Hard Reset Redux

Hard Reset Redux is a fast paced shooter that is just full of pure destruction and mayhem. Its a very fun Cyberpunk game. Enemy design is in a way a copy of enemies from mostly Dead Island but with new faces slapped on/adapted for the Cyberpunk setting. Weapons: Plasma weapons and live ammunition weapons both with 5 different weapons like railguns, electric guns, rpgs (best to defeat rams), rifles. As its standard in modern shooters you have upgrade terminals where you can upgrade your weapons and equipment (aka health, shields, faster ammunition regeneration, etc.). In order to upgrade you need to collect orange upgrade tubes (upgrade currency) which are very abundant. Most robots you kill drop health/ammo packs or combined packs. Level design especially in the Bezoar city (vanilla game storyline) is a bit lacking since you soon get the feeling that you were there already aka its a bit too repetitive (all the levels till the mantis boss). The expansion levels though add more diverse environment with open outside spaces and new lizard like enemies and one boss. The pace of the game is fast and the change in the music warns you when the attack is about to commence which takes the surprise element out of the game. The game itself is very much linear and it doesn't allow you different paths to the destination. You may explore side passages as much as you like and earn upgrade credits but at the end you will come back to the same main path. The game also limits your movement by not enabling you to jump over fences on to next levels or on to buildings, crates, etc. That is only possible on predetermined locations. The story is a bit confusing/doesn't seem to lead anywhere and leaves a too abrupt open ending aka middle of the sentence cut off. It takes about 8 hours to finish the game. The game is more or less on the easy side. Regardless of the games shortcomings its a very fun, fast paced shooter that will bring you a lot of fun. I just wish it had more too offer.

Very solid shooter that highly benefits from the Shadow Warrior movement system. I still absolutely love the color coding in this game, green is health, yellow is something like XP, red is all ballistic and blue all electric weapons. The upgrades for the two main guns are satisfying and customizable to your own playstyle. The new Katana feels a little out of place and is kind of annoying because of how it messes with the weapon rotation using your Q button, but you get used to it. You honestly don't need to pay attention to the main story at all, it feels like written by a 5 year old, but that doesn't matter much considering its an old school style FPS. The price is a little too high in my opinion, so unless you get the huge discount from having Shadow Warrior already, you should probably get it on a sale.

Hard Reset is a nice throwback to old-school FPS'es. Run fast, shoot everything that moves, explore to find secret areas, collect orange stuff to earn upgrades! There are of course many modern features included as well, of the good kind! The gameplay and combat is top notch. You also regenerate ammo and shield if those are under a certain value, so you can't become completely doomed. There is some story in the game too. I forgot what it was all about halfway through the game. It seemed cheesy, and I don't play games like this for the story. You get to see some great comicbook-style cutscenes though. You get three weapons throughout the game, you start with two of them. An assault rifle, a energy weapon, and a katana. The twist is this; when you upgrade your weapons, you unlock more modes for them. Your assault rifle can be a shotgun, a rocket launcher, or launch proximity-mines. Your energy-weapon can for example be a railgun or a "electric mortar". There are modes for every situation. The katana is new in this Redux-edition. It has no upgrades, and you get it a few hours into the game. Sadly, I didn't get much use out of this. Most enemies are robots that explode on death, making it a inconvenient weapon to use. It was good fun at the occasional zombie-encounter though! The techology is very impressive. The graphics are sharp, with an abundance of details. Objects are affected by physics, and many parts of the enviroment can be destroyed. Enemies can ram through pillars, scaffolding, and other destroyables, spectacularly demolishing it into tiny pieces of rubble. You can also shoot explosive barrels/cars or generators, causing explosive damage or showering the area in lightning and sparks. Optimization is top notch. My rig ran the game effortlessly at ultra settings and 60 fps on 1680x1050 resolution (AMD A8-5600K, AMD HD 7850 1GB, 8 GB RAM). Disclaimer: I have not played the original Hard Reset, so I don't know how it compares to Redux.

This game is almost worth only for the love its gotten over the years. I remember playing the original version years ago and time after time it got free updates. Now the "redux" version is here with some changes to the storyline and levels to tie it up a bit better. There is a katana, which kinda is annoying to have since you need cycle through it to get to your main combination of weapon. It used to be revolved around the rifle and energy blaster so it kinda doesn't fit that well to have a katana. Still its pretty bad ass, they should just have put it on another key. Enemies added are mostly cyborgs and more flying enemies. I played it through on the hardest difficulty back in the day and now playing on next to highest difficulty it just feels easier than I remember, probably due to the changes with dashing. Still I found it quite a challenge and it's not an easy game. Bear in mind this is a old-school FPS in style of getting from point A to point B in a linear level. There are secrets to find to level you up faster so you can explore a bit. I think the new version is definitely worth getting, especially if you like the other games by Flying Wild Hog.