Hard Reset

Hard Reset is a cyberpunk/film noire-themed first person shooter developed by Polish indie studio Flying Wild Hog. While this is their first game, Flying Wild Hog was founded by veterans of People Can Fly (developer of Painkiller, Bulletstorm), CD Projekt Red (The Witcher series) and others. That pedigree alone was enough for me to give the game a shot.

The story takes place in the dystopian city of Bezoar. Humanity is caught in a war against AI-controlled robots that have rebelled against their human masters. Bezoar represents humanity's last hope for survival. You play Major Fletcher, a cybernetic cop working for a private security firm, referred to as CLN or simply "The Corporation", that keeps watch over the city. Robots have somehow infiltrated the city, and it is up to you to find out how and to stop them. While that sounds very Blade Runner-mixed with the real-world parts of The Matrix, the story seems like very much of an afterthought. The story is told through motion comic-styled voiced cutscenes between acts, and through communications chatter with your handler. There really isn't a very strong narrative however. This is all little more then an excuse to "go here. shoot those robots". While this may be a drawback for some people, the gameplay is really the star of the show.

The gameplay is a throwback to FPS games of old, with no cover system, no reloading, no regenerating health and lots of enemies. Also guns. Lots and lots of guns. Actually, there are only two guns. A firearm and an energy weapon. They can each be upgraded to allow for five different firing modes, most of which have a secondary-fire mode, by collecting experience. This is done by defeating difficult enemies and by pickups in the form of N.A.N.O. boxes scattered throughout the world. For those not keeping track at home, that's two guns, multiplied by five modes is ten different, unique guns not counting secondary-fire modes. The attributes of your character can also be upgraded from the same experience pool allowing for upgraded health, shield, ammo capacity and the ability to slow down time when critically injured among other goodies. Once your experience bar is filled up, you earn one point to spend at upgrade stations placed throughout the world.

The few concessions to modern game design Hard Reset makes are a Halo-style regenerating shield, checkpoints instead of manual saves and a fairly linear corridor-style level design. The checkpoints are fairly generous, although a few times I found myself replaying a fairly lengthy section of the game due to dying in a particularly difficult fight. For the most part, the checkpoints started me off near where I died, although sometimes with little health and ammo. The game is fairly good about giving you the provisions you need before a major fight, however. The linear level design is a major drawback to a game that styles itself after old school shooters which were often much more open, and occasionally maze-like. The game makes the most of its linear maps, however, often having you double back through a new section of an area once or twice to face new enemies and see parts of the world you couldn't previously. Maps progress through ruined city streets, destroyed buildings and an abandoned hospital, providing a reasonable variety of locations to kill the same handful of robot types in. Like the shooters of old, the maps in Hard Reset are packed with secret areas. 55 in all, scattered across the game. Sometimes this is simply a side path off of the main corridor. Other times, secrets are hidden behind destructible walls, or require some trick jumping to discover. The game is fairly short, with only roughly 7 areas. Steam has me clocking in 11 hours played on my Hard mode playthrough, but a significant portion of that was spent replaying fights after having died. Without having to bash your head against the brutal waves of enemies capable of soaking up punishment and one or two-shotting you, a Normal or Easy difficulty playthrough would last significantly shorter. Roughly 5-6 hours.

Playing through on Hard difficulty was something of a chore, and there is still Insane difficulty which I am far too frightened to even try. I felt as though several encounters had to be played perfectly, and I had to get a lucky random health or ammo drop from an enemy or else I would die and have to try again. That boils down to "hard mode is hard", which is good for people looking for a challenge. I naively assumed that Hard would be a slight challenge, but my 140+ deaths (the game helpfully keeps count for you) disabused me of that notion quickly. Unlike many modern games, Hard difficulty is harsh and unforgiving, and Insane is one notch above that. Normal and Easy difficulties are much more reasonable, although you still have swarms and swarms of enemies to deal with. Perhaps not quite as many at once as say, Serious Sam, but you have to deal with a few more enemies at once then Doom.

Hard Reset is a budget game, at only $30 on Steam, but shows a high level of shine and attention to detail. The game looks visually impressive, and weapons animate and transform between firing modes, and start to glow red with heat from prolonged fire. You get a real sense that, as implausible as it is that one weapon can do five very different things at once, the weapons are real things and not some magic tube that bullets fly out of. As silly as that sounds in a game where you can shoot forever until you run out of ammunition. Trash and debris litter the streets, and blow in the wind. ATM and vending machines try to grab your attention. Billboards light up and cycle through animations to tempt you to buy whatever it is they are selling in future city, and propaganda is posted everywhere to let you know it will be all right as long as you stick to the party line. The streets are deserted of people, however, but maybe that rampaging robot tearing up that car over there knows something about that. Destructible objects abound, and I would even argue that if you are doing most of your robot killing directly, you are doing it wrong. Why shoot something in the face when you can pop off a shot into that vending machine selling cosmetic butt surgery and offering loans at very reasonable interest rates and let it electrocute a dozen robots at once? Rampaging robot got you down? Lure it near an explosive barrel and let that blow it up for you in one go. Future city is rife with hazardous materials. The developers have been actively listening to the people that play their game, and have already issued a patch implementing several community-requested features. If you are interested in an old-school first person shooter with modern production values and have $30, you could do a lot worse then Hard Reset.