A great title can only do so much
Every so often a game comes along that swings for the fences with a wild concept, and you can’t help but root for it. Bounty Star: The Morose Tale of Graveyard Clem is one of those games. I mean with a title like that, how can you not expect some kinda awesomeness. A mech-action adventure where you hunt bounties by day and fix up your homestead by night; developed by DINOGOD and published by Annapurna Interactive and it sounds like a recipe for something special. Unfortunately, what lands on Xbox Series X feels more like a serviceable experiment than a standout hit. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either.
Players will take control of Clem, a haunted ex-soldier trying to build a new life in the wastelands of the Red Expanse. She pilots her mech, the Desert Raptor MK II, to take down bandits, mercs, and other outlaws, while managing a rundown homestead between missions. The setup is strong. Clem’s story hits some emotional beats; she’s a believable character weighed down by guilt and the voice acting and music do a good job of selling that dusty, melancholic tone. There’s a lot of atmosphere here: the whine of your mech engines, the hum of the desert wind, the twang of guitars underscoring the loneliness. It’s a great vibe. But vibes only carry you so far.
MSRP: $24.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
Let’s get this out of the way: the mech combat is not great. On paper, it should be the highlight; customizable parts, ranged and melee options, and fast-paced bounty missions. But in practice, the controls feel stiff and unresponsive, and combat lacks the weight or speed you’d expect from a mech action game. Movement is clunky, targeting can be finicky, and enemies often soak up damage without much feedback. There is pretty good level of customization, players can outfit their mech with different weapons, boosters, and armor, but these changes rarely affect how battles feel. The system has depth on the surface, but it never rewards experimentation in a meaningful way. Most fights boil down to circling enemies, mashing attacks, and trying to keep your mech from overheating. The result is more slog than thrill.
Mission design doesn’t help either. Objectives repeat quickly; go here, clear this area, eliminate this target. It doesn’t help matters that the environments blend together after a few runs either. There’s rarely a sense of escalation or challenge, just a routine grind that feels more like busywork than bounty hunting.
Between missions, Clem tends to her homestead; growing crops, crafting supplies, and expanding her base. These items can be used to cook foods which will buff Clem before missions. It’s a nice change of pace in theory, but the loop becomes monotonous fast. The tasks feel more like chores than progress. You’ll spend too much time managing resources and too little seeing any real payoff. Yall know me, I love a good farming game and the idea of pairing mech combat with downtime could’ve been refreshing, but the execution lacks depth. The systems never feel fully connected; you’re just bouncing between two halves that don’t quite fit together.
But to its credit, Bounty Star has a distinctive look and feel. The desert setting, muted color palette, and moody soundtrack give it personality. The voice acting, especially Clem’s weary delivery, adds some emotional grounding. But none of that can cover up the lack of polish. Animations are stiff, textures pop in at odd times, and the UI feels clunky. It’s not broken, but it’s rough around the edges in ways that constantly remind you this is a smaller project. You can see the passion behind it, but also the limits of the budget and time.
Bounty Star: The Morose Tale of Graveyard Clem is one of those games that sounds incredible on paper but stumbles in execution. The story and atmosphere show flashes of something special, but the gameplay simply doesn’t hold up its end. The combat feels slow and awkward, the mission structure grows repetitive, and the homestead systems never evolve past the basics. Bounty Star wants to be a redemption story; both for its protagonist and for the mech genre’s quieter side. Unfortunately, much like Clem herself, it never quite outruns its flaws.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
