A human life is not worth much and for the progress of the federation sometimes a number of mobile infantry squadrons are sacrificed – it has to be. Welcome to the world of Starship Troopers Terran Command, a real-time strategy (RTS) game set in the world of Robert A. Heinlein’s eponymous sci-fi world.
The setting is familiar: Mankind is fighting insectoid bugs on various planets. Why? Doesn’t matter. Always on it! And don’t ask too many questions.
The Earth Army features everything from a simple rifle-wielding grunt to electric rifles, rocket launchers, naval officers, or armored mechs loaded with fire-breathing weapons. Everything is right for victory.
In contrast to RTS classics like “Age of Empires” and Co. is not researched and not much built. Rather, radio stations are captured and equipment is droppedshipped from orbit. This is also how reinforcements for troops decimated in battle get to the planets.
This is also sorely needed, because the individual soldier in “Starship Troopers Terran Command” has a rather short life. Hacking bugs, exploding bugs, biting bugs, bugs shooting plasma or spitting acid – the number of possible deaths in Mobile Infantry is large.
Anyone who only dullly goes to war against the beetles will uselessly burn many young digital earthlings. Rather, the terrain must be used cunningly. Increases give visibility and range, bottlenecks let the abilities of individual units come into their own.
In this way, the units gain experience and new skills – a small incentive not to burn them. If you place your troops cleverly, you will efficiently smoke out the bug structures. On the other hand, if you run around shooting wildly, the bugs will catch you.
But sometimes the superiority is simply too great. The fleet command, however, has little sympathy. Go to the enemy, they say. Make peace with more weapons, please.
Even if you buy other troops some time by pointlessly waiting until the last round: It doesn’t matter, the Federation will remember the victim, says the voice over the radio.
If you think you’re in a militaristic nightmare: Yes, that’s what “Starship Troopers Terran Command” can feel like. The game constantly rides the razor blade between war lust and satire – although it’s not always entirely clear what’s going on now.
On the one hand, every “victory” – you are always on the verge of a big victory – in a mission feels like a defeat, because large parts of your own people are constantly biting the sand. Only the fascist leadership of the federation can sell that as a victory, right?
The alter ego also comments quite caustically on the inhuman commands and comments from the top army command and special forces. Is that a criticism of militarism? May be.
On the other hand, digital soldiers are constantly being sent to a relatively certain and rather pointless death. But it doesn’t matter: At the push of a button, fresh troops will immediately fly from the sky – the individual is worth nothing.
Particularly macabre: In one mission you have to escort a fugitive prisoner to his execution – which is of course broadcast live on TV – and put down a prisoner revolt. Elsewhere, miners are being forced into bug-infested mines.
Anyone who knows Heinlein’s book “Starship Troopers” from 1959 and the caustically satirical film “Starship Troopers” by Paul Verhoeven (1997) can hopefully classify the video game adaptation well. If you don’t know the template, you have to be able to suppress it hard. Otherwise, parts of the game are otherwise difficult to bear.
Conclusion: Nevertheless, “Starship Troopers Terran Command” is an exciting RTS game with varied missions, good balance and interdependence of the units. The challenge level is high – if you keep failing, you can lower the level of difficulty. Mobile Infantry does a lot of things well, but doesn’t reinvent the genre either.
All in all, genre fans won’t be disappointed. For all the trappings, the novel and film are a real recommendation. With a current price of 25 euros (Steam or GOG for PC), the demanding battles against the nasty bugs are not too expensive either.
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