Movies News Talk
With neither text nor voice communication accessible in the game, Star Wars: Hunters's major missing component is the lack of any in-game chat feature. It's absolutely not as important as it would be in many other online shooters as the basic strategic component may function sufficiently without the callouts. Nevertheless, Star Wars: Hunters surely makes one feel worse for its absence; this could be the reason some gamers fast leave the game and never come back.
Hero Shooters sometimes pay close attention to the social element, and engaging with other players usually serves more than simply a bonus to the whole experience. As maybe the quintessential example of the genre, voice and text chat both have been rather popular over the original game and its replacement successor. Though any communication tool will always have some element of toxicity, they are utilized for both general chit-chat and team-oriented communication, therefore helping to make the game seem to be a considerably less solitary experience even if playing without a party.
Given voice speaking on the Nintendo Switch is only available via the Nintendo Switch Online mobile app, it's not exactly shocking that Star Wars: Hunters lacks built-in chat options. Given IPs that are typically aimed at younger audiences, this makes logical; Splatoon is a clear example. Children exposed to internet communication may find games far less family-friendly since there is no real means to control what can go over line.
All the same, with the platform availability looking unnecessarily limited, this suggests a more general issue with the distribution approach of Star Wars: Hunters. A sensible compromise would be to keep the game inaccessible on the Switch and possibly the mobile version while yet having ports on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, with chat. Thanks to the IP, simple gameplay, and absence of graphic violence, Star Wars: Hunters is surely still going to attract a lot of younger players; yet, adequate parental controls could assist to minimize the negative side effects.
Though the Star Wars name may still draw enough gamers to make the idea logical, the style of Star Wars: Hunters could seem relatively outdated compared to other Hero Shooters available on those platforms. Emulating the mobile game allows one to play Star Wars: Hunters on PC in a roundabout manner; this approach is sufficient to show the existence of an audience. Having an audience keyed into a more social version of the game might help give the game legs, even if the upfront money possibilities might not be as interesting as on mobile and Switch.
Though some significant characters as heroes and villains can be gained to play in limited spurts, these don't fill the same vacuum as a hero shooter even if console markets do provide the Star Wars: Battlefront games as more involved online shooter options. Marvel Rivals, the Marvel hero shooter, looks to be generating more buzz than Star Wars: Hunters did, and this is probably mostly due to its seeming strength for the console market.
As far as hero shooters go, Star Wars: Hunters gets most of the fundamentals right; one element feels like a huge compromise. Designed by Zynga and NaturalMotion for mobile devices and Nintendo Switch, the game casts a range of freshly created Star Wars characters into six separate venues for fast-fire brawls. For Star Wars aficionados, even if it might not be the most sturdy choice available, it seems like a clear one to spend some time with.
Star Wars: Hunters does have certain limitations on the platform choices, and the game most obviously feels as though it was created around the mobile option in some respects. The shorter matches demand less time commitment, and the cartoon style performs well without great hardware needs. Though overcrowded menus bursting with microtransaction possibilities certainly feel meant to leap out on a phone screen, most changes for the mobile market feel like logical decisions rather than forceful sacrifices.
Having something as sophisticated as Star Wars: Hunters on hand on-demand is great, but it already feels throwaway in a way that might be difficult to offset. Though there's no way to create content as endlessly dynamic as a social experience can be, especially since everything still needs to work under the presumption that no match can never last for too long, new maps, modes, and characters are the obvious way to keep things updated.
Though there's nothing to suggest one on the horizon, it's not inconceivable that a console-oriented Star Wars hero shooter will someday debut as a different game from Star Wars: Hunters. Right now, Star Wars: Hunters seems to be the only choice; the lack of social elements makes this stop-gap rather uncomfortable. Though it could be more, Star Wars: Hunters is enjoyable and quick; the main thing keeping it from being better is the lack of means to interact with other players.