Bill Paid

It’s safe to say we’re not exactly in a golden age for the RTS genre, but that shouldn’t stop us peeking between our fingers occasionally for a glimmer of hope. Slitherine Ltd. and The Artistocrats adaptation of Starship Troopers is by comparison a blinding ray of light for the future of the genre.

Progress can’t come without change, and unfortunately the hundreds of Command and Conquer clones that hit Steam every year are proof that a simple reskin and aesthetic adjustment isn’t going to pump the life back into RTS games. For that reason, if you’re not willing to make some adaptations to the way you engage with these games, it might not be for you. Starship Troopers: Terran Command is not afraid to flip a mechanic on its head occasionally and the game is all the better for it.

Starting you off in the ill-fated counter-attack on Klendathu similarly depicted in Starship Troopers’ 1997 film, the game guides you through the core mechanics with a pace suitable for even those who have never touched an RTS before. If you have plenty of experience with RTS games – don’t worry. The handholding doesn’t persist, and before too long the reins are completely released.

What will likely strike you from the very beginning, whether you’re consciously aware of it or not, is the games soundtrack. Courtesy of Kejero’s Better Adaptive Music (BAM!), the action has never felt more reactive.

I also want the music to behave like film music. Games have been trying that for years – the composer writes multiple versions of the same music and the game crossfades between them according to the action on screen. These traditional techniques are 86% effective, but in a movie you don’t intensify the music by fading in trumpets. Why accept it in games? So I created a new system and I call it BAM. With BAM, every instrument in the orchestra decides individually how and when to start and finish playing a melody.

– Kejero

Whether you’re on the offense, valiantly retreating, or skulking around the spooky bug tunnels, the soundtrack’s reactivity is palpable. It’s not often an RTS can get you holding your breath in anticipation, but Starship Troopers: Terran Command manages this level of immersion comfortably at times.

Unlike the majority of similar games, there is no skirmish mode or multiplayer for Starship Troopers: Terran Command. The entire game focuses on a sequence of campaigns included in expansion packs. While this could be a dealbreaker for many, the campaigns are not the tacked-on cringey rush-jobs that have become quite familiar. The story is satisfying enough and the scaling of gameplay depth alongside gradually increasing challenge make for an enjoyable experience. Admittedly the end of the game does scale to the extreme and will occasionally prove challenging in unsatisfying ways, but that’s what difficulty sliders are for…

There is an intended “Territory Mode” update expected in the future, but what exactly this will entail is not certain. I respect the developers for being transparent with their roadmap for the future, but it will be interesting to see if they go through with such a major update for free to a game now three years into its lifecycle.

The game’s core mechanic is that of line-of-sight. While in most RTS games it is perfectly viable after a certain scale to select your entire army, Ctrl+1, then right click on the enemy base – this is not the case in Starship Troopers: Terran Command. The ability to shoot over or beyond your own troops is a unit type specific ability and cannot be taken for granted. If you find yourself in a narrow valley only 2-3 units wide, then that may be as many as will be able to fight the oncoming horde of bugs. Similarly, units are incredibly vulnerable once the bugs do manage to get up close. Arrange your army incorrectly, or with the wrong target priorities, and you might find your elite Fleet Liaison split in half by a simple warrior bug coming from behind.

With a UI decisions similar to the Cossacks series of games, your troop formation is clearly laid out with every potential movement, making for gradual but deliberate movement around the map. The games pathfinding is absolutely fine, but for maximum tactical benefit you are expected to control much of it yourself.

Every RTS seems obsessed with the idea of creating Forward Operating Bases (FOBs), like a secondary base halfway across the map to speed up reinforcement. Usually in vain however, as this speedier reinforcement usually just leads to drip feeding your resources into the opponent and doubling the locations you have to keep an eye on for defence. Starship Troopers: Terran Command in contrast uses Radio Operators as a fairly inept combat unit that serves as a mobile barracks, allowing you to call down aerial reinforcement drops – occasionally even aerial bombardment.

If you do finish the core missions and expansion packs, then still find yourself wanting more, the game has a faithful community keeping content fresh through Steam Workshop. There are numerous additional scenarios available, including many ported directly from Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy, a MicroProse title with similar themes released in 2000.