Hear, the outdated EU wasn’t all bangers.
Notice: This evaluation is being posted later than the unique video model resulting from a backend web site subject at unique embargo. The content material is similar as the unique evaluation.
Hear, 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 selections 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 respectable anti-aliasing. The cutscenes are all the place they’re presupposed 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 may be one odd technical hiccup alongside the way in which however all in all, that is certainly one of 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 in the end lead him to the place we discover him in Assault of the Clones. The sport itself is usually remembered as a lesser, although not outright dangerous, entry within the Star Wars online game pantheon. My older sister received the GameCube model once we had been youngsters and after taking part in it for some time, we in the end 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 of over twenty years.
The sport is separated into six chapters. Every of those chapters accommodates three ranges, with the ultimate degree ending in a boss battle of some type. Most ranges quantity to transferring by way of a big, principally linear setting and killing completely every part. Civilian in the way in which? No worries, the sport doesn’t actually care who you shoot so long as you’re capturing. In truth, in the event you play on a system apart from the Swap, you’ll get an achievement for that. At times 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 approach by way of. For those who can restrain your yearning for violence momentarily, every degree additionally accommodates a set variety of facet bounties. By scanning enemies or different NPCs, you possibly can test to see if there may be an energetic bounty on them. As soon as scanned you possibly can 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. Typically you possibly can stroll proper as much as an enemy and stand there for a number of seconds earlier than they notice you might be the truth is famed bounty hunter Jango Fett. Others in the meantime will sense a disturbance within the pressure and begin yelling threats at you from two rooms over. So getting an opportunity to scan a room for bounties may be straightforward or exceedingly troublesome with seemingly no regard for a way you’re really taking part in.
Enemy AI usually might be the place this recreation has aged the worst. One degree sees you breaking into a jail to seek out one of many prisoners. A riot ultimately breaks out, which one would assume would possibly function an excellent cowl. Nevertheless, prisoners and guards alike seemingly have little interest in preventing one another, however moderately have eyes just for Jango. It seems like a degree that was arrange for the guards and prisoners to battle one another, however then that a part of the AI was by no means really applied.
All that being stated, the precise second to second working and gunning feels fairly good for a 2002 motion recreation. Jango’s blasters have a reasonably beneficiant auto purpose and every one can goal independently. You even have a lock on operate, however it targets primarily based on the place Jango is wanting, not the place the digital camera is wanting. This implies you all the time have to show immediately into oncoming fireplace to get a lock. However the perfect mechanic by far is your jetpack. You unlock it midway by way of the primary chapter and it makes the fight, and degree design a lot extra enjoyable to have interaction 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 allotting loads of your individual remains to be a variety of enjoyable.
The Swap model itself appears to be like 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 stated, all of those components have been enhanced past their unique variations as properly. The in-game mannequin for Jango Fett appears to be like to have been fully remade and extra intently matches the pre-rendered cutscenes. Nevertheless, I didn’t discover comparable modifications anyplace else. Textures are all increased 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 for ambient occlusion. This consists of movement blur, which is fairly gentle and unobtrusive. Even in the event you’re somebody who would moderately not have the impact, it can not at the moment be turned off.
However as I performed I did have one nagging feeling taking a look at Jango Fett. Aren’t you a bit of 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. Nevertheless 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 may be 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 possible received’t discover, however in the event you’re like me and are continuously conscious of these items, it could stand out to you.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is concurrently a reasonably mediocre Star Wars recreation, whereas additionally being certainly one of Aspyr’s greatest efforts. It nonetheless isn’t excellent, however it’s largely an enchancment on the unique launch, which I can not all the time 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 strong technique to play it, as long as you possibly can put up with a barely shorter model of Jango Fett than you’re used to.