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I’ve always been drawn to games that not only immerse you in frenetic action but also take the time to do some preparation before starting a mission or activity. In a way, the little quiet moments in your base add to the immersion of doing an objective full of explosions or fast-paced combat, making you feel more attached to what your character is doing and your progress throughout the story. At first glance, that is the aim of Bounty Star. An upcoming bounty hunting game that puts you into challenging encounters inside your trusty mech, but also offers you the cozy side of building a base.
A Hunter’s Homestead
I got to experience a short demo of Bounty Star that puts you in the veteran boots of Clem, a bounty hunter living in her homestead, taking care of it, customizing her mech, and preparing breakfast burritos during the day, and then taking a few bounties during the evening to rid the lands of unwanted bandits and earn some cash while doing so.
The first portion of the demo allowed me to experience a bit of the pre-bounty aspect. I was able to customize my mech with different modules and paint jobs. There’s also a crafting mechanic that allows you to create new parts for your mech, such as claws for melee weapons or a grenade launcher for your ranged module. After getting my mech up to speed and with the right color palette, I cooked some breakfast, which provided Clem with some combat bonuses, gathered some water to take care of her crops and prepared the hydrogel that reduces the fuel cost during a mission, as well as taking the opportunity to explore the area for a while.
There wasn’t a lot of base-building per se, but it was nice to see the cozy side of a bounty hunter, which rarely happens in gaming. I would’ve loved to see more in-depth building aspects in this demo, but it may have been for the best because, knowing myself, I would’ve gotten lost in this system for hours. Still, it was a pleasant surprise to have a base for myself that I could explore and potentially customize, which is something that is never typically the focus of other mech games.
Fast-paced Mech Combat
However, it isn’t all cozy vibes in Bounty Star, as Clem has to bring the bread home by defeating some lawless bandits that roam around these parts. The demo only had two bounties available, both of which had different enemies but the same objective: kill all enemies.
First, let’s talk about controlling the mech, which was actually quite smooth and intuitive. You can move around on the ground, dash, and sprint, and then activate any of your modules that include weaponry and utility items. For armaments, you have a melee one and a ranged one. In the first bounty, I equipped the default loadout, a machinegun of sorts paired with a blade. For the second bounty, I swapped the gun for a grenade launcher and changed the blade for a claw with faster yet weaker attacks. My utility items remained the same for both missions, as one provided a damage reduction while the other healed me.
When fighting, there’s a temperature bar you should watch out for. Some weapons will heat your mech up, giving you debuffs once it reaches high temperatures. However, there are a few others that seemed to cool the mech off, making it a game of bringing the right weapons to keep the temperature in check. Also, there were different enemies to face, ranging from bandits perched in high spots to hit you with their sniper rifles to enemy mechs with drills for arms.
While short, Bounty Star impressed me due to how well it combines the cozy side of managing a base with its more fast-paced and bombastic mech combat. As someone who’s always looking for the next game that will allow me to satiate my mech thirst but also loves some base decorating with a sprinkle of farming and crafting mechanics, Bounty Star hits that sweet spot, and it is one game I can’t wait to fully dive into.
