Didn't Finish: Hard Reset

dpodblood

Diamond Member
May 20, 2010
4,020
1
81
Being a big fan of old-school style shooters like Serious Sam and Painkiller, Hard Reset is a game I was really looking forward to. Unfortunately this game has some rather serious flaws. First the good news.

This game is great looking, and being a PC exclusive takes it advantage of having a good PC. Very nice lighting, textures, and models. The futuristic theme is fantastic. The enemy types while not too varied are well designed and interesting to look at. The game has an interesting weapon system where by you have the same 2 weapons for the duration of the game, and can buy various addons and upgrades at upgrade stations around the world. It doesn't always work great, but it's pretty interesting none the less.

Now where I feel this game really falls down. Quite simply; the level design. The thing that makes games like Serious Sam and Painkiller great is fighting hoards and hoards of enemies in big open arenas. Hard Reset on the other hand simply doesn't give you enough room to maneuver. Very often they will put you into a small area, shut the door behind you, and then swarm you from all directions. Due to how small most of the areas are you try to back away from, or strafe around the enemy and end up backed into a wall or into some piece of junk in the environment.

Another issue with the game is that everything is exploding constantly. They have littered the entire game with red exploding barrels and environmental hazards like nobody's business. What this is meant to do is give you a way of killing your enemy using the environment (the game even tracks "environmental" kills). More often than not however I found myself repeatedly being blown up by accidentally shooting some explosive object I couldn't see through (a) my own gunfire and (b) the hoards of enemies. I'm all for explosive barrels, but in this game it's just too much.

As for story it might as well not exist. What little story there is, is convoluted. It's all told though comic book style cut-scenes that just drone on and on for far too long. The dialogue is dry and painful to listen to.

For what it's worth I did play this game beyond the original ending, and only gave up in the DLC area. At that point the swarming and small arenas really got obnoxious, and the sparse checkpoint system didn't help either. At the end of the day it was worth $4 I spent. It's an interesting game, and nice to see a PC exclusive with nice production value. It's just unfortunate that it can also be very aggravating at times.
 

waterstain

Junior Member
Sep 9, 2011
16
0
0
I also found the *arena fights* to be my least favourite.

My fighting strategy came down to: Strafe in a loose donut-ish pattern until cornered, *sprint* to a new open spot, repeat.

Just keep moving and shooting and collecting health/ammo powerups!
 

dpodblood

Diamond Member
May 20, 2010
4,020
1
81
I also found the *arena fights* to be my least favourite.

My fighting strategy came down to: Strafe in a loose donut-ish pattern until cornered, *sprint* to a new open spot, repeat.

Just keep moving and shooting and collecting health/ammo powerups!

That was pretty much my strategy as well. Just out of curiosity did you play past the original ending into the more "jungle" looking areas?
 

ApexBoost

Member
May 5, 2011
125
0
0
I picked it up on the Steam sale for $3.75 but have only gotten 20 minutes in so far. It's definitely a pretty game to look at, I need to give it an honest shot when I get off my DayZ binge.

I have heard from others that the story may as well not exist and the ending is terrible, which is a bummer.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,672
2,816
126
I felt it was a satisfactory game, but nothing exceptional or special.
 

waterstain

Junior Member
Sep 9, 2011
16
0
0
That was pretty much my strategy as well. Just out of curiosity did you play past the original ending into the more "jungle" looking areas?


Jungle area? … !?! … It's been a while since I finished the original game. I don't recall any jungle-looking area. What did I miss?

I recently downloaded and played the new dlc. Nice chunk of new content for the price of free!
 

ioni

Senior member
Aug 3, 2009
619
11
81
I also found the *arena fights* to be my least favourite.

My fighting strategy came down to: Strafe in a loose donut-ish pattern until cornered, *sprint* to a new open spot, repeat.

Just keep moving and shooting and collecting health/ammo powerups!

This is how I played every non-cover based shooter. I find that style to be much more fun. It sounds like the OP found the game too difficult. There were several areas I had a lot of trouble in too, to the point where I wasn't sure if I'd get past it, but I still enjoyed it. The story is nothing of note, but the game is gorgeous. Their menu system is awesome as well. I still need to play through the DLC once I finish up my backlog.
 

coldmeat

Diamond Member
Jul 10, 2007
9,214
78
91
I picked it up on the Steam sale for $3.75 but have only gotten 20 minutes in so far. It's definitely a pretty game to look at, I need to give it an honest shot when I get off my DayZ binge.

I have heard from others that the story may as well not exist and the ending is terrible, which is a bummer.

I heard they ran out of money and had to release it half finished, which is part of the reason why it was cheap.
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
I liked Hard Reset. It ended too abruptly, but the game was definitely very satisfying. I need to replay it since they've released the new DLC.

I don't understand the complaints about the storyline. For an oldschool-style, fast-paced shoot-em-up, were you honestly expecting good writing? Last time I checked, Painkiller and Serious Sam weren't exactly literary masterpieces either.
 

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,141
138
106
I've been playing it off and on since release, yes I paid $30 for it. Nice to know there's a free DLC for it.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,443
2,083
126
first, HR was released half finished, but the latest (or such) patch added nearly as much content as the first release had. AND a proper final boss, and a story that makes sense.
If your copy ends while fighting the construction bot (that thing climbing a building, that looks like a big bug) then you have about 50% of what i played.

second .. HR was awesome. Not perfect, but captures the spirit of old school shooters. It's just that there's more shooting than strafing. IMHO worth about $10. Yeah, stuff *does* explode.
 

WhoBeDaPlaya

Diamond Member
Sep 15, 2000
7,414
401
126
Huh, good thing I stopped by this thread. Didn't know there was DLC that doubled the length of the game o_O
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,443
2,083
126
i wouldn't call it DLC, what they did was release a "patch" which however has something like 4-5 extra maps (the original had 6 or 7), new mobs, more story .. i think flying wild hog or whatever they are called did a really bad job at releasing a game leaving out half the content and just cutting the story short, AND not telling *everyone* when the game was finally finished; nearly everyone i know that has played HR (as seen on this here forum as well) hasn't played the final version.

edit: apologies for not having actually read this thread, i have now seen that others have pointed this out before i did. :/
 
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coldmeat

Diamond Member
Jul 10, 2007
9,214
78
91
i wouldn't call it DLC, what they did was release a "patch" which however has something like 4-5 extra maps (the original had 6 or 7), new mobs, more story .. i think flying wild hog or whatever they are called did a really bad job at releasing a game leaving out half the content and just cutting the story short, AND not telling *everyone* when the game was finally finished; nearly everyone i know that has played HR (as seen on this here forum as well) hasn't played the final version.

edit: apologies for not having actually read this thread, i have now seen that others have pointed this out before i did. :/

So they released a "patch" that contains extra content, that you download?
 

HeXen

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2009
7,831
37
91
I thought the game was nearly colorless. Everything except neon lights is some shade of gray, i noticed the flying cars on the ground were just one mass of dark grey in the shape of a steam punk car. lol. stupid game imo. Boring level design, bland enemies, meh weapons.
Painkiller and BOH were my favorites followed by SS3. They screwed up Hard Reset just like they screwed up the newer Painkillers.
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
I liked Hard Reset. It ended too abruptly, but the game was definitely very satisfying. I need to replay it since they've released the new DLC.

I don't understand the complaints about the storyline. For an oldschool-style, fast-paced shoot-em-up, were you honestly expecting good writing? Last time I checked, Painkiller and Serious Sam weren't exactly literary masterpieces either.


My thoughts exactly. In fact, wasn't HR developed my the same guys (different company) that did Painkiller?
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,443
2,083
126
So they released a "patch" that contains extra content, that you download?
OMG the Irony! Teh Ironyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
(Fe)-ny! LOL

DLC are addons. Dawnguard for Skyrim is a DLC. Patch 1.4.26 is a "patch".

i understand how confusing it can be. here i have made a little graph to explain it to you
DLC = DLC
Patch = Patch

see it now? yeah i know it's much easier when you have the answer in front of you innit?
 

waterstain

Junior Member
Sep 9, 2011
16
0
0
OMG the Irony! Teh Ironyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
(Fe)-ny! LOL

DLC are addons. Dawnguard for Skyrim is a DLC. Patch 1.4.26 is a "patch".

i understand how confusing it can be. here i have made a little graph to explain it to you
DLC = DLC
Patch = Patch

see it now? yeah i know it's much easier when you have the answer in front of you innit?

Since you're being unnecessarily snarky about definitions, I'd like to point out that is not a graph.
 
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rivethead

Platinum Member
Jan 16, 2005
2,635
106
106
I loved Hard Reset. It's close to the best five bucks I've ever spent on a game. I haven't gotten through the DLC yet.....damn they made it hard. I might have to turn down the difficulty.

As a comment to the OP.....I can't think of a single level where they shut you in and immmediately swarm you. Instead, they'll shut you in a level, corridor, etc. and give you time to survey. You are able to see the environment and tactically choose good locations to fight from, utilizing the environment to help (there are some areas where it's almost impossible to proceed without using the environmental damange to help you....like that second level of the dlc and the big giant vacuum).
 

PowerYoga

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2001
4,603
0
0
I ran into some "hard" gamestopper bugs within an hour of the game and just uninstalled it. Completely annoying because I was really looking forward to the game, felt like I wasted my money even though I got it on sale.
 

PrincessFrosty

Platinum Member
Feb 13, 2008
2,301
68
91
www.frostyhacks.blogspot.com
It's a good PC exclusive, I bought it at release for £20 which was a good price for the length and content, they only used DX9 graphics but they did very well with it, it looked a lot better than any console port I've played, with a few minor exceptions.

I bought it primarily because it was a PC exclusive and was designed for a PC audience which almost nothing is these days, and it turned out well. Some of these complaints are legit, the story is disjointed and ends badly because they basically ran out of money to produce the game they wanted on launch, they went back and added free DLC which is commendable.

All in all a game I actually enjoyed a lot, I need to go back and play the DLC when I have time, PC gamers should be supporting anyone doing PC exclusive games there are almost zero and if these guys got funded for an AAA title we could see something crazy-amazing in DX11 and with all the bells and whistled turned on.