Bounty Star

I want to like this game but the controls and temp controls, especially in the later chapters make it a chore to play.

Good game! but I hope there be more freedom of customization...

To be fair, I didn’t play much, but got the impression that this game has heart. Sadly, it lacks the competence to be anything more than mediocre. It feels like it constantly gets in its own way. The intro, for example, has a great hook, but to get to it, you first have to sit through 15 minutes of (mostly bland) dialogue - which, although voice-acted, doesn’t auto-play (meaning you constantly have to press a button to continue). Melee is just button-spamming, ranged has a lock-on, they don’t synergize at all and have no punch. I feel it would have been better to focus on either one, ranged or meele, but improve both. There are also way to many cut-scence in between the most trivial tasks (which you can skip, thankfully). My stopping point was after three bounties, because the game just kept drowning me in tutorial missions and refused to just let me play.

[Bounty Star] Score: 7/10 [PRO'S]: -Good protagonist who is well written and voice acted -Good Npc and enemy designs -Good voice acting and fully voice acted -Good western environments -Good western music and jukebox soundtracks -Good gameplay that consists of completing low bounties "Side quests" and high bounties "Main Quests" to make money and salvage materials with each bounties having it's own set of sub goals for extra cash if you complete them, along with various loot chests hidden through each bounty map -Has a mech that you can customize with lots of different weapons, both melee and gun and various parts that will give your mech different passive abilities and also it's color and various other things as they become unlocked as you play and meet new Npcs -Good combat that is mainly mech combat in three different environments morning, noon and night each having their own temperature that effects your mech as your mech will need to stay cool to stay functional, weapons can both be hot or cold which makes what you use during what time strategic -Has a workshop, which is your homebase, that you can upgrade over time to give you different benefits such crafting fuel and ammo so you don't have to pay for it after missions, growing food of which the watering can later be automated, keeping chickens for selling or eggs, juke box for music and cooking which give you passive bonuses next time your on a bounty quest -Tons of lore you can collect that gives information on the state of the world, enemies, factions, tutorials and guides etc. [Neutral's]: No Score Change From These -Not the biggest fan of the protagonists design, skin too pale for being out in the west, overly bulky -Story is fine, your typical old western redemption / vengeance story [CON'S]: -Beginning of the game is a bit too slow paced, game becomes more fun once you hit the mid game and you have more unlocked -Some animations are bit too stiff which can make some cutscenes a bit awkward -Can't use water in the environment, such as rivers and waterfalls to cool down your mech, being in the shade or a cave doesn't cool down your mech either -No way to know what gender chicken your gonna get before buying -Game balancing isn't the best, some weapons and attachments are way stronger than others and some are just too weak to realistically use [SUMMARY]: Overall Bounty Star is a nice little Western Mech game, it's not the best mech game out there but for it's low price it's not bad and if your someone who likes mech games or western games you will probably like this game just fine, but as always, It's.. Up.. To.. You and i'll leave it at that. (^_−).

I really do want to like this game but it's just not very fun or interesting to me.

Abandonware

Bounty Star is a good game, with a lot of positive elements, a few minor negative ones, and one MAJOR issue that will roadblock you if you're not careful. Frankly, it's the opening. It's mechanically limited, slow, long, and not clear where it's going to end. What do I mean by that? The game will say you're out of the Prologue, but that's not the end of the tutorial. The training wheels don't come off until you finish "Chapter 4 - Utay Adakai". This is the point where you can fully customize the mech, grow crops, and work more organically to your next plot objective, instead of being lead around the nose. With that being said, getting that far should only take about 3 hours, and on the other end, you now have several minor new toys, and one MAJOR positive - the Gun Cancel. Ah yes, the Gun Cancel. THIS is what's missing from the beginning, where your ranged attacks feel worthless, and melee feels too sluggish. Now, you can cancel into a special Ranged Attack / Reposition / Reload (unique to each weapon type), that can be chained into more ranged moves, or more melee moves. After that, it's about the loop - and let's be clear here, not all mech games play the same. If your feedback is just "It's not MechWarrior!", or "It's not AC!", please shut up and open your mind to the idea that mechs can work at many scales, tech levels, and gameplay styles. What IS the loop? It's basically Monster Hunter with mechs - go out to do a job with a loadout on your mech. Get rewarded with cash and crafting materials. Come back to base, grow crops, craft upgrades, buy new gear, repeat until a plot mission opens up. Some nice selling points - enemies don't drop unique crafting materials, like MH, which means you can just BUY crafting materials on the market. It's cheaper to use your own loot, of course, but if you're only short a few things, you just fill the gap with money. Same with crops, the food buffs are quite substantial, but since you're growing the ingredients, you can also sell the surplus for more cash. Alright, if this isn't MW or AC, then what is it? Look at the publisher, man - if that name doesn't already fill you in on the types of narrative beats we'll be seeing here, go dig into their catalog a bit. This is a character driven story, less about insane robot fights, and more about finding the will to stand back up again, get in the damn robot, and finding a way to actually LIVE instead of just surviving. If you want anime nonsense, MW history, or AC deep lore (I like all 3, btw), it's not here - but there is a cool post-apoc setting with some unique ideas, well fleshed out in optional logs you can find. There's a story that might resonate with the older gamer, someone who's had to let go and move on before in their life, someone who's had to make the choice to get up again. This game isn't perfect, it's got some warts and imperfections, but at the end of the day... If I had the setup Clem has, I'd be out there in my Raptor, too.

We got Armored Core at home.