The Wild West. If you’re American, it should conjure up images of things like the Pony Express, the 1849 Gold Rush, and if you actually liked the film, Will Smith’s Wild Wild West. Outside of America, your only exposure to the American frontier/Wild West genre might be through popular media like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (a much better Western film than Wild Wild West) and games like Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar Games, however, does not lay sole claim to the Wild West genre of video games. That brings us to the recent release from DINOGOD and Annapurna Interactive, Bounty Star.

Bounty Star is a unique entry into the genre of Western, where you’re carrying iron on your hip. Well, not your hip – a mech’s hip. The signature feature of Bounty Star is a 3D over-the-shoulder mech combat game, with a smattering of farming/base management. Bounty Star released to PC, Xbox, and Playstation on October 23rd, 2025.

At Gamer Social Club, we were granted access a little earlier than the market release of the game. Let’s dive into what this game has to offer, where its strengths lie, and where the cracks are.

The World and The Story

The World

The setting of Bounty Star is, well, not bleak, but definitely not the most ideal time and place to live. Where the game takes place is known as the Red Expanse, which is a take on a post-post-apocalyptic version of the American Southwest. A world that is rich in farming and resources, along with a vibrant trade industry. And wherever there is profit to be made, crime also exists. If the wild beasts of the Red Expanse don’t kill you (like the Mantisbeasts or Theros), then the outlaws of the desert will. What little structure within this world outsources much of its judicial system to bounty hunters. Bounty Hunters like our protagonist, Clementine McKinney – Clem, for short.

The Story

As we indicated, our story will follow Clem. Not only being a war veteran, she is also a crack mech pilot that once kept the peace in the Red Expanse. However, tragedy befalls Clem, her subordinates, and loved ones (including her brother, Elijah). A settlement is attacked by a band of outlaws. Thus ensues a story of revenge by Clem…and the adoption of a new name: Graveyard Clem.

Time passes and Clem recedes further and further into solitude. One day, Clem is contacted by an old friend and local marshall, Jake Triminy. Jake, as one of Clem’s remaining friends, encourages her to pick up the badge of a Bounty Hunter. In conjunction with picking up the mantle of Bounty Hunter, Clem also comes into ownership of a dilapidated and ruined farm – a location full of potential.

Bounty Star’s story progresses from there, as Clem rebuilds not only the garage/farm that she has inherited, but also rebuilds her reputation as a lawwoman not to be trifled with. From humble beginnings, Clem restores her good name – and possibly makes good on avenging the “wrongs” that befell her years ago. Along her path, she’ll make friends, both from her prior life, along with new companions that stumble across her life.

Without any spoilers, we’ll follow Clem as she comes to terms with what happened, along with releasing herself of the guilt of what happened on her watch. While a little cliche, it does wrap up nicely.

The Gameplay

Mech Combat and Bounties

At the end of the day, Bounty Star’s core mechanics focus around pursuing Bounties in your rustbucket of a Desert Raptor MKII, known commonly as a Raptor. This Raptor is highly customizable and trust me, you will need all of those resources on hand. Clem has the ability to swap out melee and ranged weapons, different support and “trick” systems. Additionally, there are various augmentations that can provide Clem with the extra edge in combat.

As Clem progresses through her story, the Bounties that she encounters will get progressively more difficult. But the greater the risk, the greater the reward, right? Coupled with each Bounty are a variety of Subtasks. While not mandatory to complete Bounties, they do provide a nice little bonus in terms of funds. These Subtasks range from using only a specific loadout on the Raptor, to ensuring that certain events don’t occur while completing the bounty (like taking damage or having a thermal shutdown).

Enemies that you encounter within each Bounty will have varying levels of weaknesses, as well as resistances/strengths. Overall, it functions exactly like Rock, Paper, Scissors – Blades are great against enemies with Hearts, but weak against Shells, whereas Bludgeons are great against Shells, but awful against Half-Shields. These all had terms earlier in the game, but for the life of me, I can’t recall their actual names.

Not only do you have to factor in various weapon and subsystem loadouts, you also have to factor in the time of day when it comes to Bounties. Morning Bounties will have no effect on the Raptor’s engine, but Afternoon Bounties (when the sun sits at its apex) will create stifling temperatures that will cause your Raptor to overheat and shut down more easily. Thermal shutdowns, while not a Game Over, do take Clem out of commission for a few moments – which is not ideal when an enemy mech is hurtling at you with a blade.

Collectibles

Scattered throughout the various locations of the Red Expanse are collectibles for Clem to find, mainly in the form of two things: miniatures and baseball hats. They’re, obviously, well-hidden and in some cases, inaccessible until later in the game when you have certain gear on your Raptor. While I did make a sizable dent in locating these, I didn’t complete 100% on either set.

The Revisitor

We’ll briefly touch on this. The Revisitor is a…how do I say this…psychedelic piece of equipment that allows Clem to “revisit” previous Bounties. For what purpose? To close out loops on some of those Subtasks, which is especially important if you’re a completionist of games. I touched this once and only because the game forced me to do so.

Crafting and Cooking

Much of Clem’s gear, in terms of the equipment for trust Raptor, are built at your Workbench. To build, you’ll need certain components that are collected while in combat (as well as by destroying rusted out vehicles and storage crates while on missions). Are you missing certain components? Never fear – you have the option to buy what’s needed from your Merchant Terminal.

While at your Workbench, you can also craft various pieces of equipment for your garage/farm. From gardening beds for plants, to electrolyzers for fuel, as well as various structures to house wild critters on your property. Some of the various equipment pieces that you build, specifically the Electrolyzers and Ammunition Mill, will cut down on the costs of Clem’s Bounties. No need to buy bullets if you can make them yourself!

Clem also has a kitchen at her disposal. Cooking meals before going on a Bounty will provide various boosts to your Raptor. Don’t ask how that works – I don’t get it either. You can also Cook and Package meals to be sold at your Merchant Terminal for a few extra bucks.

Farming and Animal Care

There’s so many meals to cook, but can you get some of these resources on your own? Yup! That brings us to farming and animal care. Clem has the ability to build Gardening Beds at her Workbench. Use the Gardening Beds to raise various crops that can be used in your cooking. It goes without saying though that you’ll need to water your crops. However, higher level gardening structures will eventually lighten the load of your work.

Along with farming, you can also raise Chickens and Microtheros on your property. Chickens yield both eggs, which can be used for cooking, or hatched to raise more Chickens. There’s a whole subprocess for breeding rarer chickens – I didn’t bother, to be honest. The same goes for raising the Microtheros. Each of these critters, when kept on your property, both require food and water (we all gotta eat, right?).

Clem, in her travels, also runs across an ostracized Beefmantis that takes a shine to our protagonist. Talilah, as Clem names her, lives in your property and can actually be used as a weapon in combat, so long as she’s fed and hydrated.

While I initially did complete the farming and animal rearing objectives in the game (only because they were mandatory), I quickly…stopped doing them. Full transparency – I didn’t see the benefit. After a certain point in the game, you have more than enough money to cover what additional resources could be gained from these processes. That being said though, I’m certain some players may love this aspect.

The Good

I think I have covered all of the little nuances of what Bounty Star has to offer. Now, let’s look at what I liked…and what I didn’t like.

Visuals and Music

Bounty Star is pretty, I’ll just say it straight out. While it definitely provides many landscapes that are reminiscent of the American Southwest, it tweaks them just enough to make you forget what planet you’re on.

These visuals, as you can imagine, also shift and change, depending on the time of day that you visit that location. While I do always say that it’s not hard to be a pretty game anymore, I still can always appreciate good visuals and designs of the world in which a game takes place.

A western-themed musical score is interweaved throughout the game itself, truly giving it that additional “feel” of being on the frontier.

Combat Mechanics

The flow of combat while in your Raptor, while not initially intuitive, becomes much more pleasant as you learn the timing and mechanics of your mechsuit. The biggest area I struggled with at first was just the timing of dodging, attacking, and learning enemy attack patterns. Once I had it down, though, it was a blast.

Story

The overall narrative that was provided in Bounty Star, while not inherently a new concept, was still a nice story to work my way through. Themes of identity, of loss, of revenge, of having inherent flaws, as well as Clem’s love-hate relationship with what the Raptor means to her in her life. While machines of violence that bring sorrow to others, Clem also acknowledges the joy and love of piloting her Raptor to safeguard others. Overall, it’s a story of moving forward, one day at a time, from the lowest point in your life.

The Bad

While there were several facets of Bounty Star that I enjoyed, there were quite a few aspects that…dampened my experience.

Repetitive Gameplay

While the combat mechanics within the game definitely had a nice feel to them, the overall gameplay in this area begins to stagnate fairly quickly. With a somewhat limited variety of enemies to encounter, your approach to each Bounty becomes…pretty standardized after a point. This rings especially true later in the game as more equipment for the Raptor becomes available.

Overpowered Weaponry

This little guy right here. It breaks the game. After obtaining this Ranged System for my Raptor, I rarely (if ever) swapped it out. Why? Nearly every enemy is taken out in a small handful of shots. But don’t some enemies resist the type of damage from the Grenade Launcher? Yes. But then it becomes blowing everything up with grenades and taking care of the stragglers. It honestly made some quests…laughably easy. I’ll use a specific example (without any spoilers). In the late stages of the game, a certain Bounty requires you to go one-versus-one against another Raptor pilot. I finished the fight in…seven seconds. I wish I was kidding. It broke the sense of difficulty in the game with a sickening…BOOM.

Gameplay Pacing

The story of Bounty Star is driven by completing Bounties. Progress your completed Bounties and the story will progress. That being said…the rate at which Bounties were provided was…considerably slow. I mean…one to two a day slow. Some days you would complete the only Bounty on your Bounty Board…to then have nothing else to do for the day. Which would result in me having Clem sleep until the next day, in the hopes that the story would continue. It made me feel like the pacing was set this way just to bloat out the gameplay length.

But aren’t you also supposed to do the farming and base management mechanics on your property?

Why Farm When You Have $$$ to Burn?

I noted earlier that beyond the initial introduction of the mechanics of farming and raising livestock, I didn’t touch this part of the game after a certain point. Why? It just…didn’t add anything to my experience. What resources I could have garnered from my efforts on my property were just as easily purchased from my Market Terminal. And especially late in the game, when you have all the upgrades and gear for your Raptor…there’s not a whole lot else to spend money on.

The Overall

Outside of playing a few hours of the first Red Dead Redemption, coupled with testing out a friend’s copy of Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, Westerns and mech games are a relatively untread genre for me. It’s not through active dislike…it’s just…there are so many other genres of games that no person can simply taste all of them equally. Bounty Star, in my opinion, presents a solid story of survival and overcoming trauma and grief that is unfortunately hampered by its gameplay. Had there been the provision of more frequent Bounties throughout the game, coupled with a stronger benefit of managing your “farm”, I think that this easily could have been at least a 9 out of 10 game. But it’s the little nagging thought that was in the back of my head that kept going “This story…doesn’t need this long to be told.”

Bounty Star is currently available on PC, Xbox, and Playstation.

Gamer Social Club was provided an early-access code for the purposes of this review. This review was played on PC (Steam).