Hard Reset: PC

The basic gameplay of the first person shooter is simple: point, shoot and kill. Some shooters dress up the experience, adding story, developing character and creating a believable world to give context to your violent actions. In some cases maybe they even force you to question whether pulling the trigger is a good idea. Hard Reset is not that kind of game. It's about blowing up everything that moves onscreen. Though it suffers from some repetitive sections, especially disappointing considering its short length, Hard Reset's versatile weapon upgrade system and the sheer thrill of some of the combat sequences are enough to warrant giving it a shot.

You know story isn't a priority for Hard Reset when, as soon as a new section finishes loading, a giant line of text pops up onscreen indicating you can skip the cut-scene, even if there's still a minute or more left to watch. Sometimes the comic book-style cut-scenes are fairly lengthy, and without watching them you lose nearly all sense of what's going on in the futuristic world of the not-so-subtly-named Bezoar City. Even if you do watch them, there's little of interest. Hard Reset's story is a tale filled with mostly lame dialogue, flat characters and sinister corporations. When conspiracies are eventually uncovered and allegiances shift, it has all the emotional impact of realizing you mistakenly bought a roll of generic paper towels instead of a name brand.

Hard Reset Video Review

The shooting, thankfully, is developed much more thoroughly. This is a classically-styled shooter in the sense that you need to find health and ammunition pickups scattered around stages and can find secret areas if you poke around environments. Enemies don't wander the world, but instead spawn into combat arenas as soon as you cross an invisible line. It's a monster closet type of game, and a good one.

Hard Reset only throws a few enemy types at you from start to finish. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-like mouser enemies you fight early on will still be running around in the final battle, though they'll have propellers on their heads. The giant bipedal machines at the beginning that charge at high speeds and try to stomp you at close range will still be around at the end, though they'll have more armor and sometimes rockets. Mixed in are basic gun-wielding and rocket-shooting robot types, as well as two encounters with colossal bosses. Hard Reset's level of challenge increases not primarily through the introduction of many new enemy types, but by combining those you've already fought in greater numbers. While a few more enemy types and surprises could have made for a more interesting journey from start to finish, fighting them remains entertaining thanks to your evolving weaponry and the lethal utility of the environments.

Though you're only given two weapons in Hard Reset, both can be altered with upgrade points earned by making kills and exploring to find special canisters. In addition to the rapid-fire starting weapons you'll get grenade and rocket launchers, a rail gun, homing energy blasts, a shotgun and a variety of alternate fire options. Upgrade the shotgun's functionality and you'll be able to spew out sparkling energy pellets that can temporarily stun targets. The energy mortar normally fires out a crackling ball of electricity that sticks to enemies and eventually detonates. Unlock the mortar's stasis field and it becomes even more effective, capable of dramatically slowing any in the area of effect. Switch over to your rocket launcher (ideally upgraded with cluster missiles), and loose a few shots at the slow-motion enemies for a fireworks display of shredded robot metal. The upgrades add useful functionality and let you fight in new ways, picking up the slack where the enemy variety doesn't.

True to Hard Reset's 1990s roots, there's no cover system and survival is largely dependent on your ability to run to health and ammo pickups. When out in the open circle-strafing and frantically sprinting are frequently required, along with keeping your finger pressed on the fire button. Drawing enemies close to and firing at explosive canisters and electrical boxes can also help clear out combat areas quickly, as it'll pile on the damage in addition to providing a visually pleasing display of flame and sparks. The fast action in Hard Reset is interrupted occasionally by a weird weapon switch timer, which I assume Flying Wild Hog implemented for balance reasons. The effect prevents you from switching from one weapon to another until a cooldown timer for the reload animation has expired, which becomes more apparent after using the more powerful weapon types. In frantic fights, such a limitation can be frustrating, through it eventually becomes tolerable.

Hard Reset Weapons Video

By the time you've unlocked a good chunk of the arsenal, the game abruptly ends. Hard Reset can be completed in only a few hours if you select the easier difficulty settings, though it's clearly meant to be played multiple times. After completing the story an EX mode is unlocked where you can start again with all your upgrades intact, allowing you to continue to expand your arsenal. This certainly makes things much easier, especially if you want to test out the Hard and Insane difficulty levels.

Though the story isn't memorable, at least the ficitonal world looks pretty. You shoot through abandoned lots slick with rain, under rows of floating cars, bright neon ads and steam pipes venting gases across a futuristic nighttime city. The explosions are bright and colorful, and the flickering lighting effects caused by events like your gun's energy blaster striking at skittering waves of murderous enemies add to the excitement. The designs of each level do tend to blend together, but anyone with the hardware to max out the settings here will be pleased.

Closing Comments
Though a limited in many ways, it's still easy to have a good time with Hard Reset. It's a classically styled shooter where your main concern is how to blow stuff up as fast as possible without losing all your health. The disposable story and flat characters shouldn't be surprising for a game like this, but other issues like a the lack of enemy variety and short overall length are disappointing. Despite that, the versatility of the weapon system and flashy visuals make Flying Wild Hog's product exciting from beginning to end. If all you're looking to do is shoot at things and watch them break apart into pretty pieces, you'll get what you want in Hard Reset.

by Charles Onyett

Posted in: Shooter