Star Wars: Hunters Review (Switch, Android, & iOS)

After several delays, Star Wars: Hunters is finally here. It’s no doubt good news for Star Wars fans, who always seem to have yet another film or game out every year. Moreover, gamers of all kinds will find Star Wars: Hunters to be one of the most accessible Star Wars games to date. From the start, it’s clear that Star Wars: Hunters draws heavy inspiration from games like Overwatch and Team Fortress. The developing team admits as much, with the core gameplay being team-based, arena-shooter. The question is, does Star Wars: Hunters do enough to stand out from its inspirations? Just how worthwhile is Star Wars: Hunters as is? Well, tag along on our Star Wars: Hunters review to find out.

May the Force Be with You

We all know how the Star Wars franchise thrives on storytelling. Some of us have been diehard fans for as long as we can remember, so much so that we know the original story arcs by heart. Well, Star Wars: Hunters takes a breather from storytelling. Instead, it takes us right to the heart of arenas inspired by the Star Wars franchise. 

It tasks you with selecting a hero from a band of misfits inspired by the underlying source material. Don’t expect original backstories for the characters, either. Save for appearance, we have very little to go by as far as storytelling is concerned. But that’s totally fine. 

After all, it’s the gameplay that matters more. Something you jump into for a quick round of fire against opponents. Indeed, each match takes only a few minutes to complete. You’ll be sucked into rounds of chaotic fun, so much so that the sting of a lack of a more profound story barely burns.

Wookie, Who?

Of course, Wookie is among the characters you can select to control. Each team has four players, with each team member selecting a unique character. With up to 12 playable characters, and more to be added over time, you’ll be spoilt for choice over who to pick. 

Some characters are originally designed. However, others will be instantly familiar to you from the many Star Wars franchise media out there. Like any other team shooter, Star Wars: Hunters features a variety of class types. You have your everyday spin on the tank, damage, and support classes, so you can craft a character build unique to your play style. 

You have Diago, a long-range gunner who is blind. Despite his lack of sight, Diago is surprisingly accurate. He inflicts heavy damage on opponents using his Slugthrower Rifle to unleash high damage at a slower fire rate. While the Force seems to definitely be on his side, Diago may not be the best character to rely on at close-range combat. 

There’s Sentinel, a stormtrooper from the Star Wars franchise, donning the army’s iconic helmet and armor. He fires rounds of ammo into opponents using a Heavy Repeater. He’s able to sustain more damage too, with a shield he can use to withstand damage, making him the perfect tank class to go for. 

Alternatively, you can go with Grozz, the Chewbacca of Star Wars: Hunters. He thrives in close quarters, smashing and destroying opponents close by with brute force. He uses Improvised Clubs to batter opponents’ heads in. So long as you’re in his aura, you’re likely to perish, and there are many more diverse characters to tinker around with.

In the Thick of the Action

Besides having diverse characters, Star Wars: Hunters also has different game modes. To be fair, they feel limited, with the hope of more modes being added with time. Still, what we have now gets the job done. And while the modes may be variations of the gameplay in other team-based shooters out there, as are the skills and abilities you have access to, Star Wars: Hunters puts an extra flair on its unique lore, lightsabers, and all.

At the moment, you have four game modes. There’s Squad Brawl, which is the usual “kill X amount of opponents in X amount of time.” Power Control sees you managing one or more control points. As long as you gain control over and defend the chosen base for X amount of time, you win. 

Meanwhile, Dynamic Point puts a twist on Power Control, tasking you with fighting for control over a chosen base. It gets more exciting when the base respawns in another location in the arena. So, you’ll need to be consistently on high alert. Finally, there’s Trophy Case, that needs you to capture a “trophy” and keep possession over it to win.

The game modes unlock the more you play. Still, with time, they begin to sync into one another. Star Wars: Hunters needs more variety to keep you playing for weeks and months on end. Hopefully, future updates will add more exciting game modes to spice up what’s currently on offer here.

Star of the Show

All battles take place in an arena, with currently eight maps available. The maps are steeped in vibrant color and detail. You’ll instantly spot the striking similarity to Overwatch’s cartoony aesthetic. Yet Star Wars: Hunters finds the perfect balance between cartoony and realism. As a result, characters and environments feel incredibly immersive and like a sci-fi sandbox that’s a joy to run around in.

Of course, at the peak of battles, which is almost for the entirety of a match, you’ll hardly have the time to take in every detail the arenas have. But take the time to comb through every nook and cranny and you’ll see the hard work that has clearly gone into its production. 

From familiar arenas that give a nod to the Star Wars franchise to light-hearted takes on the set of a Star Wars TV show, Star Wars: Hunters’ maps go the extra mile to keep you intrigued.

Similarly, the music score and sound effects are top-notch. The only caveat is that opponents sneak up on you without any audio clue of their presence. You’ll die a tad too many times simply because you couldn’t hear (or see) an opponent stab you in the back—something that feels out of your control and thus unfair. 

Buttery Smooth

I’m happy to report that Star Wars: Hunters runs pretty smoothly. On mobile, it runs without a fault, and on Nintendo Switch, while it may struggle to maintain a steady framerate, it still maintains a relatively consistent flow of motion. The issue comes in the more over-the-top battling sections of the game. With the accurate and responsive controls, it’s a shame that sometimes the framerate drops enough to miss a shot. 

Star Wars: Hunters requires maintaining a keen eye on each and every minute of gameplay. You need to keep track of four opponents who are often constantly in motion. You also need to monitor the environment around you. Even a few moments of delay, whether stuttering or framerate dropping, can become frustrating. Hopefully, with future patch fixes, the lags will be ironed out completely for seamless gaming all through.

Pay to Win?

With Star Wars: Hunters being free-to-play, you’re probably wondering whether it suffers from the frustrating pay-to-win system. Well, good news, folks. The only purchases money can make in Star Wars: Hunters are cosmetics. However, to progress your characters’ skills and abilities, you’ll need to do honest work. 

You do have daily challenges, which, along with the game modes, once completed, earn you EXP. You’ll earn even more EXP and in-game currency when you win matches. These allow you to unlock new game modes, arenas, characters, and upgrades. 

Now, each character does have their own individual EXP track. So, you do need to experiment with all the characters to level them up. But the system works far better than pay-to-win, allowing you to compete at par with other online players. Speaking of online, it’s quite fast to match with other players, with cross-play and cross-progression available, making Star Wars: Hunters a quick game you can jump into for fun.

Verdict

Stressing on “fun” because Star Wars: Hunters isn’t your in-depth team-based shooter that will offer a wealth of content and gameplay systems. It doesn’t pretend to compete with the likes of Overwatch and Fortnite, either. Instead, it capitalizes on light-hearted gunplay and a fierce nod to its inspirations, whether Overwatch itself or the Star Wars franchise for its lore.

It makes Star Wars: Hunters the perfect game for Star Wars fans who’d love to play something different from the norm. But beyond that, it can be perfect for any gamer who wants to spend a few hours of fun with friends and online players. Still, regardless of your taste and preference, Star Wars: Hunters simply runs out of ideas the more you play. 

This is where the Battle Pass system comes into play, determining whether it adds enough content to keep players interested in playing some more. Because at the end of the day, save for the Star Wars lore, Star Wars: Hunters is as much a team-based shooter game as any other, meaning, most of the characters and gunplay you find here can be easily replaced by more fully fleshed-out arena shooter games out there.