Bounty Star Hands-On Preview: A Girl And Her Mech

In recent years, Annapurna Interactive has become the defining name in innovative, out-of-the-box indie games, and its latest offering is no exception. Developed by DINOGOD, Bounty Star, subtitled The Morose Tale of Graveyard Clem, is an over-the-shoulder 3D action game about rediscovering your identity, finding life and hope in a ruined world, and using your customizable mech to beat the stuffing out of bandits, rogue robots, bizarre fauna, and various other nasties.

The Best War Games recently had the opportunity to experience a day in the life of Bounty Star's protagonist, Clementine "Clem" McKinney, as she maintains her base, takes on bounties, and even picks out a tune or two on her guitar.

Clem's Daily Life Is Compelling And Realistic

Bounty Star's gameplay is divided into two sections: farming and base building, which takes place at Clem's home in the Red Wastes — a post-apocalyptic rendering of the American Southwest — and mech-based combat sections which occur out in the depths of the Wastes as Clem takes on various bounties in exchange for money and resources.

The game does a great job of balancing the two sections so that neither feels like it overwhelms or dominates the other. In particular, the base building never feels like an afterthought: the game is about Clem building a new life in the wake of her traumatic experiences as a soldier, and that happens in the quiet moments spent at her home.

I loved how realistically Bounty Star portrays life in a post-apocalyptic desert setting. Clem can order food via a futuristic shopping system, but she saves a great deal of money if she harvests items like cactus fruits from the area around her house. Much of the items she uses to customize her mech and her various machinery are secondhand parts, scrap she scavenged from her time in the desert. Clem wears leg guards that seem to be made of repurposed skateboards, which I absolutely adore.

A huge chunk of her day is taken up by gathering water and using it to create fuel for her mech, watering her plants — the ex-soldier has a fairly sophisticated hydroponics system in place to grow food and other necessities — and other key tasks. Water is life, and it powers everything Clem does in a way that feels grounded and real. The first several minutes of my time with Bounty Star were spent doing routine task s that emphasized how truly challenging it was to survive in the Wastes, and I absolutely loved it. You can really see Clem rebuilding her life, step by step, and learning how to be more than just a soldier.

Mech-Based Combat Is Versatile And Fun

Once she's done her daily tasks, made sure she has enough food, water and fuel, Clementine is then able to take on Bounties in exchange for cash and other rewards. However, before heading out on a bounty, I made sure to customize the mech's loadout. I was initially slightly overwhelmed, as there are a lot of options to consider.

There are melee weapons, ranged weapons, and a huge variety of add-ons, but the game does an outstanding job of explaining exactly how each piece functions; I went into battle with a pretty clear idea of exactly what my mech could do. There's also a training area players can visit, filled with practice dummies that offer helpful tips demonstrating how a chosen item works.

I appreciate how Bounty Star offers options catering to all sorts of play styles thanks to the extremely customizable mech. For my first bounty, initially, I chose a "mini-gun" that had an extremely high rate of fire, thinking that I would be able to simply "spray and pray" my enemies to death. It worked for my first bounty. However, in the second, I found myself going up against a number of human and robotic snipers that used the wasteland setting to their advantage, constantly hiding behind giant pieces of rubble.

In response, I completely redid my loadout with a gun that fired homing bullets, a "bomb bat" type melee weapon that could knock snipers out of their hidey-holes, and add-ons that focused on speed and maneuverability. The next time I tried, I took out my foes with health to spare. I appreciated how I felt like I learned and grew and had to adjust my weapons and enhancements to fit the types of foes I encountered in each bounty. It ensured that the gameplay loop of "accept bounty, clear out foes, claim reward" never once felt repetitive.

Combat is solid — the mech is surprisingly maneuverable for its size and never feels clunky. There's a great variety of enemies even within each individual bounty, so that you are never allowed to grow complacent. You'll find yourself fighting humans, robots, and even a few more of the unique denizens of the Wastes. During my second bounty, a strange mechanical creature called a "Geopython" burst from the sand when I thought I had cleared everything out, and I jumped straight out of my chair. The creature has a memorable design (a segmented metal snake that can burrow through the ground and attack with lasers) and I definitely found myself wanting to know more about what sort of creatures inhabit the Red Wastes.

My only slight criticisms of Bounty Star come from the combat section. There was no mini-map in the areas I went to while clearing out bounties, and, while it makes sense lore-wise as Clem probably hasn't mapped out the area, it did make them a bit tricky to navigate, especially figuring out where the boundaries were.

I would have also preferred there to be some kind of counter letting me know at least roughly how many enemies were left — there was one point during the first bounty where I ran around in circles for a while, growing frustrated because I was missing a single human enemy that was difficult to locate in such a large area. These are small issues, though, and the game's combat is overall satisfying.

The Kind Of Lore That Makes You Want To Learn More

Finally, I must say how much I adored the world and story of Bounty Star. The post-apocalyptic American Southwest setting is beautifully designed, from the cacti growing around Clem's garage to the chunks of broken-down highway overpass that particularly annoying snipers hid behind during one bounty. I definitely found myself wanting to learn more about the world — how had things become that way? Who lives in the Wastes now, and what is their society like?

Clem has a library where you can read books to learn more about the lore, and it seems like you can also gather more information by unlocking more books; I definitely predict I'll be spending a lot of time doing that once the full version of Bounty Star launches.

Clementine McKinney is also a wonderful protagonist. Everything about her feels real — the trauma of her past experiences, the mix of uncertainty and quiet confidence she approaches her new life with, and the philosophical musings she recounts in her diary at the end of each day. I want to know more about her past and how she got to where she is, as well as more about some of the other characters who send her mail at her isolated outpost.

After experiencing just one day in the life of "Graveyard Clem," I am extremely eager to live through many, many more — something I'll be able to do when Bounty Star debuts on October 23, 2025.

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