Mech combat and farming base-building may seem like an unusual pairing, but for the small Arizona-based team at Dinogod, Bounty Star is a natural fit. Led by creative director and lead designer Ben Ruiz, the veteran developers draw inspiration from MechWarrior, Robotech, and early Armored Core titles to craft a 3rd-person action game where mech customization meets homestead management. Set in a post-post-apocalyptic version of the American Southwest, Bounty Star lets players live the day-to-day life of Clem, a retired soldier turned bounty hunter, as she fights, farms, and forges new connections.
A Day in the Life of Clem
The hands-on demo offered a slice of Clem’s routine. Her homestead, an old gas station turned base of operations, serves as the hub where you can trade supplies, farm crops, craft ammunition, manage your mech (the Desert Raptor MKII), customize its paint job, and even cook meals for stat bonuses before heading out on hunts. Tending to the homestead involves gathering water to keep plants and animals alive while also fueling vital systems. The trading post allows you to purchase raw materials, which can be crafted into ammunition or upgrades. These quieter systems provide a natural contrast to the explosive mech combat.
Combat Training and Customization
Before stepping into battle, I visited the practice area, where you can experiment with melee combos, ranged weapons, and mech movement. The combat design is built around a rock-paper-scissors system called “blades, bludgeons, and boom”:
- Blades excel against skin but struggle against scales.
- Bludgeons crush scales but falter against plate armor.
- Boom (explosives) blasts through the plate but is weak against skin.
Each weapon type brings unique melee chains, and mastering combos is essential. A “gun cancel” mechanic even lets you interrupt melee attacks with a ranged shot, creating stylish spin attacks. Mechs can also perform dash attacks, repair damage mid-combat, and deploy perks like missile shields.
Customization adds another layer. You can modify the Raptor’s health, mobility, and damage output, but also adjust its temperature gauge, a risk/reward system where augmentations can push your mech into overdrive at the cost of overheating. Some enemies have stability bars that, once broken, leave them vulnerable to follow-up attacks. Approaching near-death foes allows Clem to trigger the cinematic Chain Binder finishers.
The Thrill of the Hunt
The bounty mission in my demo dropped me into an open battlefield filled with scouts, snipers, and heavily guarded mechs. Lone enemies could be handled with quick precision, but large-scale fights demanded careful use of mobility and equipment. I experimented with melee-focused loadouts, chaining dash cancels into devastating combos, then swapped to a bat-and-missile launcher build to exploit enemy weaknesses. The combat constantly challenged me to think about positioning, counters, and timing. Clearing the field led to a mission summary and rewards that feed back into the homestead loop.
Clem’s Story and the Road Ahead
Between the intensity of combat and the slow-burning nature of base management, Clem’s personal journey unfolds through journal entries that reflect on her survival and place in this harsh world. Balancing story, downtime, and explosive mech encounters, Bounty Star feels poised to deliver a unique rhythm of play.
If Dinogod can fully realize the blend between mech mastery and homestead life, Bounty Star could carve out its own space in the mech-action genre when it launches on October 23, 2025, on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
