It's probably not the best year to release a Starship Troopers game. Helldivers 2, a Starship Troopers game in most ways other than name, took over the gaming world when it launched in February, and today remains a big hit for players on PS5 and PC who want a fun co-op horde shooter pitting them against countless waves of alien bugs (among other threats). Launched into Steam Early Access last year, Starship Troopers: Extermination is soon hitting 1.0 and coming to consoles, which gives it a chance to go head-to-head against Arrowhead's juggernaut. Thankfully for the team at Offworld, Starship Troopers: Extermination (STE) has a special weapon in the war for timeshare; they call it carnage.

In some of the broadest and most foundational ways, STE and Helldivers 2 are very similar; they both drop players into massive maps, give them a range of objectives to complete in the face of monstrous aliens, and then demand players extract with their limbs intact. They also both feature an ongoing galactic war metagame for players to chase and cosmetics to unlock for their troubles. Both also brim with parody--in Helldivers' case, it's obvious the original Starship Troopers movie was even a direct inspiration, while in STE's case, it's maintaining that same vibe because it's a licensed adaptation.

I asked game lead Peter Maurice about the Helldivers 2-shaped elephant in the room, and he shared how he is both pleased for the team at Arrowhead and proud of what his team is creating, too. "I think I'm just happy when any developer achieves success in our game space because it's so hard. It is so hard," he said. "We've achieved success on PC, like we've sold through quite a few units and people are coming and going because they know we're [in] early access and we're trying to finish the game, but we're just really happy with what they're doing over there. They probably played our game too because our game's been in early access."