Star Wars Bounty Hunter Review

I honestly was quite surprised by this game, it has a number of issues mainly regarding the camera, the controls and the difficulty but the game is solid, I would give this game a 7 but the final 2 levels before the final boss are really terrible and knocks the game's score down to a 6. If it weren't for these 2 levels I would consider this game a hidden gem of sorts.

Let's start with the good, the guns, and the feedback for firing them all feels good. The game is very satisfying in term of combat and mowing down lots of enemies with your dual pistols and the other weapons you get feels good due to the feedback you get from firing all the way to the death animations. That and I like how enemies give you health drops when they die making the combat not feel like a game of memorizing enemy and health locations. The platforming while feeling kind of awkward at times is quite interesting. This is in large part due to the jetpack you get. This game easily has the best use of a jetpack I have ever seen in the game, it allows for interesting level design and treversal, darting around moving from platform to platform feels exciting and exhilarating.The jetpack mostly controls very well if taking a bit getting used to but once you do, you it feels so smooth to fly around everywhere. The platforming and switch pulling level design that was in so many late 90s and early 00s games all feels good here in that every level has an anticipation of what might happen next because you don't know what the switch will activate. I miss this style of design in AAA games. The lock on aiming feels decent enough and rarely did I ever felt it screwed me over too. I feel the lock on, and the jetpack complement each other pretty well since any form of aiming while flying around can feel awkward. The story is shockingly well written here, and it fills in a lot of blanks regarding Janjo in ATOC, the characters and the overarching plot are quite interesting for a spin off game of this type. If you like SW lore, or a good story Bounty Hunter is engaging enough.

Now, on to the bad, I did wish you can dodge with the jetpack since the actual dodge command can feel awkward in both camera movement and the fact that Jango can't shoot during the animation. Some the platforming can feel weird particuarly involving the auto grab, one minute Jango will grab on to a ledge and another minute he can't. The camera isn't that great either and it doesn't give you the ideal angles for platforming since it's doesn't have traditional right stick camera movement. You will get used to it but it can be pretty awkward and hard to tell where to go at points. The game tends to ramp up difficulty by shoving in too many enemies which I am not a fan of since it is the least interesting way of adding challenge since all it does is overhwhelm the player with more enemies than he can handle meaning you will often find cheese methods of widdling down the numbers. They can also be frustrating during platforming sections since the enemies fire so many shots that it leads to a cheap death. Which is where the checkpoint system comes in. It's a weird one, you have lives but the game remembers the progress you made on the level at the checkpoint you collect. I would've prefered a traditional checkpoint system over this since I feel it both makes the game easier yet also harder since you can widdle down enemy numbers but at the same time, lose all your lives which will happen due to vast enemies and awkward camera and it's bad to the start of a 20 minute level. Maybe a better system could've been that you get a hard checkpoint on the level and the lives are the amount of progress like enemies killed and switches pulled but if you lose all your lives, you restart from the hard checkpoint. I also wished Janjo's pistols didn't require you to tap the buttons to actively fire them since I am not a fast button masher and I would've preffered a holding down method, have them fire that fast on default or give me an assault rifle at all times. And then there are the last 2 levels with Bando Gora which are TERRIBLE. I wouldn't mind it so much if the zombies gave you health when they died like regular enemies, they do high damage too, the flamethrower is awkward to use(you can't aim it and it doesn't cover any empty flank if a Gora attacks you from behind) and then they endless spawn. These last 2 levels before the final boss do not feel playtested. If you use a level skip here like I did, I don't blame you.

Overall, this is a weird game, everything that makes for a good game is here and it feels well made but it feels like the game needed more time in oven before releasing, but what is here is interesting. Wish they make a modern Madalorian Bounty Hunter game since this game has no successor at all.