Hero shooters. Even though they are so ubiquitous in today’s gaming landscape, it wouldn’t be a hyperbole to say that about 80 to 90% of them end up being massive flops a few weeks after being released. With the exception of Overwatch, Apex Legends and Valorant, you rarely see one of those managing to amass a big following. That being said, the premise behind Star Wars: Hunters was, at the very least, bold. A Star Wars-themed hero shooter? In theory, this could have worked.

We all love the Hero mode from Battlefront II, so having a game built around the premise could have worked wonderfully well. Sadly, it did not. This entire review will be a proper explanation as to why Star Wars: Hunters failed to impress me, and why it will probably not make a dent on the Switch. I really don’t know (or care) enough of the mobile industry to discuss about that side of it, though.

Sadly, this game’s soundtrack does not feature “Lapti Nek” or “Jedi Rocks“. What a missed opportunity.

So, who do we get to play as in this Star Wars-themed arena hero shooter? Do we play as Luke? Vader? Han? Greedo? Freaking Orn Free Ta? Nope, nope and a big nope. Every single character in Star Wars: Hunters is unique to the game. They are all original creations, representing various races, factions, and classes. There’s a Mandalorian warrior, a Rodian (Greedo’s race) schemer, a rebel soldier, a Stormtrooper, a Wookiee, a couple of Jawas working together, and so on. What do they all have in common? They have no charisma whatsoever. They might be new creations, but they are all facsimiles of better-known characters, people Zynga probably didn’t want to pay an extra licensing fee on.

That’s already strike one. I felt no connection towards any of these characters. There was no interesting introduction to them, like how Overwatch did prior to release. I logged into the game for the first time, was bombarded by a ton of screens, ads and textboxes, but in no moment did I get a proper introduction to the characters at my disposal. At best, a two second cinematic during the tutorial. The bounty hunter just reminded me of Leia in a Boushh suit, the Wookiee was just Chewbacca with some highlights, the Sith warrior was basically Asajj Ventress… you can see Zynga didn’t put that much effort into creating actually interesting characters, just people who resembled enough of a more famous character for you to play as.

This is no hyperbole: this might be one of the stupidest Star Wars character designs I have ever seen in my life.

That is, if you put in enough time. You have to unlock each of these idiots via the battle pass. It doesn’t take that long, as each match is pretty quick, but that removes any semblance of incentive for you to pick up a character and test them out. By the time you’ve unlocked your tenth hero or so, you are already so accustomed to your main, that you won’t even bother trying a newbie out anyway. A poor implementation of a F2P model, to be honest. If you want to make the damn thing F2P, sure, go ahead. Add in a battle pass, shove the thing with cosmetics, go rampant on the limited edition skins. But don’t lock characters behind a progress meter. Have them unlocked from the getgo.

As for the gameplay, it’s downright harmless. It’s a very basic third-person shooter gameplay loop, with hero shooter elements. Each character has a main attack, some special moves, and an ultimate. You can be a tank, a damage dealer, a healer, or support. But considering how each map is minuscule, and most rounds are mere deathmatches, it just makes sense to pick the tank or the damage character and have at it. It’s third-person Overwatch, with just less balancing or nuance. The level of strategizing and thought you need to put into each round is minuscule.

Are you really trying to make a Stormtrooper look like a badass? He’s a Stormtrooper for f***’s sake…

Each round was actually pretty easy and uninspiring. Either I was being paired with a bunch of mobile players (where camera controls are a hindrance), or I just found my calling as a professional Star Wars: Hunters player. It was unexciting, quick, effortless. I was unlocking a lot of crap quite quickly, but none of it was truly exciting me. Again, when you are playing a Star Wars without any kind of memorable character, it’s hard to get invested. It was also hard to be excited about the presentation, because it’s actually quite poor.

I get the fact Star Wars: Hunters not exactly the most visually impressive game, even for the Switch’s underwhelming standards; it was meant to run on phones as well, so you can’t go crazy. I do not understand, however, how often its framerate drops. It’s not stable at all. To make matters worse, textures load at a sluggish pace, and the framerate target is a mere 30fps. If the Switch benchmark is already this underwhelming, I really don’t want to know how poor the presentation might be on a phone.

… with that being said, he’s my favorite character. Even though the fact he’s strong and competent makes him canonically inaccurate.

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. I do not feel the need to come back to it and unlock more content and/or heroes. Just like most of Disney’s recent Star Wars-related outings, it’s just downright unmemorable.

Star Wars: Hunters is available now on Switch and mobile.

Reviewed on Switch