Starship Troopers: Continuum adapts the sci-fi series with a new VR co-op shooter, and it’s out today on Quest.
Developed by XR Games and Sony Pictures Virtual Reality, Starship Troopers: Continuum follows the cult classic film, presenting an arcade-style wave shooter with roguelite elements. The war between Arachnids and Federation has been deadlocked for 25 years following the Battle of Klendathu. You play as a ‘PsyCommander’ that uses psychic powers to directly control troopers on the field.
Gameplay footage captured by UploadVR on Quest 3
I went hands-on with the Quest 3 version before today’s launch, jumping into a co-op session with our video producer, Don Hopper, and later going solo for comparison. A surprisingly lengthy opening tutorial details this universe’s history well for newcomers before landing at Camp Triumph, your in-game hub for buying new weapons, selecting missions, and more.
Continuum keeps weapons management straightforward with an on-body inventory system, placing two guns over your shoulders with pouches near your waists for both ammo and grenades. The manual reloading of your guns doesn’t take too much time, which works well for gameplay. I like the fact that automatic reloading can be switched to without having to visit a menu. You can do this by pointing down the gun and pressing A. It’s not fun to play alone, but once you start exploring the large maps it becomes clear that this game was made for multiplayer. The Arachnids were coming at us from every direction and I loved strategizing together with Don. It’s satisfying to blow them up using rockets or shotguns. The enemy number is also well balanced depending on the size of your party. The death of your trooper will reset you to the level 1 and remove all perks that they have earned. It’s an excellent way to punish those who are careless during battle. At least, the co-op modes allows teammate resurrections. After dying five times you can still continue the mission, but I haven’t found out what happens after that.
I’ll need to spend more time evaluating the progression system, although what I’ve already seen is encouraging. Gradually leveling up earns you a range of benefits, such as increased damage when reloading manually or faster movement. If you can keep your soldier alive for a long time, they will “graduate” into citizenship and receive additional bonuses. XR Games claims that this will allow your power to advance faster. It’s also a concern that the rest of the missions may feel pretty similar. However, any judgments about level variation would be premature at this point. The visuals on Quest 3 aren’t very good either. I haven’t played on PlayStation VR2 yet, so it’s hard to compare. This harsh desert environment isn’t very interesting. The cartoonish style was more appropriate for standalone hardware. Visual pop-in and flat environmental surfaces were also apparent, and I encountered several performance stutters when Arachnids emerged.
Still, it’s a good first impression for Starship Troopers: Continuum overall. The VR shooter isn’t the most inventive, but it does offer satisfying co-op fun. And the progress system encourages players to think strategically. Whether that’s enough for the full campaign, I’m not sure, but it’s a good start.
Starship Troopers: Continuum is out now on the
platform, and the
version will follow on November 25.