9.4 hours played
Written 7 days ago
Hard no.
While every bit as aggravating as I remember, it's nowhere near as good as I remember. To be fair, it's still easy to see the glimpses of goodness ascribed to it during its original release window, though most of that 'goodness' is down to three things. First, a solid story with good pacing (which managed to be both a movie tie-in game that didn't suck AND didn't require the player to take on the role of a Jedi). Second, an iconic score that is well used throughout. Third, incredible sound design/effects that help ground the player in the Star Wars universe. The voice acting was pretty decent, too.
For better and worse, "Star Wars: Bounty Hunter" (SWBH) is representative of its era. All the wonder and experimentation of the early 00s; tight, dedicated storytelling; all the janky and often underwhelming game play; frustrating control schemes; and monotonous/repetitive level layout. On the level/layout front, some levels contained patches of color or wonderful verticality (to make best use of the jet pack), but they still often felt drab and tedious to navigate.
For all the increased visual fidelity in this remaster, SWBH kept the bulk of the game in tact... Including the two things I remember disliking most during my first run through the game back in 2003: the cut & paste environments that are at times difficult (also at times boring) to navigate, and the unbelievable malfeasance of its camera, especially while platforming with the jet pack.
While Aspyr saw fit to grant the player 5 continues instead of 3, they also saw fit to leave in the sheer number of enemies... who are spongy in the health department, are often too plentiful, and will respawn chaotically. Like, sometimes when it feels like the fight should be over... respawn. Sometimes when you're passing through an area you've already cleared... respawn. Sometimes right behind you. This proved only irksome in the first two chapters. By Chapter 3, however, it had disrupted the flow of the game and absolutely diminished my appreciation for the sentiment I had hoped to relive, however flawed I suspected that sentiment to be. But I continued to soldier on. After all, I knew what lay ahead: Tatooine and all it's ulcer-inducing, hair-pulling madness.
But Tatooine was not to be(-ine?). After struggling to reach the end of mission 3 in Chapter 3 (I'd had to restart the mission), the boss there did something I'd completely forgotten was on the menu (else I had blocked the memory): when the boss intro FMV was finished and I was ostensibly granted control of Jango, before I could provide any inputs (literally before I could push any buttons), the boss attacked, knocked me down, and kept attacking and knocking me down until Jango was dead. As frustrating as this was, the checkpoint for the encounter was just outside the doorway of the room we were in. NBD for the run back, so no harm, no foul, right?
Oh. Two continues left. Right.
Spawn in... and I'm not where the checkpoint icon was; I'm standing right where Jango's body had been when he'd died. Guess how this ended?
One continue left.
Respawn. Manage to make it to a pillar before getting knocked down by a missile, which I presume hit me via AOE rather than just ignoring the geometry between us. Got Jango back to his feet in time enough to be cut to ribbons by blaster fire from the regular enemies in the room. The menu offers me a choice: restart level or game over.
I see you, SWBH. Game over, indeed.
Me in my early twenties had more time on his hands, thus could afford more tolerance for these sorts of shenanigans. Modern me has much less time for all things fun in general and with so many great games out there, why would I choose to spend the occasional time I do have on games that just don't make the cut? SWBH was a 7/10 for me in 2003; there were moments of goodness in spite of the short comings of its systems. It's a 5/10 in 2025 because having a decent story, a great soundtrack and solid voice acting are a given; uninteresting systems, non-compelling game play, and a lack of visual diversity in level design are simply unacceptable today.
P.S. While I can't recommend the game as such, I do feel it necessary to thank Aspyr for making the remaster exactly that: a remaster. So little was changed that this version of SWBH really does offer a window into the past to help remind us of what a mid-tier PS2 game really was, for all the goods and ills of that era.
edit: forgot a 'but' in the second paragraph; "...[but] they still often felt drab and tedious to navigate." also added the P.S.
