On August 1st 2024, Star Wars Bounty Hunter landed on Switch, Xbox Series and PS4/5, including PC.
“What? We already have Bounty Hunter on PS4/5 from 2016,” you may be asking. To that, I say you’re right- but that was a port of the 2002 PS2 game. This new Bounty Hunter is an enhanced edition.
Star Wars Bounty Hunter is officially upon us, and I jumped on it day one, buying it on PS5. Like General Grevious jumping at the chance to add another lightsaber to his collection, I too, was eagerly waiting for it.
And much like General Grevious’s collection of lightsabers – Bounty Hunter is the same… but different! So, is it worth your credits? In my humble, honest opinion, as a long-time Star Wars fan… definitely!
I LOVE Bounty Hunter, especially because it does a really good job of giving us an origin story for Jango Fett, one of the coolest characters from Attack of the Clones. Star Wars Bounty Hunter Enhanced was developed and published by Aspyr. Yep, the same folks behind the infamous Battlefront Classic Collection release that left a bounty the size of a Zillo Beast on their head.
This rightfully had fans concerned because Bounty Hunter is a masterpiece. Thankfully, Bounty Hunter Enhanced is great, which is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!
This game gives us lots of quality-of-life improvements, from an improved camera to nicer visuals and better controls. Upon opening the game, I was greeted with the option to choose between legacy controls, which are the original PS2 controls or the new and improved modern controls.
The original game was infamous for clunky controls, so it’s nice to be able to play this using modern controls. With the triggers now being used for aiming and shooting instead of the square button, easier controls to scan potential bounties, which now slows down time while using it, and controller vibrations! That was a nice touch! I will say the updated controls make the gameplay experience feel significantly smoother! Growing up, I never realized how clunky the controls were until now with the modern control scheme. Locking on is greatly improved with the use of R3, instead of using R1 which felt…weird. It definitely feels much better now! There is also a new control feature that allows you to use a flashlight! This is entirely new to the enhanced edition, but I feel it isn’t really needed as the game isn’t very dark. From the updated control scheme aspect, this makes it worth the price alone for me!
Let’s not forget the haptic trigger controls here on PS5. I noticed it when using a blaster rifle that you find in the shooting range of the first mission. When using it, the rifle trigger had a resistance to it when compared to the standard dual pistols. Wow! Something so simple can drastically change the experience of the game for the better. Gimmicky? Sure. Fun? Definitely!
Visually, Bounty Hunter was always a great-looking game, even on the PS2. The lighting, textures, and colours here are all improved, making the game look surprisingly modern. Some surfaces now have reflections. For instance, Jango’s armor is now shiny! But like I have always thought, the graphics were always strong! However, this does make the need for the new flashlight more redundant. The original game was dark, so I can understand the need for the flashlight, but with the updated graphics, you can see everything easier, and it’s brighter. I actually forgot about the flashlight feature.
They’ve also added a health bar to the dual sense controller light bar, which seems gimmicky, but it’s a cool little feature. However, I wasn’t a fan of when receiving messages from characters. Instead of coming through the TV, it now comes through the controller, which distracted me a fair amount.
For trophy hunters, hunting trophies like they’re bounties, fear not! This game provides a new list of trophies for you when playing through the game. I got quite a bit already, which makes me think the trophies aren’t all that hard to try and complete.
Back in the PS2 version, there was a low-resolution message written in Aurebesh that translated to “cash in all bounties to play as Boba.” Maybe the developers originally forgot about this because you, in fact, could not play as Boba in the original game. However, in the enhanced edition, after finishing the campaign, players unlock the ability to play as Boba Fett for their next campaign playthrough. Which is awesome, so thanks for that, Aspyr!
Honestly, there is a lot to love here with this enhanced edition, which definitely makes it worth the price of admission. If you don’t care for the quality-of-life improvements, obviously stay away, as this won’t change your mind. Star Wars Bounty Hunter Enhanced is what we loved back in the day, but a lot smoother and more accessible to a modern audience. It still does feel like an older game here and there, with simple combat for today’s standards, but as an enhanced “remaster” of sorts, this definitely gets the job done.
Bounty Hunter Enhanced is a phenomenal re-release that brings the game to a modern era. Offering superb quality-of-life improvements, it doesn’t completely reinvent the game or story here, rather, accomplishing what it set out to do, successfully. As a fan, that’s more than enough for me.
I think I’m going to pick this one up. I never played it when it came out. It was one of the few SW games I didn’t play. I think there was a bit of over-saturation of SW games during that period, and it was hard to play everything. The Dark Forces remaster was pretty good too.
In the words of Palpatine.. Dew it! 😉