Casper van Dien, perhaps best known for his lead role as Johnny Rico in the legendary film Starship Troopers, says that while Helldivers 2 was a "good tribute," the upcoming Starship Troopers: Extermination is the genuine article, not least because he's actually in it.
Van Dien will reprise his role as Rico, serving as your commander across the 25 missions of the game's single player campaign. At Summer Game Fest, PC Gamer got to sit down with Van Dien and Peter Maurice, game lead at developer Offworld and asked how the team feels about the success of Helldivers 2. Maurice is quite cordial, stating: "I think their success brings everybody up. For me, I'm always happy for the success of another development studio, and it's a good game, it's a fun game. We're a different game."
However, Rico's Roughnecks didn't get their name by playing around, and Van Diem is taking no prisoners: "Helldivers is a good tribute to Starship Troopers. But it's not Starship Troopers. This is Starship Troopers, this is Starship Troopers: Extermination. It doesn't get any bigger than that. I have people text me things [about Helldivers]. I see things up on Instagram and all this, and I thought it was cool. But I mean, I'm Johnny Rico. And I'm in Starship Troopers."