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June 21, 2000 PC > previews > Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy Take the war straight to the bugs without having to deal with that stupid Doogie Howser. For every game that makes it to release, there are dozens of others that never see the light of day. Such was almost the case with Starship Troopers. But we're happy to say, after talking with Producer Tom Zahorik, that the game is back on track and headed for a September release. The squad based RTS has been built on a brand new 3D engine designed specifically for the game. Unlike most RTS games, Starship Troopers features no resource collection or building construction. All you need to concentrate on is the fighting and managing your squad. The focus of the game (and the book and movie for that matter) is the squad. Squad management is what this game is all about. Like Ground Control, Starship Troopers gives you only a limited squad and it's up to you to get to the end of the mission using only what you're given at the start. Or as Tom puts it, "Once they're gone, that's it." Each of the soldiers you're issued is rated in several performance areas like strength, accuracy, speed and psychic ability. These abilities will increase as your troopers see more and more action. You'll even be able to award medals to specific troopers and thereby increase their skills in particular areas. You can have up to three squads of seven soldiers each. But you don't have to take 21 guys out on every single mission if you don't want to. In fact, it may be better to keep some of your forces in reserve in case something goes horribly, horribly wrong. And since this is a Starship Troopers game, you can bet your ass that something is going to go horribly wrong just about every minute. A single squad is composed of a leader, up to five soldiers and maybe even a specialist. The specialists are not technically combatants but serve in more traditional combat support roles. You can choose to take a medic along to heal your troops, an engineer to fix equipment or a stealth operative to use for reconnaissance. The psychic operative is the most intriguing and, ultimately, the most useful. He can detect bugs that have cloaked or are hiding under ground. He can also mind control a bug and turn him on his own kind. The game features a twenty-mission campaign. According to Tom, the first third of the campaign is roughly contemporaneous with the book. After you get past the sixth or seventh mission, the story will assume a character all its own. Even though the incidents of Heinlein's story and the first few missions will be related, don't look for any of the characters from the book or movie here. Your C.O. will brief you on the specific details of each mission and outline your objectives. Once you've received your scenario briefing, you'll need to outfit your squad. The game takes a step closer to the book than the movie did by including "power armor." There are three separate levels of armor for each type of suit, ranging from Class I (the lowest) to Class III (the highest). The Command armor is best used by the guys in charge but it's not limited to them necessarily. The Scout armor is quick and mobile and ideal for situations where you know you're going to need to run away. The Marauder armor is the opposite of the Scout. It's big, slow and heavy but can absorb a lot of punishment. The suits also have jump jets which are really remarkably easy to use. Once you've selected the armor, you'll need to outfit your troopers with weapons. The game includes the standard rifles, shotguns and chainguns but there are also grenade and missile launchers, nuclear weapons and specimen capture guns. You'll use these to capture bugs to take back to the base for "research" purposes. Your research may even reveal a particular weakness of that bug type, say to flamethrowers or really giant boots. Fittingly, most of the action in Starship Troopers involves killing lots and lots of bugs. The fifteen types of bugs in the game and the team plans to have lots and lots of bugs on the screen at any one time. To me, that's so important. Anyone who has a real understanding of the story knows that the drama is generated by the sheer number of bugs that the troopers have to face. Sure there are other things that create suspense and excitement in the game, but you just can't beat a huge bug rush when you want to make someone wet their pants. We'd say more about the bugs, but part of the fun of the game is discovering what they can do on your own. I guess you can call it fun when you realize that the giant beetle creature in front of you is capable of incinerating your entire squad in a matter of…oh, I've said to much already. But as Tom says, "You'll also be fighting situations as well." Beyond the normal bug killing that you'll be doing, many of the missions will feature less aggressive objectives. There will be missions that involve putting out fires, or escorting important convoys or personnel across hostile territory. The game will also switch things up and put your troops on the defensive. I don't know about you guys but the most exciting parts of the book were the last stand, Alamo-like situations. Lots and lots of bugs swarming over the walls, invading your base will have you seeking out your roommates for a nice reassuring hug. Likewise the underground missions are sure to have you jumping at the slightest sound. From a purely visual standpoint, Starship Troopers looks pretty good. We haven't yet been able to get the build we have to run in the higher resolutions, but the game looks okay in 640x480, 32bit resolution. The number of polygons for each model has been scaled down to reduce slowdown when lots and lots of units are on the screen at the same time. We were suitably impressed when Tom spawned dozens and dozens fo bugs without any apparent slowdown in game speed. The game may support resolutions up to 1024x728. Given the visual brilliance of games such as Ground Control and Earth 2150, Starship Troopers definitely has an uphill battle. The camera controls are still a little awkward but this is more a factor of the instability of the build rather than any shortcoming in the design of the camera interface. The multiplayer aspects of the game are still up in the air at this point. We here at IGNPC enjoy cooperative play, perhaps because we cooperate so rarely in real life. The design team is "toying with the idea of co-op squads" with up to three players each assuming control of a single squad. There may even be a training sim where you and your buddies can go head to head with your squads. Whether or not you can control the bugs hasn't been determined yet, but it doesn't look now like that option is being seriously considered. The lack of a manual has really hampered me in writing this preview. I can see lots and lots of features that I just don't know what to do with yet. The game has had its frustrating moments but this is more due to the game's incompleteness. When everything is in place and I have a manual to explain what it all does, Starship Troopers looks like it will offer lots of enjoyment for both fans of the license and RTS nerds -- of which I am both. -- Stephen Butts

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