Star Wars: Bounty Hunter – PS5 Review

There’s always a question of commerce versus preservation when remastered are involved. There will always be technical reasons why a game sees a re-release but how long does it to take before the classics are all dealt with? Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is not a classic. LucasArts’ original 2002 release saw a lukewarm reception but with Disney pounding the license for all it’s worth, it makes sense to bring out a remaster to capitalise on TV series like The Mandalorian. Aspyr’s been tasked with the job sharpening things up.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter puts you behind the mask of Jango Fett. A dark Jedi is on the loose and Jango’s been given the job to apprehend them. What follows is a pretty decent story with a fair amount of intrigue. I’m not a big Star Wars nerd but I do appreciate how the tale is delivered. I’m not thinking too much about the details but I do see the urgency and stakes that are injected into proceedings.

The presentation feels stellar. The remastering process has led to some improvements in lighting, an increased resolution and steady framerate. It still looks like a game over twenty years old but the modern niceties have at least made the game more playable. A new control scheme brings a more standard approach to movement and traversal. The end result has a sense of authenticity, complete with cheat codes that, these days feel like a relic of the past.

Despite the age, I really enjoy looking at the art on display. There’s some beautiful skyscapes on offer with a great sense of scale. Over 18 missions, Jango scales the high and low ends of society which adds a lot of variety. At times it’s opulent, at times it’s murky and the new lighting does help show that off. Cutscenes also see an increase in resolution that helps it maintain a consistent look. The great voice acting is also intact. I love how bombastic the music is and it does well to accompany the firefights. If the remainder of the game held to that high standards, I’d be delighted.

As I said at the top, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter was not a classic when it first released. Jango’s main objectives involve tracking high-profile targets to unravel a conspiracy. They’ll be limited to a single planet but stretch across a whole chapter, allowing a nice build. Aside from that, optional bounties allow you to collect some additional funds. Funds that, unfortunately, don’t result in tangible rewards. There’s typically five or more of them and you need your visor to tag and track them. It’s a nice idea but the execution makes these marks feel like collectibles. I quickly learned to ignore them. Flipping between your visor and weaponry can be fiddly and really slows the pace down.

You’ll received a jetpack early on which can really help express the verticality in the level design. For the most part, it feels smartly implemented. You only have limited flying time so the platforming can feel tight. I do feel the game relies on it too heavily. Or at least, the occasional fixed camera don’t aid your viewpoint much. The third-person perspective can make judging gaps tricky and you’re not always given the greatest room for error.

Failure can often come with a dear cost. Missions are meant to be self-contained with a handful of checkpoints to use if you come unstuck. Some traversal sections will be over pits or endless sky and that can feel a little cheap. More frustration comes with the combat. I never felt like using the jetpack as an evasive option with most encounters being at ground level. Enemies typically come at you in numbers and, whilst they do drop health packages, I did get overwhelmed.

The shooting feels responsive enough. The new control scheme was easy enough to handle and felt more in line with the industry standard. You can lock on to individual enemies but I felt capable enough just to free-aim my shots. In fact, locking on can feel detrimental when there’s several targets to deal with. I’ve had it go haywire, particularly when there’s problems coming from above and below you. Enemies simply like to swarm you after the first couple of chapters. It just adds to the frustration. Jango can feel resilient but a few encounters add infinitely spawning opposition that can take time and resources to thin out. It makes combat feel bothersome, especially if it’s combined with the platforming.

Your arsenal can feel ordinary. The default blaster is the main peacekeeper for most of the missions as the rest of the weaponry is dished out through pick-ups. There are assault rifle and grenade equivalents with deployable ropes used to trap bounties for non-lethal options. Grenades obviously offer some crowd control but I rarely felt like I had an opportunity to use them. Boss fights arrive frequently enough that I hoarded the heavy stuff for them. The bread and butter battles felt stale, especially with the sheer volume of humanoid enemies thrown my way.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is an act of preservation rather than a rewriting of history. Even with the touched up graphics, the core of the game feels distinctly of its time and a little underwhelming. The world can be stunning and the main plot leads you to some interesting spaces. Unfortunately, combat can be boring and the additional bounties don’t feel rewarding.