Starship Troopers: Terran Command - The Eradicators DLC Review

When I played Starship Troopers: Terran Command back in 2022, it immediately became one of my favourite RTSs of all time. Although the game was little more than Company of Heroes set in a universe I adore, its mechanics were solid and the storyline was full of camp. The title didn’t reinvent the genre’s attack jeep, as it were, but it didn’t have to. Almost four years after launch, I still play it occasionally for the same reason I did when I was still in school: it’s fun, and I can pretend I’m John Rico’s commander. 

Starship Troopers: Terran Command’s third DLC, The Eradicators doesn’t change that. The expansion adds a dozen-odd new units to toy around with, and a short campaign to beat. The asking price is a bit high for what you get. However, assuming you’re already interested or invested in the base game, it’s worth paying just to have an excuse to play through the ultimate piece of post-1997 Starship Troopers media again.

The theme of The Eradicators is, counter-intuitively, about taming bugs. The (mostly) nameless and faceless members of the Alliance you control this time around can use a macguffin that allows them to control the aliens you’re tasked with killing. They shoot darts that can pacify arachnids, and occasionally convince the creatures to fight for you. The DLC’s narrative is all about doing that on the Mars-like planet of Ghutana. The new faction also appears in the game's Territory Mode, bringing in troops that don't wear the armour later repurposed for Firefly.

Nothing on offer here is new, at least in the strictest sense of the word. Your goal is still to wipe out the arachnid threat using disposable troops, and your fights in the DLC still obviously take place in real time. In case you were expecting a “but…” coming, there isn’t one. The Eradicators is just more content for Starship Troopers: Terran Command. The new units you have at your disposal are interesting to toy around with, as they lack the numbers of the Combat Infantry but have plenty of neat gadgets. They slot neatly into the existing roster and feel well balanced.

‍The Eradicators’ storyline, too, is more of the same. You can beat the DLC’s campaign in a few hours, and it’s fun enough. There aren’t as many self-aware jokes about the horrors of war as there were in the base game, nor anything that lingers in the mind afterwards. It’s popcorn entertainment in its purest form: easy to digest, and not something your doctor’ll recommend you experience on a daily basis.

The real appeal of The Eradicators is what it adds to Territory Mode, and the reminder that Territory Mode exists at all. The mode quietly launched a few months back, with it focusing on traditional RTS battles instead of ones that are narrative-centric. You don’t actually have to own any of Starship Troopers: Terran Command’s DLCs to play it, and you can use the units from whichever ones you do to play. It’s a properly good way to kill a few hours, and probably the best aspect of the title as a whole besides its main storyline. That is, of course, assuming you like the title as a whole.

Whether or not you already enjoy Terran Command is the only question that really matters before buying The Eradicators. The expansion doesn’t do anything groundbreaking. It’s just more Starship Troopers: Terran Command that you have to pay a few bucks for. The Eradicators’ storyline is good, and its new units are both balanced and fun to use. It expands a mode you probably didn't know existed, and provides enough new content to keep you occupied for a few hours. The DLC isn’t Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty levels of good. It’s more in line with the second and third Starship Troopers movies, for better or worse.