It ain't easy, but I'm doing my part.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74806/starship-troopers-ultimate-bug-war-switch-2-review
Starship Troopers was a seminal film from my youth; all of my friends and I had seen it in theaters and then countless times on VHS. I'll always have a fondness for the property, and so the announcement of an indie first-person shooter set in that universe was one that definitely caught my eye. It turns out that my time with Ultimate Bug War coincides with my online gaming group getting into Helldivers 2, so I've enjoyed my fair share of bug busting the last couple weeks. An interesting wrapping and decent gameplay make for a good time while it lasts, but some rough edges take a bit of the “boom” out of this boomer shooter.
The premise is that you're playing a character in a video game simulation, which is meant to train and/or discover capable soldiers to join the war effort for the Federation. You play as Samantha Dietz–Sammy, to her comrades–and it's your job to lead the war effort across eight separate missions. Each stage has a variety of objectives to complete that are spread out across a medium-size map, with plenty of chatter over the coms between squadmates. One of the real standouts narrative-wise is the cutscene interstitials between missions that function like 4th-wall breaking propaganda hosted primarily by Johnny Rico himself, now an eye-patch wearing commander but still unmistakably cool as only Casper Van Dien can be.
Gameplay leans heavily into classic FPS titles like Doom, with a variety of guns that increases the deeper you get into Ultimate Bug War. Objectives include defending outposts, destroying bug hives, activating switches, and taking down massive superbugs. The levels are distinct enough visually to make the missions feel fresh, and their length manages to successfully balance traversal and explor-ability. A funny aspect involves your NPC allies who appear almost at random and often find themselves in the line of fire, which means you might need to be prepared for a hefty amount of scolding during heavy combat sequences. Other times, it's nice to have some firepower support and additional targets for your enemies to pursue.
Typically, missions take between 15 and 30 minutes to complete, and a bit longer if you want to find the pair of hidden secrets. What surprised me most out of the gate was the steep challenge of the default difficulty setting for the first proper mission. One of the defend your base-style objectives took me more attempts than I care to specify lest my gamer cred be forfeit, and so I ended up alternating between the first and second difficulty settings throughout my time with Ultimate Bug War. I'd suspect that even seasoned FPS players will find a more than respectable challenge across the four options, and for those who just want to see the bug world burn, there's a God Mode option in the menus.
In addition to the eight human missions, there are also five bug missions where you play as the assassin bug, which can fly and spit acid. In these missions, your objectives include raising the terror level of the enemy soldiers and destroying the human bases. While a neat departure, I found controlling the assassin bug to be awkward and janky, and I was rarely able to get it to act how I wanted. It's cool to be able to rally more of the regular bugs to help you by getting close to their hives, but I wasn't nearly as interested in completing these missions compared to the human ones.
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War combines nostalgia with tried-and-true first-person shooter mechanics and gameplay. The way it puts the player into infomercial-like military propaganda serves as neat window dressing, and the number of difficulty and control options, including Switch 2 Joy-Con mouse mode, make for a fairly customizable experience. There are some frame drops during more intense battles and an annoying sound effect issue where gunfire sounded scratchy and ear-piercing, but the performance largely holds up. Fans of Starship Troopers and classic FPS games will find enough to love here, even if the bug missions are a letdown. Everyone fights; no one quits. But maybe turn down the difficulty until you get your space legs.
Topic: Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War (Switch 2) Review (Read 18 times)
