Can you recall your worst day ever? You don’t have to respond, therefore it’s all right. Yes, I do. I made a mistake while doing something I loved, and a tale someone else told about it for their personal gain cost me nearly all I owned. Everything I had worked for vanished, doors slammed shut in my face, and people I thought were my friends left my life. I refused to answer the phone, so my family had to communicate with me via postcard. I thought about ending my life for the next two years before I eventually found some peace. Almost ten years later, those incidents and that error—it was such a small thing, really—still affect every part of my existence.
Though it took place inside a Raptor mech’s cockpit rather than behind a computer, Clementine McKinney’s worst day was very similar to mine. She made a choice that cost her everything she owned because it was motivated by her desire to uphold moral principles and protect those she loved. Graveyard Clem was created from the ashes of Clementine McKinney, who passed away on that day. After the worst day of your life, Bounty Star explores your identity and what you do when your only choice is to go back into the machine that brought you there. Clem and I both had no other option. There is nothing else we can do.
Clem hunts down bounty. She is solely focused on building and flying Raptors, which is the primary activity you will do in for the approximately 15 to 20 hours it took me to complete Bounty Star’s story (although there is plenty of replayability if you so desire). Her buddy Jake Triminy, the local marshall of a post-plague future in which human civilization collapsed and dinosaurs returned, provides her with an abandoned workshop that may be utilized as a farm if her planet collapses. The rewards she is offered are for minor fry, such as local bandits, because no one really believes her after what happened.
Before embarking on a journey, you use her money to purchase food and prepare it in her kitchen to boost your stats. She stares at the old girl for a long time, her heart pounding rapidly, the first time she gets into her Raptor after the choice she made inside one devastated her life. She then shuts her eyes, lets out a breath, and begins working. It may be her only option, but Clem recognizes the irony. Although we are not in the same location, she and I both sit in the cockpit.
Clem’s struggles are a part of who she is. She has a severe scar on the right side of her face, a horrible burn on the side of her neck, and another scar on the opposite cheek. She is no longer young; even if her body speaks of a woman who welds steel and constructs Raptors, if you leave her alone long enough, she will stretch and gripe about how her body is failing her. Sweat stains her clothes, and motor grease covers them. The twang of the American South is evident in her dialect.
When she is stuck on a problem, she will pull out a stuffed dinosaur named Jeremy and talk to him until she finds the answer, even though she drinks, smokes, plays the guitar, and swears like it’s going out of style. Clem, a warrior poet, sits on her Raptor after completing a bounty and jots down her thoughts in a little journal, hoping that the words she arranges on the page will reflect who she is. I loved her in the same sense that you love a kindred soul—someone whose flaws you can relate to and whose qualities you respect. She is a human, messy, flawed, and magnificent.
Clem is a human being, complete with flaws and imperfections.
After receiving your task, it’s time to gear your Raptor and begin working. Raptors are comparatively small mechs; they are faster, smaller, and less equipped than an Armored Core’s AC. From assault rifles and grenade launchers to chainswords and enormous hammers, they possess both combat and ranged weapons. By adding components like a booster for fast dodges, a burst repairer for on-the-spot mending, or a thermal computer to quickly return your Raptor to its basic temperature, you may further modify them to suit your playstyle.
There are several factors to take into account: each weapon has one of three categories (Blade, Bludgeoning, Boom) that work against various armor types in a rock, paper, scissors fashion. Systems and weapons can also generate or dissipate heat. If you use too little or too much, your Raptor will stop down until it is under control again, leaving you exposed. However, there are advantages. While a cooler Raptor discharges its weapons more swiftly, high heat accelerates the swing of your melee weapon.
Only in the morning, afternoon, or evening are certain bounties accessible. Weapons that produce heat are more practical at night because it’s cooler than in the midday, when you’ll need systems to keep your Raptor cool. There is a thrill in putting yourself in Clem’s shoes, diving behind the hood, and creating a setup that runs well. The proper construction considers your goals, the time of day, and the temperature.
A Raptor in the field is a force of steel and rage, agile but determined. You commit to the weight and momentum of that chainsword when you swing it, even though it can duck and run to avoid fire. A man can be killed by an assault rifle in one shot, but it won’t work as well against a Driller mech that was made heavy for mining and modified for fighting by criminals. An unmanned Sieger can be easily dispatched with a double-barreled shotgun, but you’ll need to be more accurate while shooting another mech.
Before your melee weapons stagger the larger foes, such as Drillers and Raptors like you, you must remove their stability. Once it is gone, a hammer, chainsword, or flame gauntlet will rock them to the ground until something breaks. Counterattacks, on the other hand, can completely shut down your onslaught and send your Raptor reeling. You have your own dash and melee tricks to make up for it. Dash forward into a swing with a baseball bat designed for a machine, or cancel a swing of your hammer into an evasive motion while jumping backward and firing your shotgun. Two gunslingers circling until one finds an opening is what it’s like to dance with another Raptor.
Although you encounter the same Raptor, Sieger, and group of adversaries repeatedly, it is gratifying. This is especially true during the Low Priority repetitive bounties you will complete in between High Priority story missions. At least Clem’s surroundings, which are obviously a loving homage to the American Southwest, are breathtaking. Many of the maps remain beautiful, especially at night, even if you will see some of them more than once. Optional goals that give you extra money and test your ability to avoid taking damage, employ a particular build, finish a bounty fast, destroy items strewn about the area, locate a secret item, and other tasks provide variety.
Additionally, it is always worthwhile to search an area for hidden chests that contain extra goodies like resources, world information, or even blueprints for new weapons or recipes that Clem can prepare in the kitchen.
The repetition of a life beyond the cockpit brought me joy.
You’ll utilize Clem’s earnings between bounties to upgrade her Raptor and construct her new house. Things begin modestly. But before you know it, you’re generating your own ammunition, creating your own fuel, cultivating crops, rearing chickens, constructing new weapons, and unlocking more slots or loadouts. She turns a location she didn’t want to be into a home while she rebuilds herself. Feeding the chickens, watering the plants, planting new seeds, making sure the fuel-producing systems have enough water, and cooking a meal before leaving are all small tasks, but I enjoyed the repetition of a life outside the cockpit and witnessing the actual, palpable progress Clem and I were making on our healing journeys.
A I was able to complete these tasks more quickly and effectively because I had put more time and money into the farm. Delivering water to every plant will complete the task. However, building a firearm-activated irrigation system and seeing the empty space gradually filled up piece by piece is far more enjoyable. That is a life, isn’t it? Additionally, my Raptor was growing more vicious, with larger bounties. One feeds the other at first. Raptor. The farm. As time passes, they become more entwined, making it more difficult to distinguish between the two.
Clem considers her connection with Raptors in one of her journal entries, debating whether to embrace the thrill and power she experiences when piloting one or to despise them as war machines on principle. It’s a question for us as players as well as for her. She chooses the latter, in part because she feels she is improving the world by eliminating evil guys from it, and in part because she has no other option. Fortunately, you can use pyrotechnics to scare off dinosaurs or take bounties alive rather than kill them, and occasionally you will get paid more for it. Nevertheless, you will still accumulate a large number of bodies.
Verdict
“The world breaks everyone, and afterwards many are strong in the broken places,” Hemingway famously wrote. Living through something that breaks you and looking for purpose in the rubble is a sign of strength. It’s not a straight road. You can find yourself moving backwards when you least expect it as it twists, curls, and circles back. Bounty Star is aware of that. Clem’s journey is not a simple one; it takes him through the more peaceful times spent caring for farm hens as well as the highs of blasting apart mechs while gathering bounties from the cockpit of a Raptor.
She is unable to handle it alone, and it is based on the kindness and encouragement of the endearing people she encounters. However, the journey is worthwhile. There are instances when there is no other option. Sometimes, since it’s a part of who you are, you have to return to the thing that destroyed you. There are times when you have to get back in the f***ing robot and pray that someone is still alive.
