only time when there's a risk of getting swarmed are the times when bug holes spring up all around you, but even then the enemies get caught in walls or other bugs and can't move in. There are also some camera issues with this game. There was more than one occasion when I was being attacked by an enemy but couldn't see anything because my view was being blocked by a hill or mountain behind me. Also there are times when you need to look up so you can attack the enemies flying above you. But for some reason the camera doesn't allow you to get a very good view of what's above. Another really big issue with this game is the fact that you can't save between missions. There is absolutely nothing worse in a RTS game when you can't save. This isn't too bad at first because the missions are short, but later on in the game when you spend hours going through a level just to lose at the end, is not very fun. There are 2 retries available for the times when your Lieutenants get killed or you can't complete a certain mission objective, but this hardly replaces a good save feature. Graphics in Starship Troopers are actually not too bad at all, Textures look good and the troopers are very detailed, and during the night missions there are some great lighting effects. The drop ships also look very good and well designed. My only gripe about the graphics is during the missions briefing when you can configure your platoon. Visuals at this point could've been much better, weapons are very small and have a fuzzy look to them, which make it hard at times to tell the weapons apart. The game also takes a hit in the audio department. Sound effects are less than impressive, throughout the game you'll mostly hear the footsteps of your platoon running (and man you do a LOT of running in this game), gun fire, and aliens screeching when they die. When you come across a bug hole someone will shout out "bug hole sighted" but that's about it for the effects, nothing spectacular at all. The voice-overs you'll hear throughout the game are just ok, not the best I've heard but they get the job done. Music, on the other hand, is bad... The missions that do have music are comprised of boring musical scores that keep looping repeatedly. Surely a title that gets repetitive could shed new light when playing multiplayer with a friend. Well for some strange reason there is no multiplayer in the game. You heard me right, NO MULTIPLAYER. It's hard to believe that a strategy game could be released without any multiplayer functionality whatsoever, but that is the case with Starship Troopers. I didn't entirely hate this game but there are so many things to not like about it compared to others of it's genre that have been done so much better. I honestly can't, in good conscience, recommend this game above the countless other great titles like Homeworld, Ground Control, or even the classic Starcraft. There is only a small bit of fun to be had with Starship Troopers, it ends abruptly when you find that the missions get longer and more repetitive. Add to the fact that there is not a lot of strategy involved in completing missions and it gets tiresome very quickly. Just the very fact that this title has no multiplayer mode is enough to leave it on the store shelf to gather dust. The good points: great controls, great visuals, ability to select your team and gear is pretty cool The bad points: extremely repetitive, bad camera system at times, awful AI, no multiplayer, absolutely no strategy involved in finishing missions  Review by Mark Dillon Video Gamer Guy |
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