Hard Reset is a throw back to over the top twitch shooters that features tons of enemies and wild explosions. You won't find any of the new stuff in Hard Reset like cover and regenerating health. This cyber-punk themed shooter paints a captivating world with its stellar visuals but falls flat regarding story and game length. Hard Reset is a single player only first-person shooter but don't expect any kind of multiplayer, its not happening. When I analyze Hard Reset's presentation it doesn't have many faults actually. It has more to do with the fact that this is an old school type shooter. This game plays like old school Unreal, Serious Sam and Painkiller games.
Hard Reset's story is a afterthought, it makes no sense and at times gets in the way of Hard Reset's gameplay. I'll give you a brief synopsis as to what this story is about. The protagonist of Hard Reset is Fletcher, proud soldier of the corporation as he calls himself. Fletcher (CLN -16) is a hard drinking and hard cussing cheesy protagonist that gets hurdled into a battle against rogue AI man killing robots. Early in Hard Reset Flecther learns about a robot invasion in his sector of the Sanctuary that he protects. After killing a few robots and investigating he learns about Dr. Percival Novak. Novak released the man killing robots into the city for whatever reason.
Music was fast paced rock and techno that cranked up when action did. Some of the weapon's sounds were interesting. The voice acting was pretty cheesy. For the most part the best aspect about the sound design was the city. The rain, the sounds of the holograph dispensors, sirens etc. The city itself presented a great atmophere due to its sound design.
The most unique aspect of Hard Reset is its reticle system. You have two primary weapons throughout the entire game, NRG Weapon and CLN Firearm. The retical changes as you change the gun's modes. Gameplay is pure quick twitch. You do not have cover or health regen so your skills will be put to the test no matter the difficulty. Enemies are robots, big, small and medium. Some charge at you while some shoot mortors. Bi-pod bots and small rolling bots can swarm you very fast in Hard Reset. Gameplay takes a hit due to level design and the charging bots. The game at times places way too many small quick bots and huge charging bots in cramped areas making it easy for them to kill you.
To take out rogue AI bots in Hard Reset you need guns. This game has you covered with a few imaginative weapons that you can perform combos with. NRG Weapons = Plasma Weapon: Plasma Rifle, Shock Blaster, Railgun, Smart Gun and Electric Mortor. Each gun has secondary and third firing elements that altars each gun. CLN Firearm: Assault Rifle, Combat Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, RPG and Proximity Mines. You can upgrade all weapons and Gear with N.A.N.O.. N.A.N.O. is Hard Reset's currency and is acquired when you kill bots and discover secret rooms. Green, Yellow, Blue and Red orbs fill Fletcher's health, shields. NRG ammo and CLN ammo. Using the environment not only looks cool but is a very effective way with dealing with bots.
After you beat the 5 hour campaign (its a short game) you can play EX Mode. EX Mode lets you play the game on NG+ with all of your upgraded weapons. Personally I don't think this game has adequate replay value since its so short to begin with. One incentive is to unlock all of the guns upgrades which cannot be doen in one playthrough. So if you want to see all of the gun's abilities you have to play the game on EX Mode.
Hard Reset has a great cyber punk new age setting with old school gameplay. The story is non existent and the campaign is way too short. However I do see some really promising aspects with Flying Wild Hog's first-person shooter.
7.5/10
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