Starship Troopers (video game)

Infobox VG
title = Starship Troopers


caption =
developer = Strangelite
publisher = Empire Interactive
released = October 27 2005
genre = First Person Shooter
engine = SWARM
modes = Single-player, multiplayer
ratings = PEGI: 16+
platforms = Microsoft Windows
media = DVD
requirements = Windows XP/Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, 2.0 GHz processor, 4 GB of free hard disk space, 512 MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive 8x, 128 MB videocard with hardware Vertex & Pixel shaders, DirectX 9.0c compatible soundcard, 512 kbit/s or greater internet for online play or TCP/IP network for LAN play (2 to 32 players)
input = Keyboard, mouse

Starship Troopers is a first-person shooter game developed by Strangelite Studios and published by Empire Interactive. The game is based upon the canon of the film Starship Troopers by Paul Verhoeven.

Set five years after the events of the film, the game lets players assume the role of 'Marauder Zero Six' as they assault the planet Hesperus which has been invaded by the Arachnids. The game features footage from both the original Starship Troopers and films for pre-mission briefings and has a small, cameo voice-over from Casper Van Dien in the first mission should the player fail it. [http://www.games.net/article/feature/105682/shoot-to-thrill-casper-van-dien-talks-starship-troopers/]

Gameplay

ingle-player

The single-player game features a campaign mode consisting of a series of missions connected by mission briefings. After a level is completed it is then available to play in a Time attack mode.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer in Starship Troopers consists of three different modes; Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Co-op. The most popular mode is Co-op which sees players defending a mechanic from onslaughts of arachnids whilst retrieving parts to repair a dropship to escape in. The network and lobby functions of Starship Troopers were provided by DemonWare who have now withdrawn the services.

Promised dedicated server and modification tools were never released, along with the closing of the official English forums player numbers in the multiplayer game were very low. The game also lacked any console or server commands which makes it impossible to execute a variety of necessary admin functions such as kick, ban or a map change. Lastly as the balancing of the weapons is directly inherited from the singleplayer mode this means that deathmatch play isn't very competitive. A player who picks up the rocket launcher for example is likely to dominate the game because it scores significantly more damage compared to many other weapons, has an area of effect, can be fired rapidly and has a very large magazine.

Patches released for the game mainly focused upon improving bringing the game's multiplayer mode. The latest, version 5.24 released in December 2005, introduced 4 new DM/TDM maps and 3 new co-op maps.

Reception

The game was shunned by most critics, receiving a score of 3.8 (out of 10) on GameSpot and a 5 (out of 10) from IGN, with both sites stating technical issues, problems with the AI and archaic graphics the reason for the low score.

Notes