Alright, I’ll say this straight off the bat… Star Wars Bounty Hunter is a great game. It’s Star Wars. It’s bounty-hunting. You get to go around cracking wise and blasting people as quickly as you can press the blaster button. What isn’t to love about that?
Unfortunately, I found my first experience back underneath the Mandolorian-styled helmet less than the enjoyable hunty-bounting I had hoped it would be.
First, though, I want to talk about the good.
Table of Contents
Bounty Hunter’s Story Is The Best Part About It
While I am not strictly sure if it is still canon (thanks to the Disney retcon of everything Star Wars) the opening cutscene explains a fair bit, and it’s interesting to see. It shows The Emperor and Count Dooku discussing their need for a subject to base their clone army on. Palpatine suggests that Dooku search for the deadliest mercenary in the galaxy in an effort to bring that skill to the Clone Army. It’s a solid plan, even though I’m not sure combat skills are quite genetic.
Jango Fett is, essentially, the most dangerous man in the galaxy. Attack of the Clones does a fairly good job of showing this (if we ignore the whole Mace Windu incident). He drops Coleman Trebor like he’s a protocol droid and does a good job of almost handling Obi-Wan Kenobi on Kamino, but Star Wars Bounty Hunter lets you truly take control of this killing machine.
We also get Temuera Morrison back as Jango Fett, which is arguably the best thing about this game. He is Jango Fett, and without him, it wouldn’t be the same.
You get thrown into the action right away with Jango’s iconic blasters, but this is where the issues begin to pop up…
Star Wars Bounty Hunter’s Camera Controls Make it Unnecessarily Difficult
Primarily, the camera controls are what let Star Wars Bounty Hunter down. For the most part, combat is manageable. The game has a very strong auto-lock system which makes blasting incredibly easy. You can flip about without a care in the world, popping off to your heart’s content, but when it comes to navigating the game’s levels, it becomes tiresome and just annoying. It reminded me a lot of the original Tomb Raider with the way it played, in all honesty. However, Tomb Raider was released a whole six years before Star Wars Bounty Hunter. While the models and textures are better, I would have liked to feel like this aspect of the game had kept up with the advancements in gaming.
Another thing I found inhibiting my enjoyment was, to a degree, the level design. This could partially be attributed to the camera controls, but I found there were several instances while playing in which I simply didn’t know where to go. I like the fact that you can cut through metal grating and sneak around at parts, don’t get me wrong, but at times the hidden route was too hidden. It interrupted the flow of the game, put simply.
Overall ? Still Fairly Fun
Aside from this, it was an alright experience but not as enjoyable as I had remembered, or hoped. I think the most fun I had while playing it was when I died, funnily enough. I tried to get into a fistfight with a group of generic Trandoshian-looking thugs and… Let’s just say Jango has his blasters for a reason. It was fun, but it was a trainwreck.
I’d rate Star Wars Bounty Hunter a solid 7/10. This may be biased given my love for anything Star Wars, but aside from the camera issues and the sometimes tough-to-navigate areas, it was alright. I am sure the more I play, the more I will be able to look past these details.
[penci_review]
Star Wars Bounty Hunter is on sale at the moment on the PlayStation Store as part of their Remasters & Retro sale. Check out my review on another classic, Patapon, here!
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