Starship Troopers: Terran Command, review

Starship Troopers – Space Infantry It is one of those films that did not make a spark in the cinema, despite the fame of director Paul Verhoeven, who made a fuss with Atto di Forza, and despite the large budget spent on its production. Even the criticism was rather lukewarm towards him, to the point that the fate of the film seemed to be inattentive. But thanks to the domestic market, over the years she managed to regain strength and became a cult work, slightly re-evaluated by everyone, including criticism and able to give life to many sequels.

It failed to become a huge brand like Star Wars or others, but if you are reading today Starship Troopers: Terran’s Command Review It is clear that the war between humans and spiders has also managed to find its place in the collective imagination.

Who are the good guys?

If we talk about the movie and not about Robert A. Heinlein’s Space Infantry, from which the movie was created, it’s because the game refers directly to the movie, including parody Some Nazi militarism and a humanist view enslaved both physically and mentally to the expansionist goals of totalitarian governments. Not for nothing the first scene was an excerpt from the series Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl, the most famous propaganda documentary of the Third Reich.

But we go on. Title AristocratsA studio specializing in strategy, well-known among enthusiasts of the Order of Battle series, has a clear focus on the war of mankind against the spiders, an alien race that lived in peace until Earth decided to colonize the planet Kwalasha to exploit its resources.

Like good parasites, human beings do not think twice before declaring war on whatever hinders them to seize resources that do not belong to them, in an attempt to pass them to the battle of civilization and democracy. So here we are ready to lead mobile pedestrian In a large-scale military campaign in which we will essentially attempt to eradicate what is in fact the original inhabitants of the planet, so that we can suck their lifeblood undisturbed. beautiful is not it?

errands

Starship Troopers: Terran Command One Single player real time strategy As we will have to overcome a series of missions that make up the main campaign, using all the resources available to us from time to time. Unlike other titles of the same genre, we won’t have to go around collecting wood or stones to build bases and gather troops, but we’ll have to roam the maps to respond to what we’ll encounter and use our military might to eliminate spiders, sliding into their burrows after exterminating the population. In total, there are about twenty missions, which can also be replayed in scenario mode after being unlocked in the campaign. There is no multiplayer mode, but there are five selectable difficulty levels for each map, which greatly increases the life of the game, should its formula drift.

Missions are offered by Video clips It is so well crafted that it acclimatizes the player to the scenario, and provides him with the remnants of the ruthlessness of propaganda, the main driver of our actions. The first effect game itself seems to be a very classic RTS, but the peculiarity of the main opponents makes it completely alien in its dynamics.

We basically have a certain number of troops available from the start, which can be increased by calling in reinforcements via radio after invading communication centers and supply chests (the latter allowing to increase the number of units that can be summoned). We formed our army, with classic infantry armed with assault rifles, with units armed with flamethrowers capable of pitching turrets, with snipers, with units armed with rocket launchers and whatever else, we must try to reach Objectives They are reported from time to time, often multiple per map. There are usually hundreds of spiders to kill between said and done.

In fact, most battles, with the exception of the battles against other humans (which will add to enemies as the game progresses), are played primarily on Focus and resistance. That is, to repel enemy waves, you need to be able to take advantage of the bottlenecks in the maps, as well as heights, so that you have a better aim on the targets. The wrong position means that enemies will have a good chance of getting into our soldiers’ throats right away, and taking them out in one fell swoop. Spiders of them can be simple warriors, spitters, that is, insects capable of spitting acid, tigers, super-resistant warriors, tanks, that is, large, strong, highly resistant insects and others. As we said later in the game, forces of rebellious humans also appear to attack us, more or less equipped like our own.

design power

The power of Starship Troopers: Terran Command over other real-time strategy is there map design, which clearly shows the game’s exclusive single player concept. RTS maps are usually battlegrounds, where different elements balance the forces in the field. In the single player, the focus is always on the progression of the single mission, which is managed by regions, while in the multiplayer, the designers look for a greater balance, that is, they aim to give players the same possibilities in terms of resources and distances to travel, so that they do not feel deprived in any way shapes. Starship Troopers: Terran Command offers maps designed primarily to mark the different events of missions and manage the player’s progression.

For example, in one of the maps, pedestrians in space find themselves having to defend a devastated position from the growing waves of spiders. The outpost is in the center of the area, and the waves come from the south, i.e. from an area where we will never push ourselves and that serves to tempo the timing of attacks (in order to always give the player time to do). regrouping), while in the north there are mines that we must liberate by sending some troops to advance.

After the initial organization, a map Ping becomes a game between the outpost, which needs to be reorganized for attacks, and the attack team, who instead have to search for nests to clear them. In another case, we find ourselves defending a prison from spider attacks, in a map that fully shows the objectives of Starship Troopers: Terran Command. At first we have to find a fugitive by leading a small group of marines, so we have to escort him to prison.

From here we have to organize the defenses of the walls, making sure that the spiders do not disturb a certain event (we won’t tell you). Between one attack and another we can send troops to recover resources to increase the number of troops. In all this we see an area of ​​the map in the north that is apparently unused. It will be after some rejected insect wavesWhen asked to clean them of the rebels. Then we will return to defend the prison walls from a final, wide wave. All this happens in one mission.

This setting is limited to only one: there is hardly any form Continuation Between one map and the other, so everything resets every time. Elite units (through combat, each unit can gain elite level, which unlocks an additional skill) also disappears, and is replaced by new cannon fodder. It all makes sense, given the particular structure of the game, but it’s also true that in this way the sense of continuity of the whole is slightly reduced, thanks also to the fact that Starship Troopers: Terran Command is very committed to explaining its core elements, not to mention telling a story that integrates it all.

Graphics

From a technical point of view, therefore, from GraphicsDon’t expect who knows what from Starship Troopers: Terran Command. The action can be viewed at different magnification levels and shows kind-like detail for both map elements and units. It’s true that most of the time you follow the action from the maximum zoom distance, to get a clearer view of the movement, so you don’t pay much attention to the presence or absence of good graphic elements at all. However, there is a great atmosphere thanks to the correct selection of different color palettes for each task.

On the one hand Cleaning in general The procedure can always be read easily, but we had some problems locating the drives path, which in some cases literally gets stuck. Imagine how cool it was when we found ourselves in front of a tank without our units armed with rocket launchers stuck on a rock. However, we have not had very frequent cases where we were unable to apply our tactics for reasons beyond our ability, so the overall judgment is still good from this point of view, always bearing in mind that the game will be updated over time..