Starship Troopers: Extermination details solo campaign and Galactic Front operations ahead of October launch
On PC, Series X/S, and PS5.
Starship Troopers: Extermination developer Offworld Industries has shared more on the new features coming to its bug-stomping 16-player co-operative FPS when it leaves early access and launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on 11th October this year.
Extermination, which entered early access last May, casts players as members of the Deep Space Vanguard, an elite Special Forces branch of the Mobile Infantry whose job it is to wrest back control of planets from their bug invaders. That involves a lot of first-person bug-blasting, as well as a smattering of strategic base building and resource gathering, with Extermination's calling card being its ability to show hundreds of bugs on screen at once, as well as its piles of persistent corpses that can both help and hinder players.
Come its full launch in October, Extermination's current early access core will expand with a range of new modes and features - starting with the new single-player focused Special Operations Group campaign, fronted by Casper Van Dien, reprising the role of Johnny Rico.
At launch, Extermination will feature around 25 objective-based Special Operations Group missions, lasting between 2-3 hours in total, all designed to prepare newcomers for the game's 16-player mode within the framework of a (canonical!) narrative. It'll star three companion characters with their own backstories - cocky demolisher Moose, know-it-all ranger Scorch, and medic Jensen - and Offworld says further SOG chapters are currently in development.
On the multiplayer side of things, Extermination's 1.0 release also introduces the new Galactic Front campaign, letting clan-like companies of up to 30 people work toward a shared goal, collecting intel during time-limited challenges to earn cosmetic rewards.
Each Galactic Front operation will have a story, giving context to its challenges, and Offworld's goal is to dramatically change how planets look and feels as the narrative progresses, introducing different activities and mutations to match the crescendo of battle. And as part of Extermination's first Galactic Front operation, players will explore the frosty new planet of Boreas, encountering mutated warriors and drones, and perhaps even the new Tanker Bug.
All this is only the start of Offworld's ambitions for Starship Troopers: Extermination. It says it has a "robust" post-launch update plan, introducing new modes, further gameplay refinements, and it also hopes to add every bug and weapon from the live-action and animated movies in "next few years".
And if that's in any way convinced you to join the bug hunt, Starship Troopers: Extermination gets its 1.0 release for PC (via Steam and Epic), PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on 11th October.