Bounty Star, Armored Core Goes Farming in the Wild West – PC Review

Fields to cultivate and bases to build are rather popular activities in the contemporary video game landscape. Players appreciate their relaxing nature, the freedom in managing and accumulating resources, but personally, I tend to wrinkle my nose when I see them among a title's labels. I can make an exception, however, if you throw in giant robots and dinosaurs...

Developed by Dinogod and published these days on PC and consoles by Annapurna Interactive, Bounty Star offers exactly this: mech combat in the Wild West, between bounties to collect and lizards to tame, seasoned with "lite" farming sim and base builder elements. An intriguing combination, difficult to imagine in motion, which in effect gets bogged down in several aspects, favoring some and faltering on others. But let's go in order.

The game takes place in the Red Expanse, a semi-desert post-post-apocalyptic region (as in: "the world ended, but people started living again"). We will play as Clem, a war veteran distraught after failing to protect her settlement from a group of bandits, which earned her the nickname "Graveyard Clem." To make ends meet, she takes possession of a dilapidated estate, with the goal of making a name for herself and finding her brother, who disappeared after the incident.

Bounty Star's story doesn't offer particular surprises, and the short mission structure of the campaign doesn't allow for much expansion of characters and environments. However, the small cast of protagonists and supporting characters is pleasant to follow, and the English voice acting is excellent. Every now and then, an attempt is made to add a more cinematic touch with in-engine cutscenes, but the poor audio mixing ruins the scenes. Overall, it's a forgettable story, but functional to the context.

With controller in hand, it's surprising how Dinogod's title seems to have more in common with FromSoftware's Armored Core than other franchises, despite the premise. The Raptor MKII we pilot has a rather slow pace (not on the level of a random MechWarrior, mind you) and must slow down further to open fire, but it can dash without restrictions, and mount additional thrusters to jump or quickly dodge sideways. Unfortunately, we won't be able to customize the chassis. In return, the equipment includes melee and long-range weapons, three manual support systems, and two passive upgrades (which will later become three). Eating between missions allows for further parameter upgrades (like Monster Hunter), and you enter the field with two active loadouts, switchable on command.

The arsenal is quite varied, with a couple of dozen conventional weapons (assault rifles, rocket launchers, greatswords...) and more "exotic" ones (firework batteries, giant shovels, acid-spitting beetles strapped to the arm...). The feeling is good, the weight and impact of hits are well perceived, even if enemies don't react to small-caliber ones. On paper, damage is divided into three categories (explosive, blunt, and "slashing," for blades and projectiles), making them more or less effective depending on the target's armor, but in practice, 2-3 grenade launcher hits are enough to take down almost anything. Except for the Drillers, which I think they forgot to balance: they are introduced early on, are immune to almost all damage, cannot be stunned, and pin you down with their melee combos. They cause more trouble than the final boss.

Another interesting feature of the combat system is heat management. Traditionally, if you fire continuously, the mech will overheat and shut down for a few seconds, but here the opposite can also happen, meaning it cools down to the point of stalling. Weapons can generate or subtract heat, thus expanding the range of possible builds, not to mention the ability to adjust operating temperature and dissipation efficiency with specific components and based on the time of the sortie (it's hotter in the afternoon, cooler in the evening).

Melee attacks are less convincing. Despite the flashy movements, close-quarters engagements are clunky, with unreliable tracking and "tricks" that are more annoying than anything else. They should, in theory, guarantee greater control over one's performance, applying extra bonuses at the end of a sequence (healing, thermostat reset...), but they often start without hitting the prompt, making an already less preferable option to lead and explosions even worse, especially against large groups. Which is a shame, because with a few tweaks, the baseball bat and seismic hammer would be a lot of fun.

In general, the difficulty level is low, and once you get the hang of the Raptor and understand how to manage the various dynamics, missions turn into short style exercises. The only exceptions are the sporadic bosses (and the cursed Drillers), who have a stagger bar to drain before you can beat them up and a few more tricks up their sleeve, but nothing that can't be handled. Secondary objectives, such as finishing quickly or using a specific loadout, and the ability to explore maps for resources and collectibles, liven up the action a bit, but in any case, the pace gradually sags, especially in the second half of the adventure, when the novelties run out. Speaking of which: what happened to the plantations and crafting mentioned at the beginning? Let's just say you can do without them.

When Clem isn't busy hunting bandits or terrorizing dinosaurs, the old shed and the barren surrounding land offer various tasks in which to invest time and money. Radioactive plots to plant seeds, barrels to fill with water, ammunition to press, chickens and lizards to care for... By introducing healthy micro-management into our daily routine, we can amortize maintenance costs and become self-sufficient in terms of food and raw materials, as well as make money by selling excess eggs and vegetables. Problem: once the tutorial for something is completed, we are no longer required to interact with it.

Aside from the giant pet mantis, who will refuse to follow us into battle on an empty stomach, everything that can be obtained through "hard" work can be acquired from the shop terminal. True, the cost is higher, but there are no deadlines, we can repeat missions as many times as we want and collect the bounty again, and after the first few upgrades, money rains from the sky. Personally, I didn't mind spending a couple of minutes in the morning to feed the animals and water the corn to maintain a constant supply of provisions, but I realize I could have done without it and not much would have changed. Not developing the farm prevents some interactions with minor characters, if you're aiming for 100%, but the story still progresses. I don't know, maybe more emphasis could have been given to this aspect of the experience, which is both essential and accessory.

Roughly, to finish the campaign, it takes between 10 and 15 hours, about twenty to grab all the trophies. Replayability is low, the plot is linear, and there's no way to miss content along the way. The pace, however, starts well but loses momentum in the final stages. A more balanced learning curve and worthy adversaries would have worked wonders, although the combat system doesn't seem calibrated for "even" matches.

As for the presentation, I'm not a big fan of the models used for humans; the plasticky look and glassy stares don't work. Luckily, they are rarely seen. Mechs, drones, and saurians are better, with essential but effective designs, accompanied by good effects. The variety of enemies is decent, and the locations, despite a handful of recurring themes, are pleasant and interesting to navigate. Perhaps a bit small, but they fit well with the arcade nature of the objectives.

No bugs or technical issues to report. However, the Raptor has a tendency to get stuck in level geometry, especially when using thrusters, and occasionally the "manual" reload seems to activate on its own. Performance is solid; on my 2070 Super, the title consistently runs above 200 frames per second, but the absence of graphics options might displease those looking for compromises on more modest builds. Other useful embellishments: the ability to change the camera's shoulder (a must for TPS) and a menu to deactivate permanent mech upgrades (canceling reload during dashes only causes problems). The Western-themed soundtrack is predictable but fitting.