Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter

Bounty hunters are cool. Boba Fett - he was a bounty hunter, and always the character of choice during playground Star Wars re-enactments. Just as cool, and with an equally enviable vocation, is Mace Griffin, star of this latest action adventure from developer Warthog.

Set hundreds of years in the future, in a time where both human and alien settlers are rapidly colonising the galaxy, Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter casts players as the titular character and plunges them into a world of corporate, political and religious intrigue. As the story has it, ex-Special Ops officer Mace finds himself framed for being involved in his comrades' deaths. A subsequent ten-year stint in prison, and he decides to become a bounty hunter in order to acquire access to classified information that will enable him to go and seek out the people that framed him.

The game itself takes the form of an assortment of objective-based missions, involving a whole load of exploration and investigation. In his quest to unravel the truth, Mace travels across a host of both space and ground-based locations, fulfilling such objectives as destroying a space station, preventing rustlers from stealing alien super-cattle, salvaging smuggled technology, and protecting a crime lord.

A satisfying amount of futuristic technology is at your disposal throughout the game, giving you the opportunity to pilot a total of six different ships, from alien fighters to massive carriers. These ships come equipped with an array of explosive weaponry, which comes in particularly handy during the game's high-action space combat sequences. Alternatively, for the ground-based elements of the game, there are a total of ten different weapons to get your hands on.

A lengthy stint on Mace Griffin makes for quite a cinematic experience. An involving storyline holds everything together, and throughout the game, believable AI reacts based on the respective character's intelligence, bravery and health, making for some seriously convincing gameplay.

Bounty hunters are cool!