Starship Troopers: Extermination Has One Clear Advantage Over Helldivers 2

After being in Steam Early Access for more than a year, Starship Troopers: Extermination is finally getting a 1.0 launch on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on October 11, 2024. Developed by Offworld Industries, the independent Canadian studio behind the popular 2020 multiplayer game Squad, this well-received co-op FPS serves as the latest video game adaptation set in the world of the cult classic 1997 sci-fi film, Starship Troopers. Like previous games based on the franchise, Starship Troopers: Extermination puts players in the shoes of the titular Troopers, members of the Deep Space Vanguard military group who are tasked with exterminating giant alien bugs from hostile planets.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is one of the more notable releases scheduled to come out in the second half of 2024, but it does face major competition from a similar, bug-stomping co-op shooter that was released earlier in the year: Helldivers 2. Arrowhead Game Studios’ and Sony Interactive Entertainment’s popular third-person shooter broke sales records across PlayStation 5 and PC when it was released back in February, and it continues to maintain an active playerbase to this day. Furthermore, considering how much inspiration it took from the 1997 Paul Verhoeven movie when it comes to both premise and tone,Helldivers 2 is practically a Starship Troopers game in all but name only, so it has somewhat filled the void for games based on the IP. Despite Helldivers 2‘s staying power, though, Starship Troopers: Extermination could still end up distinguishing itself by flaunting a key aspect of the game that gives it a competitive edge over Arrowhead’s acclaimed third-person shooter.

Starship Troopers Has a Major Feature That Could Give It an Edge over Helldivers 2

Starship Troopers: Extermination and Helldivers 2 Are Different in Some Key Areas

Starship Troopers: Extermination might just seem like a first-person version of Helldivers 2 at first glance, but the two games do have some noteworthy differences. In Helldivers 2, players are dropped onto procedurally generated maps to complete missions and fend off waves of alien bugs using firearms and explosives, only to then extract themselves back to the warship they came from at the end of each round. Starship Troopers: Extraction, meanwhile, places players on large, handcrafted maps and tasks them with multiple objectives, including reclaiming bases and building refineries. Though the two co-op games offer a similar bug-killing combat experience, the way the gameplay loop is structured in both titles is distinct from one another.

Co-Op Parties in Starship Troopers: Extermination Can Be Far Larger than in Helldivers 2

Aside from its gameplay loop and first-person perspective, perhaps the one aspect of Starship Troopers: Extermination that really sets the game apart, however, is the number of players its cooperative multiplayer supports. In Extermination, up to 16 gamers can squad up and fight hordes of alien bugs together. Compared to Helldivers 2, this is fairly noteworthy, as Arrowhead’s massively successful third-person shooter only supports co-op parties of up to 4 players, which is a fraction of what Starship Troopers: Extermination offers.

While some gamers may prefer the more restrictive nature of the co-op in Helldivers 2 and might find Starship Troopers: Extermination to be a bit too chaotic for their tastes with 16 players, the larger co-op parties in Starship Troopers will likely excite many gamers, especially those who wanted to get in on some bug-killing action with friend groups of five or more in Helldivers 2, but were unable to do so.

Starship Troopers: Extermination Will Have a Single-Player Campaign in Addition to Co-Op

Besides 16-player co-op, Starship Troopers: Extermination‘s 1.0 release will also feature a single-player story mode, something that Helldivers 2 also lacks. Casper Van Dien, the actor who played Johnny Rico in the 1997 film, will not only reprise his role in the campaign, but, according to Offworld Industries, he’ll have more lines of dialogue than in the first and third Starship Troopers movies combined. If this single-player component ends up being high quality, it could give Starship Troopers: Extermination another major advantage over Helldivers 2 and convince players who otherwise may not have tried the game out to give it a shot just for the campaign.

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.

Systems

Released

May 17, 2023

Developer(s)

Offworld Industries

Publisher(s)

Offworld Industries

Multiplayer

Online Co-Op