I added Starship Troopers: Extermination (commonly referred to by its players as STE) to my watchlist after seeing the presentation for the 0.8.0 update during the Future Games Show. The Future Games Show was Saturday evening (eastern time) after the main Summer Game Fest (SGF) keynote of Friday, June 7th. I had a total of 8 games that made my list out of the show. STE was number 7 and it came up for revisit and check-in today. You can peep the highlights here in the YouTube cut-out of that part of FGS
It just so happens that the 0.8.0 update goes live tomorrow, 10PM PT / 1PM ET. The game, which launched into Early Access on Steam on May 17, 2023, currently has mixed reviews from the Steam user community (51%). The main culprit behind this is apparently the team’s decision to migrate from UE4 to UE5 sometime last fall. Prior to that the game enjoyed much better reception, with overall Steam Community reviews sitting at Very Positive (86%). The game remains in Early Access, which was originally projected to only last for a year. While we have crept past that, the development studio, Offworld Games, did announce at SGF/FGS that STE was leaving Early Access and launching on multiple platforms (PC via Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S) on October 11, 2024. The game is also available in Early Access on the Epic Games Store (EGS). I would assume it will leave early access there in October, too, but I do not see mention of that on the EGS store page, and I have not found it corroborated in writing at any reputable outlet.
STE is developed by Offworld, more formally incorporated as Offworld Industries. The company has been involved in some controversy for its role in defense contracting, investment money from Tencent, and ousting its CEO to be replaced by someone with extensive monetization experience in the mobile industry. Take that for what you will. You can take a look at their roadmap here.
There was a more recent update posted, that seems to have since been taken down, so what might be in the air since they decided to go with a multiplatform release this fall I am not sure. But General Rico himself has been enlisted to lead the troops in the single-player campaign which is set to be part of the 1.0 release this fall. That mode will offer 25 missions, and will have some PvE missions to-boot, which I guess means co-op is planned as a feature. It will eventually gain expanded DLC in the single-player campaign after the initial release.
The game is currently unsupported on Steam Deck, but maybe at least the single-player campaign will eventually be playable on it sometime after the 1.0 launch. Update 0.7.1 went live on May 6th, 2024. Update 0.8.0 introduces:
- Weak Points – where most bugs will have a weak point, they will all have an armor rating, and parts of their body where there is no armor and they are vulnerable. All weapons will have an Armor Penetration rating. All of this with the intent to add depth to the shooting mechanics of the game
- Introduces a new planet, Planet X-11 – “set in the Tibannis system within an Arachnid Quarantine Zone”
- Adds FMJ and Hollow Point ammo types
- Adds the Carnage system, where bug bodies do not die and therefore dead bugs can be used to climb on top of. But, also, the enemy can use those same dead bug bodies to surmount obstacles and get over base walls
Rounding Off Infinity 