Pay attention, the outdated EU wasn’t all bangers.
Observe: This overview is being posted later than the unique video model as a consequence of a backend website concern at authentic embargo. The content material is identical as the unique overview.
Pay attention, at this level my metric for Aspyr’s Star Wars releases is fairly low. Battlefront actually broke me, however there had been an extended line of fascinating decisions main as much as that time. So think about my shock once I begin up the Swap model of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter and discover a recreation that’s working at 60fps with a maxed out decision and a few first rate anti-aliasing. The cutscenes are all the place they’re purported to be. Graphical results from the unique releases aren’t simply current however new ones have been added. Heck, even Jango Fett himself has a properly up to date mannequin. Now there’s one odd technical hiccup alongside the best way however all in all, that is one among Aspyr’s higher efforts.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter initially launched on PS2 and GameCube again in 2002. It serves as a direct prequel to Jango Fett’s position in Star Wars Episode II. The story follows Jango as he takes on a mission that may finally lead him to the place we discover him in Assault of the Clones. The sport itself is mostly remembered as a lesser, although not outright unhealthy, entry within the Star Wars online game pantheon. My older sister received the GameCube model after we have been youngsters and after taking part in it for some time, we finally wound up buying and selling it out for Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. So I went into this launch having not touched Star Wars: Bounty Hunter in a bit over 20 years.
The sport is separated into six chapters. Every of those chapters accommodates three ranges, with the ultimate stage ending in a boss combat of some type. Most ranges quantity to transferring by means of a big, largely linear setting and killing completely every part. Civilian in the best way? No worries, the sport doesn’t actually care who you shoot so long as you’re capturing. In truth, when you play on a system apart from the Swap, you’ll get an achievement for that. From time to time you’ll encounter some extraordinarily gentle navigational puzzles. These quantity to discovering a swap for a door or bridge, or maybe discovering a grate to chop your means by means of. If you happen to can restrain your yearning for violence momentarily, every stage additionally accommodates a set variety of aspect bounties. By scanning enemies or different NPCs, you’ll be able to verify to see if there’s an lively bounty on them. As soon as scanned you’ll be able to mark them and (hopefully) seize them alive. The one drawback with this method is that Bounty Hunter doesn’t actually have a stealth mechanic. Enemies seemingly detect you at random. Generally you’ll be able to stroll proper as much as an enemy and stand there for a number of seconds earlier than they understand you might be in actual fact famed bounty hunter Jango Fett. Others in the meantime will sense a disturbance within the drive and begin yelling threats at you from two rooms over. So getting an opportunity to scan a room for bounties might be simple or exceedingly troublesome with seemingly no regard for a way you’re truly taking part in.
Enemy AI generally might be the place this recreation has aged the worst. One stage sees you breaking into a jail to search out one of many prisoners. A riot finally breaks out, which one would suppose would possibly function a great cowl. Nonetheless, prisoners and guards alike seemingly have no real interest in preventing one another, however slightly have eyes just for Jango. It looks like a stage that was arrange for the guards and prisoners to combat one another, however then that a part of the AI was by no means truly carried out.
All that being mentioned, the precise second to second working and gunning feels fairly good for a 2002 motion recreation. Jango’s blasters have a reasonably beneficiant auto goal and each can goal independently. You even have a lock on perform, nevertheless it targets primarily based on the place Jango is wanting, not the place the digicam is wanting. This implies you at all times have to show instantly into oncoming fireplace to get a lock. However the perfect mechanic by far is your jetpack. You unlock it midway by means of the primary chapter and it makes the fight, and stage design a lot extra enjoyable to interact with. Your management over Jango with the jetpack feels surprisingly agile for a third-person-shooter from 2002. Flying throughout elevated platforms all whereas dodging blaster fireplace and meting out loads of your individual continues to be quite a lot of enjoyable.
The Swap model itself seems to be constructed off of the GameCube model of Bounty Hunter, which featured improved mannequin high quality, textures, real-time shadows, and double the framerate in comparison with the PlayStation 2 model. That being mentioned, all of those components have been enhanced past their authentic variations as nicely. The in-game mannequin for Jango Fett seems to have been utterly remade and extra intently matches the pre-rendered cutscenes. Nonetheless, I didn’t discover comparable adjustments anyplace else. Textures are all greater decision and look fairly sharp. A flashlight has been added which helps with some darker areas. From what I can inform, the Swap model will get all of the up to date graphics of the PC model of this remaster except ambient occlusion. This consists of movement blur, which is fairly gentle and unobtrusive. Even when you’re somebody who would slightly not have the impact, it can not at present be turned off.
However as I performed I did have one nagging feeling taking a look at Jango Fett. Aren’t you a bit quick for a Bounty Hunter? A fast comparability with the unique launch proved my suspicion true. This new model of Bounty Hunter runs in 16:9 widescreen vs the 4:3 fullscreen of the unique. Nonetheless someplace alongside the road the picture received squashed and stretched barely. Now, it isn’t the case that the 4:3 body has merely been stretched to 16:9 as there’s certainly extra of the setting seen throughout gameplay on the left and proper; lining up the 2 variations does reveal an inconsistency in facet ratio. Most gamers probably received’t discover, however when you’re like me and are continuously conscious of this stuff, it might stand out to you.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is concurrently a reasonably mediocre Star Wars recreation, whereas additionally being one among Aspyr’s finest efforts. It nonetheless isn’t excellent, however it’s largely an enchancment on the unique launch, which I can not at all times say for his or her ports and remasters. The Swap model particularly will get practically all the brand new graphical options whereas sustaining 60 frames-per-second. Whereas you might have forgotten simply how repetitive Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is during the last twenty years, this can be a fairly stable approach to play it, as long as you’ll be able to put up with a barely shorter model of Jango Fett than you’re used to.