Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 is a serious Starship Troopers

pcgamesn.com:

Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 is looking rather good. Building on the high-octane over-the-shoulder action of the first, this co-op third-person fantasy game will see you facing down huge swarms of Tyranids, with the insectoid xenos arriving in vast swarms courtesy of developer Saber Interactive’s World War Z tech. As Space Marine 2 creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick tells us in an interview at Gamescom 2023 ahead of the Space Marine 2 release date, the likes of Aliens and Starship Troopers were big influences on the team.

We’re in the second level of the game, fighting through a muddy, horrible battlefield reminiscent of World War I – explosions ringing and shouts echoing through the air. Then, they appear. Hundreds of meters away at first, hordes and hordes of tyranids running in packs towards us. In no time, we’re absolutely swarmed.

It’s a moment that’s immediately reminiscent of Starship Troopers, so we ask Hollis-Leick if that was an intentional choice. “We use some of the Starship Troopers scenes for references for how we wanted those swarms to take place,” he remarks, specifically picking out the attack on Whiskey Outpost, where the troopers attempt to defend a base as the hostile bugs pour over the walls.

The tone of Space Marine 2 is much more serious, however. “Whereas Starship Troopers is a bit more comical and cartoonish – and the first [Space Marine] was at times like that too – with this game we’ve got a very realistic approach.” The direction to the voice cast this time, therefore, was less one of jovial bravado, but rather “this should feel like a struggle for your life,” he notes.

Another key influence is the Aliens series. “A lot of these designs from when these creatures were first created were