Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! Is Essentially a Helldivers 2 Demake, and It’s Fantastic
- Antal Bokor
- Mar 16
- 5 min read
Back when Helldivers 2 released, it was a huge hit. So much so that it even caught the attention of actor Casper Van Dien who portrayed expert bug killer Johnny Rico from the seminal '90s film Starship Troopers.
He made some comments about feeling like he was already a part of the Helldivers 2 world–before he pivoted into doing promotional and in-game work for relative dud Starship Troopers: Extermination. Now Van Dien is back as General Rico for another game. This time it’s a satire of a film that is itself a satire of Robert Heinlein’s original novel. Did you follow all of that? Well, it doesn’t matter, because Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a surprisingly competent riff on a '90s-style shooter that’s extremely fun to play.
I would describe Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! as a first-person demake of Helldivers 2. Like someone took a lot of the core mechanics of Helldivers 2 and put them into a first-person shooter made on something like the Build Engine. But since Helldivers 2 was already so close to Starship Troopers there are incredibly blurred lines between homage and logical gameplay translation. I don’t mean this as a bad thing, since Ultimate Bug War! takes the elements from Helldivers 2 that fit best in this demade, late '90s singleplayer shooter form.
There’s also a meta element involved, as the game is an in-universe recruitment tool in the same vein as the video game America’s Army was back when I was in high school. In universe, Ultimate Bug War! is developed by Federation Developer (Fed Dev)--a government run game developer. In Ultimate Bug War! you play as Major Sammy Dietz, reliving her exploits in what' s named the “great bug war”–but in a Federation-approved, sanitized version, which is to say: not historically accurate. This is complete with Major Dietz and General Rico both commenting on how this is “the most realistic depiction of war ever made” as they encourage you to join up.
Fed Dev themselves are even a character in the game. If you enable developer commentary in the “secrets” menu, you’ll not get commentary by the game’s actual developer, Auroch Digital, but instead be treated to an in-universe commentary from Fed Dev.
Sammy Dietz is a character that seems superhuman, but also overly enthusiastic about her role as a trooper. One of her friends dies early on, and the rest of the game sees her trying to get revenge for that death–despite the dozens of other soldiers that get gibbed around her from moment to moment. Each trooper even has a name, so you can see the human toll of the bug conflict, I guess. Or sometimes just to put a name to the pile of goo that used to be Cpl Evans. Sorry for the friendly fire, man.
Narratively, Ultimate Bug War! doesn’t really lean into the more subtle Paul Verhoeven style of satire that fooled so many film reviewers in the late '90s, but instead goes for the more straightforward style that Helldivers 2 employs. But it’s done in an appropriately over-the-top way that actually manages to fit in with the game’s themes, especially since it’s fashioned as a '90s shooter. There are even '90s-style FMV cutscenes, with a big chunk of them featuring Van Dien as General Rico.
While all of the in-universe nods and lore are a plus, it’s all for nothing if the game isn’t fun. Ultimate Bug War! turns out to be a great shooter, and a competent homage to the time frame it's emulating. This is despite of–or because of–the ideas and mechanics that were taken wholesale from Helldivers 2, like calling down resupplies, some of the types of air strikes you can call in, and even the tone of the NPCs as they deliver lines in much the same way a Helldiver would. Random NPCs will quote the movie like they’re huge Starship Troopers fans, even if the quote is slightly used out of context. In the film someone says, “Somebody made a big mistake!” when they found themselves at odds with their provided intelligence, while in the game it’s said as a threat. Or a trooper dies and says, “I guess I didn’t want to live forever.”
Unlike Helldivers 2, Ultimate Bug War! is (sadly) a singleplayer-only game. While each level is a small(ish) open map, you can often tackle each of its multitude of objectives as you see fit. This format does a good job of making you feel like you’re on a battlefield fighting the arachnid threat. Soldiers run from drop ships to fight towards their own objectives, bugs don’t just focus on you but will attack other NPCs. Plus add in the flak bugs' glowing projectiles and the Federation ordnance, and it’s really like you’re in a full-blown video game war a '90s kid could only dream of.
Combat is visceral and fun. Bugs fly apart in chunks with the requisite amount of green blood spatter as they’re shot. Human soldiers explode into gore with the slightest provocation–okay, not really, but an errant burst of your rifle can easily gib your allies. Guns look and sound authentic to the film, and the sound design does a lot in making the guns feel hefty, powerful, and fun to use. There is also a pretty big variety of weapons, so there’s probably a gun or two in the arsenal that fits your playstyle.
There are also lots of different enemies to fight. With large tanker bugs that shoot a fiery stream, archer bugs that throw projectiles from a distance, and the commonplace warrior bugs filling in the ranks and more. There is even an extra dangerous Assassin Bug that is the focus of the player character’s aforementioned vengeful motivation.
One thing Helldivers 2 doesn’t let you do is play as the enemy. But Ultimate Bug War! Has them beat because you can play as the bugs themselves. The missions are set up as “what-if” style simulations where you take control of the Assassin Bug and play through the campaign map but with the objective of killing Federal Troopers and taking out their key buildings until an area is considered “terrorized,” culminating in you destroying the command building.
You don’t get to play as a bunch of different bugs but the Assassin Bug has the ability to morph into three different forms. This means it has a bit of every bug in it. You can shoot that fiery goop that the tanker bugs can shoot, you can fly like a hopper, and you can attack with your stabby arms like a regular arachnid warrior,
I don’t know if it’s the sight of old Casper Van Dien really putting it out there as General Rico, or the general nostalgic vibe, but Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is fantastic. It’s been my favorite shooter of the year. Instead of putting more time into Marathon, I found myself sneaking away to stomp some bugs. I’m doing my part.
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