Balance is the key to life: adding a little of everything can actually lead to a boring experience. You don't need every topping on the menu on your burger. Otherwise, the savory taste of the meat may get lost in the stream of aromas that you have imposed on yourself. But the developers from Bounty Star developer Dinogod doesn't seem to agree with me.
The studio's new game is a story-based game with farming and base-building elements, in which you pilot a robot to hunt for bounties. Developers are real eaters. And thank God they did, because they've made an unexpectedly great – and emotional – mechanical game.
Instead of adding flavor to the genre by adding a single element, it feels like Dinogod simply cobbled together everything its developers thought was interesting about the game. Bounty Star: The Dark History of Clem's Cemetery — available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Windows PC and included in the Game Pass library — tells the emotional story of Clementine McKinney as she finds her place in the world in a retro-futuristic Western setting.
Bounty Star follows the basic design concepts of all its constituent genres. The farm where she now lives is a dry and sunny place, enlivened by folk songs playing in the background. Like any good farming game, you can only perform a certain number of actions during each period of the day (morning, afternoon, and evening). Cooking, reading, and harvesting do not speed up time like others, such as bounty hunting, do.
The main hangar is not only her home, but also the center of the player's activity. Your base! There you will start a new mission by interacting with the newly built raptor hanging on the corner. In the center of the cozy garage you will find a workbench where you can assemble a variety of batteries, new tools and much more. The kitchen offers a good view of the machinery, with a small table where Clem reminisces about life, but every meal is a positive that you'll want to prepare for the next mission.
While hunting for bounties, you pilot Clem the raptor, adjusting his temperature and cooldown. Even though it's a simple game, it's clear that Dinogod cared about his robot. The mech's physics are nice because, while not as complex as other games in the genre, piloting a predator requires taking into account its weight and energy to make decisions. For each mission you can prepare simple but effective equipment. You will need various weapons, as well as auxiliary parts that will help you control the temperature of the predator.
Fights in Bounty Star as simple as the desert where Clem lives. Each movement is slow, allowing you to feel the weight of the moving car. You cannot make fast turns using boosters or flashy moves. You can only repair the Raptor a few times per mission, so any mistake is a severe punishment. At the end of the day, all that matters is getting the contract and getting the reward. Not every victory will be beautiful, but in the world Bounty Starevery victory is a victory.
All of this action is followed by moments in which Clem interacts with other characters or talks to herself. She is funny, witty and willing to work hard to earn people's respect. She's a fascinating character to learn more about, and with all the mechanics and systems this game has to offer, she's the real star. It's her journey, described in the game's subtitle as “The Moody Tale of Clem's Graveyard,” that takes in farming, base building, and even mechs.
IN Bounty StarThe raptor is not a symbol of power, but of Clem’s inner self, which needs to forgive itself for the past. Like its pilot, the mechanism is fragmented, a collection of parts that are still individually distinguishable. Together they form a functional body, but it has not yet realized its identity. The condition of the mechanism perfectly reflects that of Clem. The woman who was once known as Clementine is now simply Clem. She is a bounty hunter, farmer, cook, friend and former protector. A strange puzzle that slowly solves itself day by day.
I love mechs, but I love them even more when they tell something so clearly about the world and the characters around them. Bounty StarThe Raptor and all the other elements may seem silly at first, but in the end they work together like different instruments in an orchestra – and tell a compelling story.
