2011 was a big year for a lot of people. Many huge events happened that year, so it can be forgiven if you didn’t notice Flying Wild Hog publishing their love story to old-school atmospheric cyberpunk shooters, which they called Hard Reset. The game was a love story to the old slower-paced atmospheric shooter: no regenerating health, a boatload of weapons, and a complex story that involves tons of cutscenes in a comic book style of narrative. Now they are back with Hard Reset Redux.
That story, though, is almost beside the point once the shooting starts. This game has a story but if you asked me what it was I wouldn’t be able to tell you, not because the story wasn’t good, but because I was way too busy killing robots with the game’s insane array of weapons to pay attention to it. I am reasonably sure most gamers could entirely skip the cutscenes (and no doubt many will) and still derive the same amount of intense enjoyment that I did from blasting robots and giant bosses.
If you have ever played Painkiller, or you are familiar with the work of People Can Fly (Bulletstorm), then you can expect a lot more of the same out of this game. It’s basically a simple formula played out well in an expansive world that we really don’t get to know much about: hordes of enemies swarm our protagonist, who has but a load of guns to beat them back with. These guns are fantastically unique, and none of them really just “shoot bullets” but instead might shoot lightning, homing rockets, or even create a mine that sits on the ground waiting for an enemy to come.
Strip away the cyberpunk dressing, and that formula is deliberately old-fashioned. What you will not find in this game is cover, regenerating health, or any of the other trappings of most modern shooters. This is a classic FPS, one that had it come out in the late 90s would have been called a Doom clone. You are big, strong and fast, you have many weapons, and must kill many enemies. Are you getting the idea yet? That is what this game is, it’s a classic sci-fi romp through the long hallways of shooter history. At a time like this that’s full of generic yearly installments of the same set of games, this type of gameplay is so refreshing.
Enemies in this game are vicious, and one of the biggest improvements from classic to Redux is enemy AI, placement, and types. Players of the original Hard Reset will remember enemies chasing them across entire levels. That still happens. I can’t count the number of times I retreated desperately looking for a health pickup, running back towards the level’s start, only to take a shot in the back from a pursuing enemy. AI is restless but not plagued by the problems it had in Hard Reset, most of which were simple clumping issues. Often I would run into a room of 20 or 30 enemies and simply be hard stuck, having to kite away and try to pull one or two at a time to kill them. This has mostly been fixed in the new game. I no longer feel like I have to pull enemies; kiting is still very necessary, but that’s just the kind of game this is.
That restless AI is also why the game keeps humbling you. Most of your time is going to be spent going back and forth and shooting. That being said I still died. Like a lot. Not Dark Souls level, but way more than most FPS games. I consider myself to be pretty good at FPS games. Hard Reset Redux made me reconsider that notion.
Though many players may think at the start they get only two weapons, the game actually provides a huge diversity of weapons via the “modes” these two guns can change into. The CLN (read like clean) and NRG (energy) are the two bases of your arsenal. On top of this you get what are sort of like mods, where you upgrade the guns to shoot grenades, rockets, railgun shots, chain lightning, or shields. There is a dizzying diversity of different things your two base guns can do. The modes for the guns are able to be changed on the fly, so there is really no worry of being locked into one weapon. I found myself mostly using the railgun feature of the NRG weapon and the rocket launching capabilities of the CLN.
This ended up being my play style but some players may opt for better or more configurations or just to try different things sometimes to kill larger swarms. Redux also adds a super powerful melee attack in the form of a “cyber katana”. I found it next to useless, but some players may appreciate the classic melee style combat system of slash, slash, slash. It is a really cool weapon, but I feel it’s totally unneeded.
All that firepower, of course, has to be paid for. Upgrades to the gun are unlocked with the game’s in-game currency “nano” which you get for killing stuff. Dead enemies drop a wealth of items, which shine with pretty particle effects. Drops are quite abundant, and I really appreciate that in each of the game’s levels there is at least one Doom-style secret room, usually full of armor and nano. There is no shortage of money sinks in this game either. Frequently you will encounter terminals that offer you upgrades, to your gun, health, shield, and armor.
The bulk of the game can’t be played without grabbing some of these upgrades so killing the hordes of enemies has a real tangible feel to it. Each upgrade makes you a little bit stronger. While it’s not the same satisfying major power boost like you would get with say, Diablo III, it still feels good.
That steady climb in power matters most when the game goes big. Boss fights are major productions, like Zelda but with guns. I was actually able to capture a whole boss fight at PAX East, and you can see that video here. I didn’t get to play that boss fight but what I got from watching it was the sense of scale, the player is this lone warrior left, fighting the huge mega army of almost never-ending enemies.
Boss fights aside, though, the major attractor here is going to be the old school run and gun gameplay. If you were a fan of, say, Doom, or Star Wars Dark Forces, this game is going to feel like home. It’s easy to settle in here, play a level or two, and forget that it’s 2016, where most shooters have to have regenerating health, and classes you select from the start, and multiplayer.
The game never sells itself out in this respect; you get what’s on the box, a shooter in the style of old school shooters. There aren’t any turret sequences, there aren’t any escort missions, this is a game devoted to the art of old school shooters. If you, like me, enjoy the feeling of playing a walking human tank, then this game is going to be right up your alley. I often found myself feeling giddy after each fight, as I would run around collecting the glowing leavings on my just finished carnage.
The Redux version earns its name in how it looks and moves, too. The Redux version of the game has a brand new graphics engine, and it shows. Textures are tighter, lighting is a bit toned down (it is after all cyberpunk) and the AI is much improved.
Slow movement from the original Hard Reset has been removed, and the player now zips around at a rate somewhere between Master Chief and Doom Guy. Players now move faster than the robot hordes, and so it’s easier to kite enemies. There is also the silly cyber katana to use if you get in close.
So if you’re looking for an old school shooter that feels right out of Blade Runner, has a cool diversity of weapons, huge boss fights, and an awesome world, Hard Reset Redux is probably for you. If you were a fan of Painkiller or Serious Sam, this is the type of game you will love. These games have become few and far between with the prominent style of shooter switched over to the more modern cover-based or fast COD-like shooter, so it’s refreshing to see a AAA effort at an older style. I think this game is worth playing even if you played the first version. That’s just how much difference the upgrades have made — the tighter textures, the improved AI, the faster movement, and the sheer variety of what two guns can do add up to a game that stands apart from the original rather than merely repeating it. Just be prepared for a few frustrating moments of “crap, I died again,” and some massive hang-ups at boss fights!