Developer Offworld has announced that Starship Troopers: Extermination will exit early access and officially release on October 11 of this year. The release date came alongside a couple of surprise announcements as well, including the reveal of a new singleplayer campaign starring Casper Van Dien.
Starship Troopers: Extermination is a 16-player co-op FPS based on the cult classic movies. The game puts you on the frontlines of an all-out battle against the Bugs. Serving as an elite Deep Space Vanguard Trooper, you must help take back planets from the Arachnid threat.
The game has been in early access since for over a year now, but will finally be released fully on October 11th. The full version of the game spans multiple planets ready to be liberated, additional weapons and enemy types, class progression upgrades, and — as we just learned this weekend — a single-player campaign starring actor Casper Van Dien, who played protagonist Johnny Rico in the original movies.
As revealed by Offworld, General John "Johnny Rico" will command players along with their three NPC allies original to the game. The campaign will feature 25 missions at launch, with a second chapter already planned for post-release.
Additionally, it was confirmed that crossplay will be enabled at launch, allowing players to team up and fight off the Bugs across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
Players can choose from six different classes — Ranger, Demolisher, Engineer, and more — to best suit their playstyle. As a co-op PvE, there's an intuitive "Ping" system to coordinate with teammates and call out objectives, enemy threats, and more. As players progress through the game, more powerful weapons, equipment, and perks will be unlocked for each class. The game also boasts a strategic base-building component where players can build defenses, upgrade their capabilities, and reinforce their structures to destroy the Bugs.
Starship Troopers: Extermination will launch on October 11th for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
The original Starship Troopers movie was an adaptation of the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein. The film was universally panned by critics upon release, many of which interpreted the film as endorsing fascism. However, upon re-evaluation, it is now considered a cult classic — especially as its satire of fascism and authoritarian governance has grown in relevancy.
Starship Troopers has blown up in popularity recently thanks, in large part, to the release of Helldivers 2, a third-person shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios. The game, while unrelated to the movies, is believed to be heavily inspired by Starship Troopers as players fight on behalf of "Super Earth" to spread democracy throughout the galaxy.