BERLIN: A human life is not worth much and many squadrons of mobile infantry have to be sacrificed for the good of the Federation.

Welcome to the world of Starship Troopers Terran Command, a real-time strategy (RTS) game where people fight giant bugs on various planets.

Why exactly is unimportant, all that matters is to keep on fighting. Everything you need militarily is supplied, from simple grunts with rifles to rocket launchers and armoured mechs with fire-breathing weapons.

Unlike RTS classics like Age of Empires, there’s not much research or building in this game. Instead it’s all about getting troops and equipment from drop-ships in orbit and quickly putting them into a bug hunt.

Speed is important because individual soldiers have rather a short life in this game. The number of ways to be killed by the alien bugs are many: some bite, some explode or shoot plasma, and others spit acid.

Clever tactics increase lifespans

Those who go blindly to war against the bugs will uselessly sacrifice many young humans. Instead, players need to exploit the terrain cleverly.

Elevations give visibility and range while narrow places let the abilities of individual units come to the fore.

In this way, units gain experience and new abilities - a small incentive not to waste them needlessly.

If you place your troops smartly, you’ll smoke out the bug-infested buildings efficiently, but if you run around shooting wildly, the bugs will get you.

Sometimes the bug superiority is simply too great, but the Federation doesn’t care. Target the enemy is the constant order.

Even if all you do is to buy some time for other troops by senselessly holding out until the last cartridge, never mind, the Federation will remember the sacrifice.

Fun but nightmarish world for strategists

Those familiar with Robert Heinlein's 1959 book Starship Troopers or Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 film of the same name will know the scenario. The game is a militaristic nightmare poised on a razor’s edge between war-mongering and satire.

The game’s atmosphere is bleak and cynical with the fascist-like leadership of the Federation declaring victories even as large number of their soldiers bite the dust.

As a player, you’re constantly sending digital soldiers to their relatively certain and rather senseless deaths.

But that doesn't matter: at the push of a button, fresh troops immediately sail down from the sky.

Starship Troopers Terran Command is an exciting RTS game with varied missions and good interdependence of the units. The challenge is tough, but those who constantly fail can lower the difficulty level.

All in all, genre fans will not be disappointed. With a current purchase price of €25/US$25/RM111.30 (Steam or GOG for PCs), the bloody battles against the nasty bugs aren't too expensive either, at least in money terms.

 - dpa