Star Wars Bounty Hunter screenshots   The Final Say! Gameplay 9.0 Graphics 9.5 Sound 9.5 Value 9.5 Star Wars Bounty Hunter -   reviewed by Andrew B  Review Date: 31 December 2002 Review Score 9.5/10 Distributed By: EA

Star Wars Episode I had a variety of harsh and critical reviews written about the movie and we all know that Jar Jar Binks was one of the main reasons. Fortunately for Episode II, George Lucas made massive improvements over its predecessor and introduced one of the coolest (& forced) characters of the Star Wars mythos, Jango Fett. So where does the latest Star Wars game, Bounty Hunter fit into the grand scheme of things?  The Star Wars franchise has been given to a variety of developers to make the next big game of the series but unfortunately you are either guaranteed a great or bad game. So back to the original question, where does Star Wars Bounty Hunter fit into the grand scheme of things? It's quite simple actually,  because this new third-person shooter by LucasArts is probably one of the best Star Wars games to date.   The game is set between the first two Star Wars movies and why Jango Fett was chosen to father a new army of clones for the yet to established Imperials. The main storyline of Star Wars Bounty Hunter revolves around Darth Sidious and his apprentice Darth Tyranus who must end the reign of a religious cult called Bando Gora and their rogue Jedi leader. Although the game is set in the Star Wars universe, there are a total of 18 different levels and six world that are both familiar and unfamiliar to the Star Wars fan. The gameplay of Star Wars Bounty Hunter is primarily a third-person shooter game that involves solving a variety of puzzles, defeating hoards of enemies and eventually confronting the end boss. There are also a variety of sub-missions throughout the game that involve hunting down known criminals in order to collect the bounty on their head.  In order to progress through the game, you must use a plethora of weapons and equipment that are only exclusive to Jango Fett himself, these items include twin blasters, flamethrowers, gauntlet whipcords, missiles, sniper rifles, thermal detonators and your trade mark jet pack that allows you fly across a variety of terrains and areas.  Graphically, Star Wars Bounty Hunter is a visual treat that takes the gamer into the world of Star Wars and does an extremely good job at recreating this universe. All the characters in the game contain a very high amount of polygons and high resolution textures to make them some of the most realistic Star Wars characters to ever hit the PlayStation 2. There are also a variety of different weapon effects in the game that make use of particle effects and lighting. The only problem with the graphics is varied frame rate of the game, especially on the larger outdoor levels that the PlayStation 2 has trouble processing.

Although this occurs every now and then, the game is still 100% playable. The game also supports progressive scan for those gamers that have television sets that support this awesome resolution. Another impressive feature of the game are the spectacular CGI cinematics that are littered throughout the game and appear to be created directly from Industrial Light & Magic. 

When it comes to music, Star Wars Bounty Hunter heavily borrows the themes from Star Wars Episode II and it really helps add a movie-like atmosphere to the game. The voice acting in the game has also been professionally done and even uses Zam Welsell who was the actor behind Jango Fett in Episode II. Apart from the great music and voice acting, the game also has top class sound effects, whether it's the powerful guns of Jango Fett or the drones of the lightsabre, everything comes together perfectly in this blockbuster of a game. 

Star Wars Bounty Hunter by Electronic Arts is an almost perfect game on the PlayStation 2 and is heavily based in the Star Wars universe. Although the game is primarily a third-person shooter, there are enough puzzles and missions to make this game adventure-esq. Highly Recommended to everyone!

- Andrew B