Pilot mechs and farm crops in 'post-post-apocalyptic' Wild West action game Bounty Star

Bounty hunting, farm management and… mecha piloting? That's the combo Annapurna and Dinogod's upcoming third-person shooter Bounty Star is looking to nail, with a classic story of redemption for an old soldier remixed with "highly customizable battle vehicles" set in the "post-post-apocalypse."

Future war veteran mech pilot Clementine McKinney "attempts to shed the guilt and shame of her past and become a legitimate force for good in the Red Expanse, a post-post-apocalyptic version of the American Southwest." A classic Wild West sort of story, just replacing the six shooters with robotanks.

The vibe reminds me most of Cole Cassidy's home map in Overwatch, Route 66⁠—all bright, saturated colors with bright white gas stations and grey highway contrasting with orange cliffs. The customizable, small mecha combat certainly holds a lot of promise, but it's hard to tell without feeling it in the hand.

Bounty Star also features a significant base building mechanic where players have to "build out water and supply lines, grow and cook food, produce ammunition and food for combat, and raise animals."

That sounds like some engaging management simming, and something a little more substantial than your typical home base upgrading in other action and action RPG games, even if we're not quite reaching Stardew Valley levels of customization and control. Bounty Star is currently set to release on Steam in 2022, beating next year's mecha farming sim Lightyear Frontier to the punch.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.