STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter Review | PC

In a time, long ago… LucasArts reigned supreme for their creation known as STAR WARS, and as can be expected, video games had to be created from the original movies that we all loved. Things went great for them until Disney appeared and bought them out, now, we all had high hopes that our favorite franchise would live on forever but nothing stays quite the same.

So, after several game releases and a lot of success, LucasArts eventually released STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter in 2002 and it was rather well-received. That same game was re-released in 2016 as a PlayStation 2 Classic on the PlayStation 4, and you’d think that would be the end of it.

 

Well, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings and those seem to be quite rare in the STAR WARS universe because Aspyr seems to be the only studio that’s creating remasters of old releases. However, this Texas-based studio has been going through some ups and downs from the looks of it, because while they have a few well-received titles under their belt, the rest of their inventory has seen better days.

The most recent ‘not-so-great’ release from Aspyr would be Tomb Raider I–III Remastered Starring Lara Croft. Granted, we’re not here to point fingers or start angry mobs, but certain injustices still can’t be forgiven. So, hold on to something and get ready for a little chaos as we dive into Aspyr’s latest port, STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter, which was released on 1 August.

The world in STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter will still have you fighting against the usual unsavory characters but instead of a Jedi, you’ll be taking on the role of Jango Fett. Yes, he is semi-related to Boba Fett, but to those who don’t know, Jango is technically Boba Fett’s father and where he was cloned from.

So, you can likely expect much of the more infamous Fett’s loadout in this Third-Person adventure. Now, Jango is still a bounty hunter and he is hired to capture a Dark Jedi, though this is easier said than done for many reasons. Aside from a simple bounty hunter having to take on a Jedi, the real struggle comes into play in other ways.

Starting off your adventure as a bounty hunter in STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter, you’ll need to bear in mind that the events in this release take place before STAR WARS: Episode II. Moving on, you’ll be introduced to your employer, Lord Tyranus, who receives orders to make a clone that can take down the Bando Gora.

 

Sadly, you don’t exactly get a warm welcome to life in STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter after that as you’re thrown into the ring of a beast fight pit after failing to capture your target. This is where the chaos starts and somehow never ends, and it starts with the tutorial.

STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter does give you a very barebones tutorial, and it’s completely understandable if you consider the time this game comes from, but parts of the tutorial don’t even show until you’re on a specific spot to trigger it. You’d think this is a minor issue but it gets worse, the world you’re exploring only gets bigger and you’ll have little to no indication of where to go.

So, there’s a good chance you’ll spend longer than you should in a room with no idea where to go… Unless you’ve played this before and you know what goes where. Sadly, for anybody new to STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter, you’re in for a bad time while feeling your way around.

On the off chance that you do manage to find the way forward, you’ll have to become a bit more familiar with the combat side of STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter. Jango will still have the usual loadout we all know; the iconic Dual Blasters, along with the Flamethrower and Whipcord. However, targeting is a nightmare, to say the least.

While there is a target lock you can use, you’ll need to make sure that Jango is facing the opponent you want to blast, or you’ll just end up flipping the camera to the direction he’s facing. Getting the target lock to take ends up becoming a drag and you’d be better off just running with the auto-aim, even if it doesn’t quite work.

 

Now, life in STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter isn’t just an endless run and gun, you’ll need to explore to find your way forward, and where things an interesting turn is when you need to use the Cutting Torch.

Unfortunately, there’s a very specific type of grate that you can cut through and it’s painfully easy to overlook it… Once again, this leaves you floundering around while looking for a way forward. Simple tooltips or even some hinting is desperately needed, simply for the sake of having a semblance of an idea of where to go.

Aside from the seemingly endless struggle to get around, it does get better with the jetpack. The jetpack opens up some more exploration options and some extra danger in terms of falling to your doom. That’s right, fall damage is still very real and can very easily wipe out your health. Sadly, it’s also incredibly easy to get stuck where you don’t want to be or you’ll need to painstakingly use your jetpack in bursts to climb the mother of all steep inclines in what might be a sewer.

Unfortunately, exploration in STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter is far from easy or even as enjoyable as it could be because of how poorly remastered everything is. This was great during its heyday but those low-resolution textures blend a little too well with each other and you’ll likely miss several key things like a path forward or a civilian that looks like it has to be filled with holes from your blaster.

Onto the only saving grace STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter, nobody expects you to live forever and this is where healing items come in handy when you need them most. Granted, these aren’t the type of items you can pick up and use later, they get used instantly when you pick them up.

 

Luckily, you can get away with very little health and you’ll still find healing items scattered all over the world. However, while you’re out hunting for healing, you can also still find the old secrets that will add to your earnings at the end of a mission.

On the visual side of things, STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter isn’t even branded as a remaster but the evidence is there that it is most certainly a remaster. However, the visuals in STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter leans more towards being painfully retro through the low-resolution texturing.

The camera control also needs a lot more work to avoid aim issues and some other issues with the aim-lock that kill off any enjoyment there was to be had. However, the biggest issue is plain and simple, the textures blend into each other a little too well and make overlooking certain details frustratingly real.

Looking at the other side of STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter, the music and sound engineering weren’t touched at all, and we can only thank the flying spaghetti monster or some other odd eldritch entity for this. As far as remasters go, audio doesn’t need much work but it doesn’t mean that there haven’t been flops before because of bad remastering.

 

Sadly, the only thing preserving what little nostalgia was left over after the massive gameplay soundtrack was the music and sound effects. You can always count on a STAR WARS fan to have a serious moment down memory lane if they hear the music and the famous laser sounds.

Overall, STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter is a good attempt at a remaster but it doesn’t quite make the cut, and this is simply due to its age. A better option would have been to explore the remake route instead to spark a revival of a very old fandom, sadly, we can only hope for things like these. Luckily, most of the original gameplay is still somewhat the same but it might end up being frustrating if you’re new to the older releases from this franchise.
 

Jay Claassen (@R3GR3T_3NVY)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed