A remaster of Hard Reset
The acclaimed First-Person Shooter returns fully upgraded, and more beautifully challenging than ever. Hard Reset: Redux is a brand new version of the cyberpunk classic that includes all the content of previous editions, and adds new improved gameplay, enhanced visuals and additional content to make this the Definitive Edition of Hard Reset. Hard Reset: Redux is an action-packed and hardcore single-player shooter which embraces the best qualities that the genre has it offer. It includes over-the-top destruction, loads of enemies, great weapon variety, a challenging campaign and a beautifully realized cyberpunk setting. Having been originally developed to shake-up the shooter scene on PC, Hard Reset now returns to do it again on a new generation of hardware.
Also in series
Released on
Genres
Reviews View More
Undeniably rough around the edges, with a pretty forgettable story and weaker voice acting, but the core gameplay loop is fun and you'll get your money's worth out of it for that alone. I felt rewarded for exploring all of the functionality of the weapons and trying different combinations, and never felt like I was stuck for a really long time due to being "under-equipped" or anything like that. It's an easy buy on sale.
Tinha potencial mas acabou sendo uma bela de uma bosta
this is the Punisher: War Zone (2008) of video games. it's been completely neglected, but it's just a weird, hyper-dude-ified cyberpunk shooter with an incomprehensible plot and a disgusting setting. everything about this game is viscerally gross. i absolutely recommend it
A "refined" version of the original, Hard Reset Redux is a short, competent FPS that is also frustrating and just shows a wasted opportunity
Hard Reset Redux has the look of a FPS HD Dreamcast game. With sharp busy detail but environment looking a little drab and not lot of variety. It looks futuristic but it doesn't do enough to stand out. Lighting is a mixed bag as sometimes its too bright in places but other times it helps the environment have some level of detail.
It also feels empty and while the gameplay takes place during a curfew after a robotic invasion has gone down, it’d be nice to see some humans about. After all, some would be willing to risk being outside. At one point, for story reasons, the law enforcement is after you and yet you never see them outside of their flying vehicles. As if they are too lazy to get out. It’s just more frustrating where in some levels, you can view the city in the background and see busy traffic.
And then there is the enemies. Not only is there a huge lack of variation (After the first few levels, you’d have seen a vast majority of them) but there design is not very imaginative either. At least the bosses look somewhat impressive, though that could be more to scale than the designs themselves.
The weapons themselves too aren’t very distinctive and could be plucked out of a modern day setting (even the plasma weapon)
Visually the game isn’t bad. It’s just a huge let down (which is something of a theme)
Gameplay
Controls are serviceable but some rebinding is recommended if you're using keyboard and mouse and it can feel floaty and janky, especially the jumping (and considering there’s a few platform sections, this can be irksome.) Keep in mind this is with keyboard and mouse and perhaps its better on a joypad.
Still, the shooting is solid and it can be fun experimenting with weapons and knowing which ones to use best to tackle certain enemies. This does lead to the issue where weapons have a lack of balance and you will find some (the grenade launcher) is totally useless while others (RPG, Mines, Smartgun for example) are just too good and will stick to them. It doesn’t help that many of the weapons lack the impact they need (the shotgun just feels anything but).
There is an upgrade system that, while simple, is fun and it gives you encouragement to explore the levels for secrets just to help become more powerful. Again some upgrades are better than others (see the weapons example above) but due to being able “level up” enough, it’s less of an issue and more of fun experimenting.
Hard Reset Redux has limited destructible environments. It’s fun seeing some enemies destroy pipes and walls and some stuff you can shoot can be blown up. The latter usually serves no purpose but can feel cathartic. But then you find it’s inconsistent, that how an RPG can’t blow something up that an enemy can bash through also takes the immersion out of it and other objects are either untouched or just have scorched marks (admittedly, the latter still remains, if not forever, a very long time).
The AI, on normal difficulty, is not smart but at least tries. The melee enemies will use their speed or charge to close the distance and have attacks that can damage you even if you circle away from them. Meanwhile, enemies using range will have options to limit your mobility and will hang back or use some swipe of you get too close.
Still, there are times when you can take advantage of the AI, as they can get stuck or confused behind non-destructible environments. There are even the odd occasion where they just get brain-dead and can’t go through a door or just wonder around. At times, combat can be a slog, with encounters going on too long or just having a slow pace.
There's a weird quirk where it seems your character must be on TOP of the health/XP/Ammo items to pick them up. Even just being right next to them doesn't register. It gets quite irksome when you think you picked something up, and then turn to see you haven't (or gone a fair bit and see, on the other side of impassable objects, on the area which you can no longer go back to it's still there)
In terms of level design. Its pretty standard. But once again, it’s hampered by something, this time invisible barriers. Lots of them. So where it looks you could take a shortcut to get an item (or just explore) you find it that you suddenly can't make jumps. Also you can't crawl. What makes this irritating is that this means many of the "puzzles" (which basically come down to "take down barriers") feel forced and the railroading just lowers the immersion so much. Oh and you can't backtrack past certain areas. Checkpoints aren’t always fair mind you (but you can save anywhere to mitigate that fact.)
So is the gameplay bad. Well no. It just has a lot of issues. When it does work, it’s a decent experience and there is a lot of replayability if 100% is your thing. Plus there is a handy stat screen you can access at any time during gameplay. Its short length is a matter of debate. Perhaps if the game was more polished it’d be a bad thing.
Pretty forgettable overall. The weapons just sound like they barely exist, some of the other effects sound rough (enemy fire for example) and not clean, the voice acting, what there is meh (at least the main character sounds badass) and the music. Well nothing memorable and most of what you’ll be hearing is the enemy encounter tunes.
From what is remembered, it’s not bad. Its just again, nothing worthwhile.
Story wise, it tries to punch above its weight but the execution falls flat, with it being very choppy, feeling like some plot points are missing or just skipped the cut-scenes don't usually match what happens next when gameplay resumes and some awesome moments are cut-scene only (piloting a giant robot!). Also the game ends on a cliffhanger. A very brief one at that.
If the game had a shallow plot, this would be less of an issue. But it tries to be smart and noir like and this makes the issues more glaring. It’s like as if Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay designed this game.
Visually it's acceptable, gameplay it's acceptable...Just everything screams "ok" (except the music. that's pretty forgettable.) because when there is something good, there is something bad to counteract it and there's so many issues that it leaves one feeling irritated the more they play it.
It could have been something more (the artwork seems to indicate it was gonna be a much bigger game), but for whatever reason, it falls short in its goals.
Still, It’s a game that can't quite not be recommended, as much as this review may suggest. There is replay value (100% this requires being a masochist to a degree) and the gameplay overall isn't terrible. It’s just there are far better FPS games out there. This one is more for those who really exhausted their options (even then, It’s best you wait for a sale).
Score: 5/10
Hard Reset Redux has the look of a FPS HD Dreamcast game. With sharp busy detail but environment looking a little drab and not lot of variety. It looks futuristic but it doesn't do enough to stand out. Lighting is a mixed bag as sometimes its too bright in places but other times it helps the environment have some level of detail.
It also feels empty and while the gameplay takes place during a curfew after a robotic invasion has gone down, it’d be nice to see some humans about. After all, some would be willing to risk being outside. At one point, for story reasons, the law enforcement is after you and yet you never see them outside of their flying vehicles. As if they are too lazy to get out. It’s just more frustrating where in some levels, you can view the city in the background and see busy traffic.
And then there is the enemies. Not only is there a huge lack of variation (After the first few levels, you’d have seen a vast majority of them) but there design is not very imaginative either. At least the bosses look somewhat impressive, though that could be more to scale than the designs themselves.
The weapons themselves too aren’t very distinctive and could be plucked out of a modern day setting (even the plasma weapon)
Visually the game isn’t bad. It’s just a huge let down (which is something of a theme)
Gameplay
Controls are serviceable but some rebinding is recommended if you're using keyboard and mouse and it can feel floaty and janky, especially the jumping (and considering there’s a few platform sections, this can be irksome.) Keep in mind this is with keyboard and mouse and perhaps its better on a joypad.
Still, the shooting is solid and it can be fun experimenting with weapons and knowing which ones to use best to tackle certain enemies. This does lead to the issue where weapons have a lack of balance and you will find some (the grenade launcher) is totally useless while others (RPG, Mines, Smartgun for example) are just too good and will stick to them. It doesn’t help that many of the weapons lack the impact they need (the shotgun just feels anything but).
There is an upgrade system that, while simple, is fun and it gives you encouragement to explore the levels for secrets just to help become more powerful. Again some upgrades are better than others (see the weapons example above) but due to being able “level up” enough, it’s less of an issue and more of fun experimenting.
Hard Reset Redux has limited destructible environments. It’s fun seeing some enemies destroy pipes and walls and some stuff you can shoot can be blown up. The latter usually serves no purpose but can feel cathartic. But then you find it’s inconsistent, that how an RPG can’t blow something up that an enemy can bash through also takes the immersion out of it and other objects are either untouched or just have scorched marks (admittedly, the latter still remains, if not forever, a very long time).
The AI, on normal difficulty, is not smart but at least tries. The melee enemies will use their speed or charge to close the distance and have attacks that can damage you even if you circle away from them. Meanwhile, enemies using range will have options to limit your mobility and will hang back or use some swipe of you get too close.
Still, there are times when you can take advantage of the AI, as they can get stuck or confused behind non-destructible environments. There are even the odd occasion where they just get brain-dead and can’t go through a door or just wonder around. At times, combat can be a slog, with encounters going on too long or just having a slow pace.
There's a weird quirk where it seems your character must be on TOP of the health/XP/Ammo items to pick them up. Even just being right next to them doesn't register. It gets quite irksome when you think you picked something up, and then turn to see you haven't (or gone a fair bit and see, on the other side of impassable objects, on the area which you can no longer go back to it's still there)
In terms of level design. Its pretty standard. But once again, it’s hampered by something, this time invisible barriers. Lots of them. So where it looks you could take a shortcut to get an item (or just explore) you find it that you suddenly can't make jumps. Also you can't crawl. What makes this irritating is that this means many of the "puzzles" (which basically come down to "take down barriers") feel forced and the railroading just lowers the immersion so much. Oh and you can't backtrack past certain areas. Checkpoints aren’t always fair mind you (but you can save anywhere to mitigate that fact.)
So is the gameplay bad. Well no. It just has a lot of issues. When it does work, it’s a decent experience and there is a lot of replayability if 100% is your thing. Plus there is a handy stat screen you can access at any time during gameplay. Its short length is a matter of debate. Perhaps if the game was more polished it’d be a bad thing.
Pretty forgettable overall. The weapons just sound like they barely exist, some of the other effects sound rough (enemy fire for example) and not clean, the voice acting, what there is meh (at least the main character sounds badass) and the music. Well nothing memorable and most of what you’ll be hearing is the enemy encounter tunes.
From what is remembered, it’s not bad. Its just again, nothing worthwhile.
Story wise, it tries to punch above its weight but the execution falls flat, with it being very choppy, feeling like some plot points are missing or just skipped the cut-scenes don't usually match what happens next when gameplay resumes and some awesome moments are cut-scene only (piloting a giant robot!). Also the game ends on a cliffhanger. A very brief one at that.
If the game had a shallow plot, this would be less of an issue. But it tries to be smart and noir like and this makes the issues more glaring. It’s like as if Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay designed this game.
Visually it's acceptable, gameplay it's acceptable...Just everything screams "ok" (except the music. that's pretty forgettable.) because when there is something good, there is something bad to counteract it and there's so many issues that it leaves one feeling irritated the more they play it.
It could have been something more (the artwork seems to indicate it was gonna be a much bigger game), but for whatever reason, it falls short in its goals.
Still, It’s a game that can't quite not be recommended, as much as this review may suggest. There is replay value (100% this requires being a masochist to a degree) and the gameplay overall isn't terrible. It’s just there are far better FPS games out there. This one is more for those who really exhausted their options (even then, It’s best you wait for a sale).
Score: 5/10
A delightful but cash-strapped 90s revival that's more in tune with the threadbare, slapdash construction of yesteryear's shooters than Doom 2016 (and it's imitators). Worth the chances you'll give it.
One of the best looking shooters ever, shame it's pretty mediocre outside of that