Hard Reset – Early Impressions
Hard Reset is a PC exclusive cyber punk themed first-person shooter. If you watched Blade Runner with its dark rain soaked neon lit cyber punk setting Hard Reset has a similar visual style early into its the campaign. Developed and published by Flying Wild Hog. Hard Reset released September 13, 2011 on the PC. Its early into the single player campaign but some things are quite apparent. To find out what keep reading below.
Hard Reset’s main menu screen featured New Game, Resume Game, Load Game, Profile, Options, Extras and Exit to System. I went into the Options menu and changed some game specs around to suit my “my old” 4870, Quad Core (IBM) and 6 Gigs of DDR3 RAM set-up. Resolution was set at 1152 x 864 which was the default and as i type this Hard Reset ran smooth and looks pretty good. The following i turned on or added: Tripple Buffering Synchronization, FXAA, Textures (Ultra), Anistropic Filtering 8x, Shadows, Post Processing Particles (High). So far so good. The game in its early going looked really good and ran pretty smooth.
The beginning of Hard Reset shows the hardened security force officer Fletcher (protagonist) at a bar. The year is 2436 and the Sanctuary is a safe heaven for humans. Fletcher works in the European District called Bezour and apparently some robots went haywire killing civs. After the call from higher ups Fletcher finishes his drink and ventures into the rain soaked cyber punk city streets to shoot some evil robots. The story is piratically non-existent along with the characters in Hard Reset. Comicbook style cutscenes do look good and tell the story before and after levels.
The first level’s mission is for Fletcher to arrive at the robot breach. Its also the tutorial for Hard Reset. There you will learn some of the gameplay basics such as N.A.N.O. currency and what you spend it on. You will encounter your first shootouts with robots while navigating city alleys and backdrops. You will learn about the HX-10 upgrade station and how to access secret areas. In a nutshell your mostly going to shoot stuff in Hard Reset’s tutorial level. You shoot the enviroment that can electrocute or cause fire to the robots depending where you shoot.
You can blow up walls on occasion revealing collectibles. When you shoot bots they will on occasion drop green, yellow or red orbs that refill your health, shield and ammo. Deactivating barriers and turning valves to access deeper into the level rounds out the first level of Hard Reset. There is a fight at the end featuring a swarm of robots that you must defeat in order to finish the level. Hard Reset is a fast paced shooter. There are also wild weapons and upgrades to be bought. Its early in the game but its easy to assume the game isn’t super deep or layered in the gameplay department. Its more about shooting fast robots with wild over the top weapons. Perform some upgrades on occasion and thats about it.
The visuals i do like so far. The city sky is filled with hover cars, skyscrapers and bright neon lights. The dank city is dark while rain is pouring down creating a thick atmosphere. Practically every object or interactive machine shows holograms which just furthers brings out the cyber punk setting of Hard Reset. Textures are good and many effects are present while playing. Its a good looking PC. The sound design is also decent. The music gives off a sci-fi vibe while the voice acting chimes in to Hard Reset’s atmosphere on occasion.
Its early but also clearly apparent Hard reset isn’t trying to add alote to its gameplay. Its simple and straight to the point. The action is fast and chaotic in its early going. Expect a full review of Hard Reset in the future. Thanks for reading.
