Trailers Released for 2023 First-Person Shooter 'Starship Troopers: Extermination' (steampowered.com) 57
You can read the news in Military Times magazine. "Coming just after the 25th anniversary of the release of the cult classic Starship Troopers (November 1997), Offworld Industries and Sony Pictures Consumer Projects are bringing the fight against the Arachnids to a computer near you."
An official announcement and gameplay teaser were released for the upcoming game this week. "Starship Troopers: Extermination is a co-op FPS that puts you on the far-off front lines of an all-out battle against the Bugs!" explains its page on Steam. "Squad up, grab your rifle, and do your part as an elite Deep Space Vanguard Trooper set to take back planets claimed by the Arachnid threat!"
The page says an "Early Access" launch is planned for 2023: In Starship Troopers: Extermination, our vision is to show a galactic war between the Federation and the Arachnid Empire. After our initial launch and throughout the course of Early Access development, players will get to engage with exciting new updates that expand upon the in-game universe, and provide feedback through the Steam Community Hub that our developers can take into consideration.... [W]e will be sharing an exciting and robust roadmap with content already planned for 2023. Throughout Early Access we will provide players with more weapons, an updated class leveling system as well as progression achievements and unlockable skins for both weapons and armor. Additionally we will be adding vehicles special call in attacks including massive Orbital Strikes to help during missions. On the enemy side we will be adding more bugs, flying enemies, and boss battles that require complex player coordination to accomplish.
As we progress in development, our goal is to then begin ongoing planetary battles where the player can explore new items and enemies introduced in previous updates as an epic war breaks out. This transition adds a new world as we head to the completion of Early Access. The intent throughout Early Access is to convey that this part of our development cycle is the beginning of the war and the battle will only increase in complexity and ferocity as we move to full release.
Starship Troopers: Extermination is expected to be in Early Access for approximately 1 year. The full version of Starship Troopers: Extermination will span multiple worlds to liberate them from the Arachnid Threat. This will include additional weapons, enemies types, class progression upgrades, community events, and encounters. The player will have a more diverse roster of customization options allowing them to tailor their Troopers to fit their playstyle and experience." Starship Troopers: Extermination will launch with a massive map on Planet Valaka. Up to twelve players can team up to complete side and main missions before escaping to the extraction zone. We'll have more to share closer to the Early Access launch in 2023!
We plan to work closely with the community on Steam's Community Hub and in the official Starship Troopers: Extermination Discord as we add features, tune gameplay, and develop new content.
"Starship Troopers is in a league of its own when it comes to 90s science fiction films," writes Boing Boing's Devin Nealy. "Despite serving as an adaptation of the Robert A. Heinlein book, Starship Troopers forges a unique identity through its striking visuals and deft use of satire."
Noting the two "pretty weak" straight-to-video sequels (and two more CGI-animated films), Nealy argues that "Until the franchise finds a creative team that can properly capture the essence of the first film, a video game might be the best option for the series."
An official announcement and gameplay teaser were released for the upcoming game this week. "Starship Troopers: Extermination is a co-op FPS that puts you on the far-off front lines of an all-out battle against the Bugs!" explains its page on Steam. "Squad up, grab your rifle, and do your part as an elite Deep Space Vanguard Trooper set to take back planets claimed by the Arachnid threat!"
The page says an "Early Access" launch is planned for 2023: In Starship Troopers: Extermination, our vision is to show a galactic war between the Federation and the Arachnid Empire. After our initial launch and throughout the course of Early Access development, players will get to engage with exciting new updates that expand upon the in-game universe, and provide feedback through the Steam Community Hub that our developers can take into consideration.... [W]e will be sharing an exciting and robust roadmap with content already planned for 2023. Throughout Early Access we will provide players with more weapons, an updated class leveling system as well as progression achievements and unlockable skins for both weapons and armor. Additionally we will be adding vehicles special call in attacks including massive Orbital Strikes to help during missions. On the enemy side we will be adding more bugs, flying enemies, and boss battles that require complex player coordination to accomplish.
As we progress in development, our goal is to then begin ongoing planetary battles where the player can explore new items and enemies introduced in previous updates as an epic war breaks out. This transition adds a new world as we head to the completion of Early Access. The intent throughout Early Access is to convey that this part of our development cycle is the beginning of the war and the battle will only increase in complexity and ferocity as we move to full release.
Starship Troopers: Extermination is expected to be in Early Access for approximately 1 year. The full version of Starship Troopers: Extermination will span multiple worlds to liberate them from the Arachnid Threat. This will include additional weapons, enemies types, class progression upgrades, community events, and encounters. The player will have a more diverse roster of customization options allowing them to tailor their Troopers to fit their playstyle and experience." Starship Troopers: Extermination will launch with a massive map on Planet Valaka. Up to twelve players can team up to complete side and main missions before escaping to the extraction zone. We'll have more to share closer to the Early Access launch in 2023!
We plan to work closely with the community on Steam's Community Hub and in the official Starship Troopers: Extermination Discord as we add features, tune gameplay, and develop new content.
"Starship Troopers is in a league of its own when it comes to 90s science fiction films," writes Boing Boing's Devin Nealy. "Despite serving as an adaptation of the Robert A. Heinlein book, Starship Troopers forges a unique identity through its striking visuals and deft use of satire."
Noting the two "pretty weak" straight-to-video sequels (and two more CGI-animated films), Nealy argues that "Until the franchise finds a creative team that can properly capture the essence of the first film, a video game might be the best option for the series."
Re: A Heinlein classic (Score:4, Insightful)
...his stuff was as insightful as the material from Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley, and A.E. van Vogt...
R.A.H. put all those guys to shame; why do you think he was considered one of the three Grand Masters?
Only Iain M. Banks has reached Heinlein's level.
I would not write them off (Score:1)
Bradbury is insightful generally but The Martian Chronicles is a masterwork, like Frankenstein by Shelley on par with Melville, Fitzgerald, Celine, or Burroughs in terms of looking into the modern condition. H.G. Wells (and Jules Verne) wrote some of the epic questions of science and technology into their work, and it is a mistake to discount them. Too much of science fiction misses out on the literary side and becomes miserable (like everything Orson Scott Card wrote after Ender's Game).
Re: A Heinlein classic (Score:4, Funny)
R.A.H. put all those guys to shame; why do you think he was considered one of the three Grand Masters?
Only Iain M. Banks has reached Heinlein's level.
Would you like to know more?
Re: (Score:2)
I'll wait.
Re: Not really (Score:1)
Why, may I ask? I hope you're not cherry-picking turds (to coin a phrase/dilute a metaphor); is it a dud or something? To be fair to the guy, it looks like a rather ear
Re: (Score:2)
It is 100% unlike his other books.
Attraction and repulsion (Score:1)
Ideology never draws me to any work; however, it can drive me away, whether that is Ayn Rand or Barbara Kingsolver. Part of this is because generally ideology consists of oversimplifications to make humans feel better about the things we cannot control.
Re: Not really (Score:1)
While as a Nationalist I support Scottish independence...
If I might ask... dors that mean true independence - or just choosing a different master besides the monarchist-fucks to your south?
For what it's worth, my "bastard half-breed lineage" means lots of English, German and Austrian blood in my ancestry - but the paternal branch of my family tree has resulted in both my first and last names being Scottish... and likely my temperament as well. *grin*
Independence... and responsibility (Score:1)
Scotland has gutted itself by making itself effete, the same way Jews and Uyghurs have, because for the past thousand years they have blamed all their problems on the English. This has resulted in Scotland being a self-pitying little Communist hugbox that does very little of note. When I say independence, I mean true independence, and this would create massive changes in Scotland once they had to pay for their own defense and social programs. I think the nation would become much farther Right and stop appoi
Re: A Heinlein classic (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
We're all so proud of you!
Re: (Score:2)
IMO Heinlein is way overrated and had a weird obsession with slide rulers.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: A Heinlein classic (Score:5, Insightful)
You're forgetting (or perhaps never realized) one of the fundamental tenants of fiction: depiction is not endorsement. That's true even if the depiction isn't obviously negative: Heinlein in particular likes to depict things from the perspective of characters who have found success and achievement within the world, so of course that character isn't going to view the world as bad. But that tells you absolutely nothing about what Heinlein actually thinks about, well, anything. Just taking The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers he'd have to simultaneously be a militaristic fascist and a libertarian anarchist.
His works aren't supposed to be saying "hey this is an ideal universe", they're about exploring things that might happen and the some of the consequences of those ideas. Like Starship Troopers, for example: he's not saying that citizen service is the optimal solution government rule, he's exploring a possible alternative to universal suffrage. That alternative has some good things about it (such as requiring citizens to be invested in society before they can vote), and some bad ones (for e.g. former military tend to all view the universe a specific, not necessarily correct, way). That's one of the things science fiction is about: exploring interesting ideas and concepts, not necessarily because they're good ideas, but because they're interesting ones.
Re: (Score:2)
and will ship with software bugs DLC at $0.00 (Score:3)
and will ship with software bugs DLC at $0.00
"the essence of the first film" (Score:2)
Book vs movie (Score:2, Interesting)
The movie was amusing but completely flipped RAH's message about life, citizenship, government, personal responsibility and so on.
It also dramatically changed combat from "1 human in a power suit with incredible weaponry wipes out a zillion worker bugs sent to distract from the 1 warrior mixed into the crowd" to "20 naked humans with pea shooters vs thousands of bugs when it takes 6 humans to kill a single bug with concentrated point blank fire". The book made sense. The movie version leaves no realistic
Re: (Score:1)
You may have discovered how we'll get cold fusion.
The Mars movie was super terrible. The anime was "ok, I guess". But given the source material was the movie not the books, expectations for decent sequel of any sort was very low.
Re:Book vs movie (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
I understood what he was doing. That's fine.
But he should have used some other material or wrote his own, not destroyed RAH's.
I'm not bothered by his world view, politics or anything of that nature. I'm bothered specifically that he ruined one of my favorite childhood books.
As far as Americans not getting it? I dunno, could be so, but I've not seen that from the tiny anecdotal sample I've discussed it with.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
Well, no accounting for taste. There wasn't much of anything in the movie worth get excited about. I doubt he realizes that.
Re: (Score:1)
Seriously? Modded (-1, mod has no taste in movies, illiterate, never read a good book).
The mars movie was complete shit and the first movie was meh at best to anyone who loved and understood the book and enjoyed RAH in general.
Re: Book vs movie (Score:1)
I never read the entire book but the fascist ultra patriotic lean was actually satire in my mind. You know, like living in Virginia? Kidding. But really, I get the same moral from "the forever war"...and you kind of have to look for it in both.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep the book was great, the movie was crap. Fortunately RAH was dead by that time.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Speculative Access (Score:4, Interesting)
In Starship Troopers: Extermination, our vision is to show a galactic war between the Federation and the Arachnid Empire. After our initial launch and throughout the course of Early Access development, players will get to engage with exciting new updates that expand upon the in-game universe, and provide feedback through the Steam Community Hub
So this is what it's come to.
This is worse than vaporware. This is just blowing smoke. You will "get to engage with"... well... what? They sure don't know. What is the "in-game universe;" they don't describe it. They don't have a product, a core experience they can describe, and they're already talking about "exciting new updates?" From the screenshots, it's - I guess - a 12 player co-op FPS. I can't even tell if both sides will be playable. But the above quoted description sounds like a 4x. You know what a "vision" is when you can't even say "it's a competitive, team-based FPS/RTS hybrid?" Well, it's not a vision. There is absolutely no vision in that blurb. The vision is left to the reader to project into what amounts to a product pitch.
The ad copy reminds me of the System Shock remake that Nightdive Kickstarted in 2016. Still no product, btw. Prospective developers can produce amazing 2 minute tech demos and represent that they have a game they are making, without even putting any real design work in. In the case of System Shock, they hadn't even decided if they were using Unity or Unreal. I assume Unity was easier to blow smoke with, but it turned out they needed Unreal to deliver their vision. And they had a fully finished game to use as that vision.
These folks have some movie assets and a reasonably competent copywriter.
IMO, feeding the "Early Access" machine has led to this new genre: "Speculative Access." Actual developers used to offer an unfinished product. Then prospective developers started offering unfinished tech demos that you could play. Now marketers have started offering unfinished tech demos that you can watch on YouTube, and may as well be a skinned mod for all we know.
Good luck with that. Early access is enjoyable, because you are buying a thoughtfully developed, if unfinished, product. Ordering some marketer's unrealized imagination and ambitions probably won't be much fun at all.
Re: (Score:2)
IMO, feeding the "Early Access" machine has led to this new genre: "Speculative Access."
Every good idea will be abused by bottom-feeders.
Early Access works great for indie developers who can't afford to work on something for 2-3 years without revenue stream. If you put a working but unfinished game there, where players can see where it's going and give you money to finish it - that's a great model for everyone involved. But more and more, you need to be aware of scams. Sure, some indie early access games never get finished, either. But they are honestly trying. This stuff is basically paid-for
Re: (Score:2)
No core concept? It's a shooter. It's going to play like all of the millions of other shooters that have been made.
As for the rest, I happen to think it's rather clever to tie the game's narrative to its development. Hopefully they're able to pull that off well.
just wrong (Score:2)
Turning that into an action game is just wrong.
I can't see how you can keep the core message intact - the thing that it is all about, you know? In an action game, the player wants to win, wants to be a hero. A strategy or roleplaying game MIGHT be able to pull that off, to leave you with the sweet-sour aftertaste the story needs. But not a shooter. Not a big-studio shooter that first of all needs to be a commercial success.
Re:just wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
You could easily turn the book into an action game. Saving Private Ryan was an action movie after all. You start off dropping from orbit as MOB with half your mates being slaughtered by incoming plasma fire, and the backstory and bits of personal responsibility get filled in as 60-90 second flashback chunks throughout the game. However, that would take actual talent to achieve, which makes it extremely unlikely to happen.
Re: (Score:2)
Look up spec ops: the line
wrong date (Score:3)
Also, nitpicking: Starship Troopers is from 1959, not 1997. So it's the 64th anniversary. 1997 was the movie adaptation.
There also was a computer game before [wikipedia.org] and it was apparently terrible.
Correct Date (Score:2)
They are very obviously referring to the movie. The game is also based in the movie's universe, not the book's.
Co-op? No thanks. (Score:2)
I prefer my games to have a plot, or at the very least an excuse for one. This announcement makes it sound more like a slog for XP and "items" that won't last the year it spends in beta, much like the new Warhammer game and every dead MMO ever.
I am startled (Score:4, Informative)
...at the number of people who apparently don't understand that Starship Troopers was satire.
The movie was, the book wasn't + Aliens Fireteam (Score:2)
The book was a serious military propaganda book, though. I didn't know that when I picked it up right after seeing the movie (there wasn't as vigorous movie analysis that was easy to find online back in 1997). It was good, but
Re: (Score:2)
He does. Robocop (the original) is another one of his satire movies. He was parodying the future of policing with it. Of course, the subsequent sequels didn't actually get that aspect.
The whole point was to comment on corporatism, and militarization of the police. Back in the 80s, the two ideas was considered so absurd that it couldn't possibly happen, of course, by the time the millennium rolls around, it's exactly what we have.
I'm doing my part (Score:2)
Why? (Score:2)
The book might be decent source material for a game, but that suckhole of a movie is best forgotten. Unless you're watching it with RiffTrax, which is really the only reason to ever watch it a second time.
admin (Score:1)