efore Starship Troopers was adapted into a hit film by director Paul
Verhoeven, it was classic novel by Robert A. Heinlein. Now it is also a
real-time strategy game with some role-playing elements for the PC
from Micropose. The setting is the 23rd century, where humanity's
government gives the vote only to military veterans. The backbone of that
military is the powered-armor-wearing Mobile Infantry, and when humanity
goes to war with the alien Arachnids, it is the MI that spearheads the
attack. In the game, the player's job is to command up to three squads of MI
troopers through a series of missions, each a step closer to ending the
war.
Before each mission, a specified number of troopers are selected
from the available pool, and then equipped.
Troopers have differing experience and skills, and it is best to take the time
to match the weapons and armor with those troops best able to use them.
Once the mission begins, players use a point-and-click set of controls,
combined with a tactical map to deploy the squads in formations, which are then
sent off on simple missions: attack this site, defend this point, etc.
Individual troops can also be detached and sent off on their own missions,
such as snipers being sent forward to soften up the enemy. By switching
from squad to squad and trooper to trooper as the battle evolves, changing
orders as needed, players try to defeat the computer's forces of bugs.
In the Heinlein novel, the MI was all about their powered armor. In the
movie, the armor was ditched so the actors' faces could been seen and the
special-effects hassles avoided. The game falls in the middle. Powered
armor is available, even suits that allow the novel's trademark bouncing,
but the characters must progress through several missions
before the threat level becomes high enough that all troopers will be
provided armor.
A little patience pays off big
The graphics in ST are very good, and very detailed for the things
players need to survive the game. The troopers appear in the proper armor,
carrying their correct weapons. The aliens are well differentiated and easy
to identify. Camera movement is simple and intuitive, but it could
use a zoom control. Also, the tactical map, which is critical to getting
anything done, is very small. Were it as large as the main view, the game
could be played almost entirely on it.
There are two reasons that ST requires patience, particularly if
it is a player's first real-time strategy game. First is the manual, which is
incomplete, and second are the
missions, which are hard. Reading the
ST manual doesn't take very long, but it also fails to teach players
the game. Once the game is booted up, there are four tutorials that players
can complete, but they don't teach the game either. And, annoyingly, they
are conducted by a drill sergeant persona who issues all commands in a yell.
The sergeant responds to failure with abuse, and then simply repeats the
same inadequate instructions he gave the first time.
By reading the manual and by playing the tutorials (maybe more than
once), players will work out the mechanics of the game's interface and learn
to command their troops. And then come the missions, and the learning
starts all over again. There is a half-page of suggestions in the manual
about how to conduct the troopers to best win the missions, but the missions
require much more finesse than is outlined in those few words. Players who
have played RTS games before will be way ahead here, but as in so many
computer games, it comes down to luring parts of the enemy's forces out of
their positions and then defeating them individually.
