As I drifted my large Desert Raptor MKII mech through an expansive desert canyon, crowded full of rocket-wielding hover bots and gun-toting bandits, I got the sense that Bounty Star might be onto something special here. My mech, assembled from a variety of parts looking like it was built in someone’s garage (because it was), dispatched these challenging foes with a variety of heavy melee attacks and cannon fire. It took me a few tries to come out on top, but as I neared the end of my brief hands-on time, Bounty Star left me eager to come back to its world later this year when it launches for Xbox Series X|S.

In Bounty Star you play as Clem, a talented fighter and mech pilot who is managing some personal trauma as a war veteran looking to make up for some of her past actions – and hopefully become a force of good. Her adventure takes place in an area known as the Red Expanse, reminiscent of what can best be described as a post-apocalyptic American Southwest.

“I was in Sedona, Arizona, surrounded by landscapes much like those in the game, and I couldn’t help but think how perfect they would be for an immersive action game setting,” explains Creative Director & Designer Benjamin Ruiz. “The desire to create something visually stunning and set in a beautiful desert was really the spark for Bounty Star. Everything started to fall into place from there. I began outlining the concept that very morning, inspired by those breathtaking views. That was about five years ago. It took a year or two before production officially began, but the idea was simmering for a while before we really got started.”

Ruiz explained to me that he always dreamed of creating a Western, and Bounty Star is very much rooted in that genre, but blending a lighter take on the Armored Core style of mech gameplay that his creative team loves.

“We really wanted to focus on the everyday life of a bounty hunter,” Ruiz adds. “There’s a base-building aspect where you’re preparing food, managing resources like clean water, and even raising chickens — really digging into the experience of survival in the desert. We aimed to find an exciting intersection between these elements: the fun of a Western, the detailed life of a bounty hunter, and the thrill of piloting a mech in the open desert. That’s how Bounty Star came together.”

As I explored Clem’s run-down garage that serves as her base of operations and home, with power lines strewn about, a make-shift kitchen in the corner to cook food (which can give her stat bonuses in combat), and barrels full of munitions hiding in plain sight, the world of Bounty Star is blending some of my favorite things about what it would be like to live out this life in a sci-fi Western, giving me strong “Firefly” and “Serenity” vibes where you don’t have much, but what you do have you can call home; it has potential.

Customization is one of the other key elements of Bounty Star and from what I could tell it seemed open-ended enough where I could either play with any type of mech that I wanted to assemble, provided I had the resources to put it all together. Ruiz reinforced that assumption for me.

“There are a couple of different approaches you can take,” Ruiz elaborates. “You’re always going to need both a melee weapon and a firearm, but you can lean into one or the other, depending on your preferred play style. For instance, some players might focus on heavy armor and charge straight into combat, becoming a slow but nearly unstoppable force. Others might prefer lighter builds, prioritizing speed and agility over sheer toughness.”

As Ruiz explained to me further, the customization system lets you tweak around seven core properties and choose from a variety of firearms, melee weapons, and support systems. He mentioned that even some of the QA testers were creating builds that would skip healing altogether, blasting through encounters at high speed. So, it seems you’ll have plenty of flexibility to create unique mech builds and experiment with different combat strategies when going up against a variety of enemies.

Enemies are not the only thing you’ll encounter in Bounty Star. There will also be a handful of key NPCs you’ll interact with. One of them is the Marshall, who’s not only responsible for assigning your bounties but also happens to be an old friend. There’s also a merchant who offers you some of the best gear available in the game, operating on the shadier side of things and brings a different energy compared to the Marshall according to Ruiz. He mentioned that overall, while the cast of other characters isn’t huge, the ones you meet are designed to have meaningful and memorable interactions with you in the game.

And one cannot be a bounty hunter without some bounties, and it sounds like there’s going to be a wide variety of mission designs to keep you engaged. Bounties generally work the same way throughout the game according to Ruiz. With Bounty Star running on a day-night cycle, there will be days where you’ll find story bounties on the board, alongside a couple of side bounties. Each one of these will send you to a specific part of the world, which will be distinct combat arenas of various shapes and sizes.

“Sometimes your goal is to capture a particular target because they’re a wanted criminal; other times, you’re tasked with clearing out all adversaries in the area,” Ruiz adds. “Some bounties require you to be more careful and apprehend someone, while others are straightforward combat challenges. There are also optional objectives for players who enjoy replayability, such as completing a bounty within a certain time or using a specific loadout. Ultimately, Bounty Star is very much a third-person arena experience, but we’re focused on providing a variety of ways for players to have fun and approach each mission uniquely.”

Much like Clem’s makeshift home, Bounty Star seems full of potential, and we’re looking forward to seeing how it all comes together later this year when it launches on Xbox Series X|S.