Retro Review - Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (2002)(2024)

In honour of Star Wars day on May 4th I decided to try out a recently ported PS2 game that Amazon gave me as part of my Prime subscription. Star Wars: Bounty Hunter was originally released as a console exclusive in 2002 by LucasArts who wanted to throw a spotlight on one of Attack of the Clones most hyped characters - Jango Fett.

Players play Fett in a 3rd person action game using all his tricks and weaponry such as his twin pistols, flamethrower and jetpack. The game serves as backstory for Fett being chosen as the clone template 10 years before Episode II. The bounty hunter sets his sights on a 5 million credit bounty to eliminate the leader of an evil underground organisation that threatens to disrupt Darth Sidious' ultimate plans. Fett needs to gather information by threatening (and then killing) targets with knowledge of his quarry and any bounties of opportunity as he shoots and burns his way through somewhat simplistic but classically vertical LucasArts level designs.

Atmospherically it's very Star Wars, it uses the LucasArts/Lucasfilm library of authentic sounds from blaster fire to the Willheim Scream, John Williams' themes with some of Jeremy Seoule's equally unmistakable score provides a familiar soundscape. Temura Morrison lends his voice to the character providing a continuity of immersion. Zam Wessel's screen actor Leeanna Walsman voices her character and Clancy Brown portrays a rival hunter.

The game is a product of it's age and sadly no amount of graphical remastering on Aspyr's part can snap you out of the reality that this is an early 2000's console game, albeit a relatively good one - amazing even - considering it's basically a movie tie in. While you can chose a classic or modern control scheme, it's something that you often have to fight with or at least get used to the camera. It does start out drip feeding you apilities and enemies but before long you're fighting waves and waves of identical enemies, that wear your patience down more than your health. I had enough of this after about 4.5 hours, I enjoyed what I saw but I knew I had seen it all by then.

Final Verdict: Aspyr have has some Star Wars related misses recently with the KotORII Nintendo Switch Port and the remasters of the Battlefront games but in general they have the most experience with Star Wars game ports and Bounty Hunter certainly seems like one of their success stories. They did a great job of modernising the textures, lighting and effects and delivered a serviceable remaster and PC port that runs glitch free on a modern system.

Technicals: 4.5 hours through GOG Galaxy on Windows 11 with an RTX4070Ti @ 120FPS (Game limitation) using Windows HDR

Availability: Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is available from Steam or GOG for €19.50. Review copy granted Free from Amazon Prime Gaming in Dec 2024.

Star Wars games ported by Aspyr: (Ported to various Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS, Android, Microsoft consoles, Sony consoles and Nintendo Switch depending on title)

• Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy
• Star Wars: Battlefront
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Star Wars: Empire at War
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Ultimate Sith Edition
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords
• Star Wars: Episode I - Racer
• Star Wars: Republic Commando
• Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection
• Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
• Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles
  

25th Anniversary Review - Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force (2000)

Raven Software may be a support studio for Call of Duty now, but they once took modified forms of id-Tech engines and built some of the best FPS games of the turn of the century. Three of my personal favorites were Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Soldier of Fortune and of course a very unique game in Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force.

One would not have thought of the Star Trek franchisee being ripe for an FPS game as shooting things with phasers to a degree that would support an entire game and was never really Star Trek's style, especially on Voyager. Nontheless we got a sort of "created only for the game" elite Starfleet Hazard Team that would be sent on the most dangerous missions the regular security officers would be unable to do because... video game plot device.

Raven's gambit worked because Elite Force which leveraged id Tech 3 (used for Quake III) lent itself superbly to realise the most incredible Star Trek experience for it's time. The plot wasn't out of place in any episode of the show and the visuals were created from what must have been exhausting levels of research. Much like prior Star Trek franchise games, the entire main cast provided their characters voice overs for the game to truly cement your immersion.

There was a significant amount of scripted sequences to build tension and further the narrative but you had agency to affect the outcome through your actions which was not the norm for the time. Gameplay usually has you transport to usually hostile environments on away missions to shoot your way through alien vessels and eliminating threats with everything from your TV show accurate phasers to some interesting additions by Raven to round out the common 10-slot weapon load-out for the game genre.

Final Verdict: It's not my first time back in the 25 years since release but I still enjoy returning to Voyager - Elite Force to shoot things with phasers for about 8 hours, which is short for a game yes, but long for an episode of the show, an atmosphere that Raven so expertly recreated here and (thanks to GOG) runs great on a modern system.

Technicals: 8 hours through GOG Galaxy on Windows 11 with an RTX4070Ti

Availability: Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force is available from GOG for €9.99. Review copy purchased in September 2023 for €5.99 from GOG.

Star Trek: Elite Force series:

• Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force (2000)
• Star Trek: Elite Force II (2003)
  

10 Future Video Games on the General's Radar

A list of 10 games that caught my intention in alphabetical order. A few are expected this year but the way things are going in the games industry it possible that that only some of these will even be completed.

 

Blade (Arkane/Bethesda)

Everyone's favourite daywalking dhampir is getting his own 3rd person action game with lore from the Marvel comics as opposed to Wesley Snipes movies. It'll be 2026 before we see anything about this game after its reveal in late 2023.

DOOM: The Dark Ages (Id Software/Bethesda)

The third installment of the 2016 rebooted DOOM franchise.This is touted as the "epic cinematic origin story of The Slayer's rage". I get worried when id use the word "story" for a DOOM game but we'll see this year.

Exodus (Archetype Entertainment)

From Archetype Entertainment who were formed by ex-Bioware personnel, Exodus is being advertised as Sci-Fi action adventure RPG which looks to the the spiritual successor to the older Mass Effect games with a heavy dose of concepts explored in Christopher's Nolan's Interstellar, they even have Matthew McConneghy on board with some voice work. The promotional work being done here is some of the best I've seen.

Iron Man (Motive/EA)

EA has the license for an Iron Man game and have tasked Motive to develop a game we know little about but expect it to be a single-player action adventure and have an open world judging by some job listings last year. I'm a major fan of Iron Man and I hope they use lore from the Marvel comics as opposed to the MCU. If there was a side game mechanic to manage Stark Enterprises, prevent your heart stopping and battling alchohlism as well as being a superhero it just might be perfect.

Mass Effect 5 (Bioware/EA)

With Dragon Age: The Veilguard not exactly inspiring too much confidence in the studio, Bioware remain committed to working on the next Mass Effect which will be developed with Unreal Engine 5. If we see this before 2028 I'll be shocked.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (Konami)

An Unreal 5 remake of Metal Gear Solid III for current gen consoles, but more importantly - the PC! It's just a remake so hopefully it's gone smoothly without Hideo Kojima on board. We should find out this year.

 

Project 007 (IO Interactive)

Hitman developers IO Interactive are working on a James Bond game. I'm assuming a third-person action game but I guess we'll see in due course. 

Star Wars: Eclipse (Quantic Dream/Lucasfilm Games)

 

PR embattled Quantic Dream's games have always intrigued me by how different from other games they are. I'm fascinated by how this could be applied to Star Wars even though it's set in the High Republic era. 

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 (The Chinese Room/Paradox Interactive)

 

This is a long, long, long awaited sequel to 2004's Bloodlines. It began development at Hardsuit Labs in 2016 but was halted in 2021. Publishers Paradox decided against cancelling the game and instead unveiled in 2023 that The Chinese Room had picked up development. I'm not holding my breath expecting it this year.

The Witcher IV (CD Projekt Red)

The recent reveal of a Witcher IV trailer reminded me that I need to play The Witcher III. before this comes out in I expect 2027.