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Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Review - PS2

Boba Fett became one of the Star Wars universe's most popular characters when introduced briefly during The Empire Strikes Back. He was a man of few words, a bounty hunter who didn't care much for the struggle for control of the galaxy, one for whom it was only money that did talk. Fans were mortified at his un-Fett like demise in Return of the Jedi. How could one so cool meet such an undignified death? Well, Attack of the Clones revealed some of Boba's back-story; he was an unaltered clone of one Jango Fett, the template used for the creation of the grand Clone army. But how did Jango Fett come into contact with Count Dooku? All will be revealed in Bounty Hunter.

Gameplay

Set just after the events of Episode 1, Darth Sidious and Count Dooku are meeting resistance from a deadly cult, the Bando Gora, and are determined to put an end to their reign. They are also looking for someone for which they can base their clone army on and decide to kill 2 birds with one stone. Rumour has it that a bounty hunter by the name of Jango Fett is the best going round. So Dooku makes contact and gives Jango an assignment with great reward, to kill the leader of Bando Gora.

A 3rd person action adventure title, Bounty Hunter has a major focus on the action. Puzzle solving is very basic, with the majority of the thought going into finding switches to unlock doors or searching for hidden bonuses. As those who have seen Jango in AOTC would know, he has an amazing amount of arsenal at his disposal. Most of it is accessible straight away, while it doesn't take too long before you'll have a truckload of toys to play with. The most fun of these is the jetpack. After initially losing it, once found again it opens up whole new gameplay possibilities for Bounty Hunter. Unfortunately, you only have a limited amount of airtime due to the amount of fuel Jango's pack can carry. But once Jango is safely back on solid ground his fuel replenishes. However, strangely, you cannot go up and forward at the same time. This leads to some frustrating situations when you fall just short of the target as you've miscalculated one way or the other. Overall though, the jetpack works quite well.

Jango Fett has some cool gadgets that even James Bond would be proud of. First up we have his two trusty pistols, a flamethrower, whipcord, poisonous darts and thermal grenades. As you progress through the game you come across a sniper rifle, grenade rifle, heavy gun, blaster rifle, jetpack-mounted missile (like the one he fires at Obi-Wan on Kamino!) and cluster missiles. The jetpack missiles in particular are very, very cool. Jango can also mount any turrets that are littered around any of the stages. So there is no doubt that there are plenty of weapons ... (continued next page)