“Young people from all over the globe are joining up to fight for the future. They’re doing their part, are you? Join the Mobile Infantry and save the world. Service guarantees citizenship.” – Fed Net Announcer

If you found yourself in your awkward tween years in the late 1990’s, you might be familiar with a little movie called Starship Troopers. Now, younger me thought “Cool, let’s fight bugs in space!”. Older me, upon reading the synopsis of the movie and the world in which it takes place…shudders. But that being said, I still enjoy the mindless military bravado that is encompassed in the film. A film which has spawned several video game iterations, including the upcoming 2026 Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!

Brought to us by Auroch Digital and Dotemu, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! has fashioned itself as a retro FPS game. So, think your classic Doom and Duke Nukem and Quake – the graphics aren’t the point – it’s the mindless violence. And boy howdy – there is a LOT of that to go around in this game. If you’ve seen the film, or any of its spin-offs, then this should come as no surprise. Violence was the name of the game.

I took a spin in the preview iteration of Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! just over a month ago. This preview provided us a sneak peek at what turned out to be the third mission of the game – Operation Razorwire. I enjoyed it, I killed some bugs, and waited to see what Auroch Digital would fully release. And here we are now! So without further ado…let’s get lost in a world of explosions and flying Arachnid parts.

The World & The Story

The World

Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! centers around the conquests of the United Citizen Federation – the global government that oversees Earth. And also oversees things like…voting…and having children. You don’t serve the Federation, you don’t get these rights, hence why so many individuals enlist.

This is also a world in which Earth has developed interstellar travel and in humanity’s journeys, there was the discovery of the Arachnids. An evolved and intelligent insectoid race who do not take kindly to humanity colonizing their homes. And thus ensues…intergalactic warfare across many, many planets.

The actual planets in which we’ll be galivanting across in Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! are:

• Klendathu, the home world of the Arachnids
• Zegema Beach, an Outer Ring paradise and resort planet for humanity
• Earth, to relive the horrors of the attack on Buenos Aires
• Planet P, a secretive planet that hosts the “leader” of the Arachnids

The Story

While there are MANY who enlist to serve in the United Citizen Federation of Earth, we’ll be following one grunt soldier: Samantha “Sammy” Dietz. The story itself is broken up into eight missions, spanning Sammy’s basic training at Boot Camp to the location and extermination of the more nefarious leads of the Arachnid race. I won’t dip too far into it, but the story itself isn’t too deep – and I would not expect anything else from something in the world of Starship Troopers.

Each mission will have its own “plot points” to progress through, but for the most part, each mission can be summed up with “Go here, shoot anything with more than two legs along the way, activate this thing, defend the location from Arachnids, rinse and repeat.” Mindless? Sure. But honestly, and as I said earlier, I would be baffled if they opted to make this game deep in terms of the plot.

The Gameplay

Human Missions

Don’t worry – I’ll get to why I am specifying this. As noted earlier, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! has eight missions that are played from the perspective of Sammy. At the beginning of each mission, you’re given a briefing, as well as the ability to select how difficult you want the gameplay. Difficulties range from Recruit (Easy) to Trooper (Standard) all the way to Citizen (PAIN).

Each mission will have you traversing a rather large map, resolving objectives that are scattered across the battlefield. Some objectives will require you to actively defend certain chokepoints, while others will have you activating equipment to ensure that the mission can proceed smoothly.

On mission completion, you are given a Fed Score that equates with how well you performed. It honestly scrolls that it’s hard to track everything that is factored into your score. Obviously, this is for bragging rights at the end of the day.

Equipment & Squads

Throughout the map, there will be various points, marked with red smoke flares, where you can heal up and stock up on ammo, different weapons, and call-down abilities. The weapons you have access to range from automatic rifles, shotguns, and plasma rifles, to some more specialized guns like the Nuke Launcher.

I mentioned special call-downs. You have two options – one that will drop a pod near you with equipment and possible new weapons. The others are MUCH more offensive in nature, from bombing runs to white phosphorous drops.

You also have the ability to call together a small group of units together to assist you as you fight. Rest assured – they will get in your way and die in the process. But it’s no worries – you can just call more!

Oh yeah. There are mechs. Equipped with rapid fire guns and a chainsaw arm. That also self-destructs when they run out of fuel. So those are fun. And you can bet your bottom dollar that I used those detonations to my advantage.

Secrets

There are various Secrets that can be unlocked throughout the game. What do they do? Aside from the one I found called “Bloody Mess” which generates extra gore in the game, I could not tell you. I’ll get into that when we discuss The Good and The Bad of Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!

Bug Missions

Yes, that’s why I held off until now. Each completed mission for the Humans unlocks a Bug Mission. Now, what do you do in a Bug Mission? Simple – destroy everything and kill all the humans!

While playing, you’ll take on the form of a “super” bug who has the ability to mutate into other types of bugs – each of which you’ll need for specific purposes when attacking those pesky humans.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t spend too much time with these, as they seemed like just fun little side experiences to the main game. The first one at a low difficulty took me just over five minutes, so again, I think that this might be one of those “Can you beat your best score?” types of things.

The Good

Adherence to the Lore

True to the world, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! leans hard into the aesthetic of the film franchise universe. The over-the-top bravado and violence, the ridiculous propaganda pieces featured throughout the game. It’s self-awareness at a concerning, but very entertaining, level.

Fun & Mindless Pew Pew

I have what I call my “mindless pew pew” games that I play when I want to turn my brain off and just…break everything in front of me. Games like the 2016 Doom and even more mainstream franchises like Fortnite and Overwatch let me dive into a virtual world without having to think too much. And Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is another game in line with a “turn your brain off and enjoy” spectrum of fun. It may not be for everyone, but it definitely was for me.

Satisfying Weapons

The weapons in this game do feel like they have some actual kick to them. Especially the Nuke Launcher – the whole screen will nearly white-out when you use one and it’s just…satisfying. Even the smaller guns like the shotgun sound like they are DIGGING into bug parts when you fire. Overall, the sound effects of the weaponry as a whole sold me on this piece.

The Bad

Mindless Squad Members

I mentioned this earlier, as well as in my preview article, but GOODNESS – your squad mates are thick. They will inevitably run in towards a Tanker the moment you toss that grenade in there. And then have the gall to blame you. I know it’s meant to be silly but after a point, I kind of just…stopped summoning more squad mates and didn’t notice much of a difference in terms of the difficulty.

Unused Equipment

Throughout nearly the entire game, I forgot that I had the ability to call down both support pods, as well as bombing strafes on targets. Maybe that’s on me, but I feel like there might need to be more of a point to remind you that you have them on you. I think across the eight missions, I called down two support pods and maybe….three bombing runs? That’s not a lot when you factor in that each mission is about 30-45 minutes (depending on your speed).

What Even Are Secrets?

I mentioned Secrets earlier and that I had only found one of them. I’m going to level with you – I don’t even remember finding it. It might be me being non-observant but I didn’t even know what I was looking for when it came to locating Secrets in the game. I think that it might have been helpful to just give a hint as to what I was even supposed to be looking for. I don’t mind searching, but if I don’t even know what I’m looking for, it’s gonna be a hard pass on finding any of them.

Occasional Bugs…with Bugs

While it didn’t happen often, there were definitely some occasional glaring bugs with our Arachnid friends. The biggest one, and it might be a recency bias, was in the final mission. Spoilers ahead!

In the last mission, you’ll be facing off against several Assassin Bugs. They are feisty, face, and pack a punch. But they have a weakness – slightly elevated terrain. Yes – I walked up on the edge of the cave walls during this fight and the bug just seemed to…shut down? Which is funny because they can jump! That being said though – it definitely took any element of risk away when I could just hop onto some elevated rock that was seemingly impassible for this Arachnid.

The Overall

I had noted in my preview that Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! was not going to revolutionize the gaming world and that I was fine with that. Now that I have completed the game, I can safely say that while my opinion hasn’t changed, I do appreciate more of what this game had to offer. The one-liners, the comical levels of violence, and the retro vibes that are creeping back into the gaming industry (which I love). Its only weaknesses lie in the lack of needing some of the extra bells and whistles within the game itself.

Will I go back and play some additional content and difficulty levels in Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!? Probably. But if I didn’t, would I feel like I missed out on something? Probably not, if I’m being honest.

Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! launches March 16th to PC (Steam), Switch 2, PlayStation, and Xbox.

Gamer Social Club was provided an early access copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This review was played on PC (Steam).