Star Wars: Hunters

Star Wars: Hunters’ lighthearted PvP fun is like a party at the Death Star: Impressive for a bit, but probably not a place you’ll want to hang around for too long.

Star Wars: Hunters might not bring anything particularly new to the ever-increasing field of class-based shooters, but there's a lot of fun to be had here. If you can look past the fiddly menus and 'Arena Pass' trappings that have haunted so many in the genre, Hunters offers a level of tactical PvP gameplay that is simple to grasp and entertaining enough to warrant mastering. Best of all, it feels right at home on Switch. There's certainly room for improvement but, like ol' Shiv Palpatine, we will watch its career with great interest.

Even after several updates, Star Wars: Hunters can’t capture the verve nor engagement of other Hero shooter/brawler hybrids. The end result is a surplus of characters, modes, and cosmetics that’s swamped by lacklustre design, aesthetics, and mechanics. For this sub-genre, calling it mediocre feels too generous. For a new-ish Star Wars game, it ranks among the weakest efforts since Disney took over.

Star Wars: Hunters does a great job of creating fast paced matches with unique and balanced characters. Each level is well thought out and keeps the games moving at a steady pace. The game modes, while straightforward, are interesting and full of detail for Star Wars fans. If you like Star Wars, you'll love this free game with new characters and plenty of explosions.

Star Wars: Hunters is a surprisingly fun and good game that you should definitely check out. The characters, maps, modes and even the gameplay are well balanced, designed and even implemented in the game. There's just something missing. Over time, you'll find that it lacks depth, and longer matches would definitely help.

Star Wars Hunters is a surprisingly fun hero shooter wrapped around a somewhat aggressive live-service model. The shooting dynamics are great and the levels are filled with some nice Star Wars fanservice.

The gameplay is solid, and everything feels as though it is polished and fun, but without much to truly capture the attention of the community, there is a concern that after the initial hype dies off, the matches could begin to struggle with maintaining an active player base. That said, this game does have a lot to offer, particularly for Star Wars fans, being a well-crafted entry into the genre of competitive arena combat battles. Especially being free-to-play, Star Wars: Hunters is a fun game that is absolutely worth a try.

A Star Wars version of Overwatch is not the worst idea ever, but its full potential can only barely be glimpsed through a miasma of cloying microtransactions and purposefully shallow gameplay.

Are there any redeeming factors? Well, the sound department isn’t half-bad (it’s a Star Wars game after all), and the combination of quick rounds and a lack of memorable characters make the game harmless when it comes to its monetization practices; it might be egregious, but there’s no reason for you to spend money on random carbon copies you won’t ever care about. Star Wars: Hunters is not the worst F2P shooter in the world, but at the same time, I think that the 90 minutes spent playing it were more than enough.

How fucking dare Star Wars: Hunters? I really hope it becomes yet another “service” game that’s been shut down in less than a year. It deserves to be burned to nothing.