Hard Reset: review

• Format: PC
  
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Valve
• Developer: Flying Wild Hog
• Players: 1
• Site:http://store.steampowered.com/app/98400/

Not too long ago we had a chance to sit down with the preview build of Hard Reset which gave us a taste of classic FPS action set in a sci-fi setting very reminiscent of the likes of Blade Runner. There were some difficulties and frustrations however, but are these solved in the full release?

One of the initial problems we found with the preview build was a lack of detail about what was going on. We knew we were a man named Fletcher working for The Corporation and for some reason we had to kill machine AIs. It sounded like the machines had taken over and that maybe Bezoar City was the last human city, but we honestly couldn’t be sure. We had hoped this lack of clarity was due to only being given a slice of the plot that was going to be available, but it turns out we had already seen the entire intro and opening stages.

Flying Wild Hog has pitched the angle that story isn’t that important and that in the vein of things like Serious Sam and Painkiller it’s more about the combat and gameplay, but there is a flaw with this way of thinking here. People even to this day can accept a simple plot like “go rescue this princess” or “kill all things” because they understand from the get-go what’s going on, how to do it, and then get to enjoy the gameplay as they achieve this simple goal. Hard Reset provides a plot which seems to be attempting to have depth (twists, betrayals, etc.) yet is so lacking substance that you will be lost as to what is going on most of the time and why things that sound like they are important come across like they aren’t. Worst still, just as we thought we got a handle on what was going on and it sounded like we were getting a change of setting from Bezoar City the game ended.

As we also found in the preview build, the saving grace here is how impressive the game looks and the atmosphere this helps create. If your system can manage maximum settings you will be impressed by the dank futuristic cityscapes, subway stations and hospitals you will be sent to explore. However, as mentioned above every place you go to for each mission will always be within the city and never will that change. The comic book style cutscenes before and after missions (similar to inFamous) will be an acquired taste, but we liked the artistic style.

Music is ambient for the most part unless you get into a sudden fire fight with the enemy AI, then it helps warn you that you’re about to be attacked from somewhere. Also, besides Fletcher and the Professor the voice acting is terrible. The scripting itself is also pretty weak and littered with needless bad language.

We were disappointed that the types of enemy you will fight don’t really differ from what we tasted in the preview. Of the basic tiny robots that swarm and run at you there are three types: ones which explode, ones which have swirly blades and ones which have drills. Of the large ‘monkey’ types there are a few which look a bit different but really there’s only the basic kind that charge you and the elite type which fires missiles occasionally. The third type are a little more humanoid looking and come in melee and ranged combat forms. Besides three bosses, that’s it.

Although the basic enemy tactic is to swarm and get as close to you as quickly as possible we still rarely felt threatened. The enemies did not look intimidating at all and as we observed in the preview, some even look like cute Robot Wars rejects. It felt a little lazy to make every enemy just charge you too, basically eliminating the need for complex AI which is ironic given the plot.

Regardless of which of the two weapons you chose to upgrade as you find N.A.N.O drops littered around the levels, each can change on the fly to different types (like the machine gun can become a shotgun or rocket launcher and the electric based gun can become a tazer or railgun). You will find that it will take all the ammo from one of them and half from the other just to take down a single larger monkey type that gets common later in the game. Said enemy isn’t much of a threat, it just feels like trying to stretch things out because it takes so long to go down.

On normal difficulty a playthrough of Hard Reset will barely take three hours. That’s with ample searching for secrets in each stage. There is no multiplayer and the only incentive to play through again is to clean up achievements or to tackle higher difficulties. Flying Wild Hog has promised that a new game mode of some kind will be added via patching along with other fixes, however the foundation of what is on offer at release is far too shallow. There is not enough here even for classic FPS enthusiasts to be satisfied with their purchase of Hard Reset and they would be better off going to classics like Painkiller and Serious Sam for a nostalgic fix.