Bounty Star takes Armored Core to the Wild West

More than any other subgenre in gaming, the mecha game has a very defined look. Titles like Armored Core and MechWarrior both tend to share a lot of aesthetic similarities, with rusty mechs battling in a hardened sci-fi world. The art style may change here and there, but the genre certainly has a uniform so to speak.

That’s about to change thanks to an unlikely indie. Bounty Star is an upcoming title from publisher Annapurna Interactive that’s unlike any mecha game I’ve ever seen. In fact, I didn’t realize it was one at all until I went hands-on with it at Summer Game Fest. While it may not wind up being the tightest or most complex mecha game, its unique Wild West tone gives the genre the aesthetic shake-up it needs.

InBounty Star, players take on the role of Clem, a bounty hunter living out in the deserts of the American Southwest. She’s hidden away in a modest roadside scrapyard where she spends her day cooking meals out of the local cacti and tending to her giant mech. Before actually jumping into that robot, though, I get a small taste of Bounty Star‘s other side: its base management. My first missions simply have me gathering some materials and cooking a nice meal, which will grant my mech some buffs on its next trip out. I’m not sure how deep that piece of the game goes, but the full release promises farming, ammo crafting, and animal raising.

The meat of the experience, though, is its third-person mecha action. After tending to my settlement, I head over to a board in my base and pick up a bounty. I hop into the cockpit of my machine and customize all my weapons and gear to build a loadout for the mission. After that, I’m dropped into a bite-sized mission where I need to track down a target on a small map out in the desert. It structurally brings me back to Armored Core, with its small objectives that can be completed in a few minutes.

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