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Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Review
Chris Leyton
09/12/2002
Unfortunately Bounty Hunter is the latest to a long line of poor Star Wars tie(cash)-ins...
Playing the role of Jango Fett ā“ feared Bounty Hunter and reknown throughout the Galaxy ā“ is likely to be one of the most appealing tasks given to a gamer; unfortunately instead of opting for the espionage delights and depths of a game like Splinter Cell or Hitman2, weāve instead got yet another mindless action romp, which does little to capture the imagination or depth of the character.
To begin with the signs are promising; players have access to an impressive selection of manoeuvres and weapons that made the character stand out in the recent Attack of the Clones film. Unfortunately youāll quickly tire of the endless blasting, poor level designs, and complete lack of depth.
The story is arguably Bounty Hunterās greatest strength; taking place before the events of Episode 2, the games storyline explains how Jango Fett became the blueprint for the legion of Clone Troopers witnessed in the film. Through the beginning sequences of the game, youāll learn of Darth Sidious (Emperor Palpatine) and Darth Tyrannus (Count Dooku) plot to lure out the deadliest and most efficient Bounty Hunter in the galaxy. The game serves as a great compliment to the movies, giving Star Wars fans an excellent viewpoint from the bad guys perspective; itās almost enough to recommend it to Star Wars fanatics, but itās likely that even the most hardened Star Wars fan will tire of the game quite quickly (believe me).
To be fair, Bounty Hunter does a respectable job of getting the basics correct; Jango Fett is a swift character that has a wide range of acrobatic moves and access to an impressive selection of skills and weapons. Controlling Jango provides few areas of criticism or frustration; he can run, roll, climb and jump between ledges with ease, whilst his dual blasters give you the chance to take out multiple targets simultaneously. Other gadgets allow him to cut through fencing with his welding torch, and of course his trusty jetpack makes an appearance, which allows you to fly for brief periods. LucasArts have done a good job to ensure that controlling Jango and the prime focus on combat is a frustration-free experience; however issues with camera controls and technical issues will soon counter-act any of the good work that LucasArts have created.
As with many third-person titles the right analogue stick is used to manually control the camera, however the game tries to implement an automatic system of sorts. Unfortunately this causes a lot of problems during enclosed areas and when trying to specifically pinpoint an exact location. Destroying the visual illusion and an area that shouldnāt be tolerated in this generation of consoles, is a severe problem with clipping issues; frequently youāll find Jangoās limbs pop through walls or deceased enemies chopped in two by a wall. This is a prime example of sloppy development; sure itās a tedious process, but in this day and age itās a process that we expect to be carried out as it completely destroys the final illusion.
Despite all these issues, itās the god-awful level designs that put the final nail in this coffin. Level objectives are often too vague and ultimately result in lots of tedious backtracking as you try to find exactly where you need to be amidst the endless corridors that all look the same; the resulting experience is certainly not as much fun as youād suspect it would. Additionally you would have thought that a galaxy renown Bounty Hunter to be ruthless and efficient, instead the game takes on an almost comical effect as Jango blasts characters here, there and everywhere; at times you have to question whether he is the feared Bounty Hunter or simply a crazed maniac on a killing spree!
As with several other console Star Wars titles, you are scored depending on how well you performed in the level, which results in a wide selection of bonuses to be uncovered. This feature is largely based on the level of bounty youāve picked up in each level; by switching to your scan mode you can see whether the various characters that populate each level have any bounty on their heads, if they do you have to mark them and then either incapacitate them with your chord or kill them, once youāve done this you have to walk over to them and watch as they magically vanish and your credit balance increases. The sequence is too convoluted; for starters you canāt move or shoot when youāre in the scan mode, whilst switching between the different gadgets you have to use during this process is too long-winded and the resulting execution way below the standard that it could have been; just try to capture someone during heated gun-fire and youāll see exactly what we mean.
We really hoped that LucasArts could have offered something more then just a standard action title with this license; the prospect of scanning characters and securing bounty is certainly an appealing one, however the implementation falls painfully short of what we were expecting, why couldnāt the developers have gone with a game more akin to Hitman2?
Visually the game does very few things right, thanks in a large part to the bland colour scheme and dull environments. Technical issues further the problem, with the clipping troubles that weāve already talked about and framerate issues furthering the complaints that we have about this title.
