Starship Troopers Extermination copies Left 4 Dead's neatest trick in new update

Back when Left 4 Dead came out in 2008, one of its most notable features was an AI game system referred to as the 'Director.' This Director worked to keep the co-op game fresh, no matter how many times players shot and slashed through its levels, by dynamically adjusting elements like item and enemy spawn points or music cues based on individual player skill and status. Now, in an effort to improve player experience in a similar way, the Helldivers 2-style co-op game Starship Troopers: Extermination has added in its own version of L4D's director through a new update.

Starship Troopers: Extermination left Early Access on Steam late last year, adapting the book and film into a 16-player co-op game. Its creator, Offworld, has now introduced its biggest improvement to date with the launch of Update 1.6, which not only provides a variety of fixes, balance adjustments, and optimizations, but also an ambitious new feature.

Called 'The Director,' just as in Left 4 Dead, Extermination's version of the system is described on the game's Steam page as "a total overhaul of how we handle enemy spawns" that's "been in development for quite some time." Offworld explains that its Director was designed to give the studio more flexibility in handling spawns across various game modes while providing better technical performance, improved match pacing, and future proofing for further updates.

"It takes into account things like player positioning, mission objectives, pacing intensity, and spawn zone availability," the update description reads. "Whether you're holding a point or racing to extract, The Director can adjust the tempo to make combat feel more dynamic and deliberate."

Starship Troopers: Extermination's 1.6 update is live now. You can pick up a copy of the game on Steam right here.

Otherwise, you can find more options to check out in our picks of the best space games and best FPS games on PC.

Or, if you're looking for other players to squad up with, you can also swing by our community Discord server.