Star Wars: Bounty Hunter

Let the Hunt Begin

NA release: 7th December 2002
EU release: 7th February 2003
JP release: N/A
Developer: LucasArts
Publisher: LucasArts
NGC Magazine: Score: 68%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

With Boba Fett having a jetpack, cool armour and zero character, he always seemed like a Star Wars character that could work really well for a video game if the developers were given enough freedom. That never happened, but Attack of the Clones brought us Boba Fett’s father where he has a cool space battle (which finally gave Boba Fett’s ship something to do) with fancy silent bombs and then was unceremoniously killed by Samuel L Jackson. This presented an opportunity for a prequel video game.

The highlight of Bounty Hunter is that it has a decent story mostly told through some nice looking cutscenes (oddly, what is supposed to be the most emotional cutscene of the game uses in-game graphics). Jango himself seems far more caring than he does in the film, but it works as its own thing.

The game, though, is a very generic run and gun game. One of the biggest issues is that swapping weapons is immensely slow, so things like grenades become useless, and gadgets like your scanner and wire (to tie enemies up) are just weapon types so are not nice to use.

The jetpack should have improved things, but you can only use it for immensely short bursts, making it more of a tool for dodging. It’s also used in some awkward platforming sections, which often feel like you’re breaking the game and going the wrong way, only for it to be the intended way. The control issues, combined with it being a lock-on focused shooter, means that you’ll mainly be hammering A with the basic pistols while strafing with the jetpack, so most encounters are the same.

One other issue with the combat is there’s no feedback from enemies when you hit them, and no feedback from Jango when you get hit. Not only does this make combat far less engaging as it doesn’t feel like your hits have any impact, it also means your health can be whittled away without you noticing, especially when dealing with fast-moving creatures in the dark final level.

You can use a scanner to search for additional bounties, with usually between 5 and 10 per level. This is a nice idea in practice, but having to scroll to the scanner “weapon”, go into first person (where you can’t move) and look at everyone before going back to your weapon makes the process too frustrating to do more than a few times, and the money is only used to purchase bonuses like artwork.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter could be a fun but unremarkable shooting game if some of the clunkiness with the inventory selection could be resolved, but is just a fairly decent game with the issues.

Fine

It’s a competent enough game, but things never really go the extra mile to make it something special. The game is fast enough. It’s entertaining enough, and the overall experience is engaging… enough. But all of Bounty Hunter’s good ideas have not been seen through to the bitter end.
Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #77

Remake or remaster?

There’s a remaster from Aspyr but I’ve read lots of mixed things about it, from botched control schemes to bugs. I own that version via some service, but due to what I read, decided to stick to the original. It also doesn’t do enough to resolve the inventory or bounty hunting issues.

Official Ways to get the game

The remaster of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.