The original Hard Reset was a breath of fresh air when it was released back in 2011. At a time when first-person shooters were working to overcomplicate everything from their controls to their movie like stories, Hard Rest came around to remind us why we fell in love with the genre in the first place. It was a no fuss sort of game that just threw you into a level and tasked you with blowing up everything that moved.
No fancy objectives, no giant set-pieces, no gruff commander screaming at you every five seconds. Hard Reset was simply about blowing up a bunch of robots in satisfying ways. If I could compare the game to another I would say it feels much like Painkiller or Serious Sam, but with less of a focus on the wild weaponry. Everything about Hard Reset just worked, well, it does if you ignore the story that probably even went over the heads of the people writing the damn thing.
Now Hard Reset returns with Hard Reset Redux. The team behind the game have remastered the original release for modern platforms, and while now is the perfect time for such a thing with DOOM pulling from many of the same sensibilities as Hard Reset, the end product falls flat in a few key ways. It’s a shame too, because the core of Hard Reset Redux is still there and still a lot of fun, but now five years after the original the charm of it has slightly worn off.
Playing on the Xbox One you are going to notice right off the bat that something isn’t quite right. I’m not entirely sure what constitutes a remaster or HD remake, but I feel there are few, if any, rules to that respect. The graphics don’t look all that much better than the original and it “looks” like you are playing a game that came out back in 2011. I pushed through thinking maybe my small memory of the original game was tainted, but after doing some digging I have found lots of people with the same complaints/issue. You can check out the lenghthy thread over on reddit about the issues here: http://bit.ly/1TWZpOv
While the studio is addressing some of the issues because of this uproar in the Hard Reset community as bugs that will hopefully be fixed in a patch, other features of the original game were cut for performance reasons. I am a big proponent of the whole “graphics don’t make the game” argument, but when you remove, or lack features that were in the original five year-old game then you are really grinding my gears. I played the game on the Xbox One, so I can’t say what is missing from the PC version of the game, but I’d assume that version would be the one to get, if only for the ability of the community to eventually take care of things.
While Hard Reset was a real breath of fresh air five years ago, Hard Reset Redux feels more lazy than anything. The game features a lot of cut-scenes, some of which REALLY drag on longer than needed, and these are done in a comic book like art style. The idea can work as evidenced in other games, but the atheistic just doesn’t fit in this Blade Runner style setting. Not only that, but the scenes themselves often resemble more storyboards than actual comic book. It was no doubt a way to save money, but when the story tries to be super deep and thought provoking, and you have to sit through a lot of them, it feels kind of cheap.
Gameplay on the other hand is as tight as ever. The team have added two new features to the game that really do change a lot if you have played the game in the past. The biggest addition comes from the new dash button. In the original the game was incredibly fast paced, but you as the player were pretty slow and tank like at times. What made this a pain was that so many enemies were programmed to rush you head-on, so you were taking a lot of needless damage because strafing wasn’t always enough. This new dash feature really opens up the game and allows for some strategy in dealing with a lot of enemies. Where once you would get stuck or boxed in, you can now evade and move like the super solider cop dude you are.
The second added feature is the new laser, saber, blade thing. It’s essentially a lightsaber out of Star Wars to the point that I think the team raided the sound libraries of Lucas Arts. It’s an incredibly cool weapon because, come on, it’s a freaking lightsaber, but it only makes the game more difficult. Hard Reset was never a game about getting up close and personal, instead moving and shooting. Not only that, but the point in which they give you the saber makes no logical sense. In an FPS or most games when you are presented a new weapon or item it usually means that the game wants you to use it in an upcoming area. So I grabbed the blade and went to work only to find out that a bunch of exploding mouser things were sent after me, killing me multiple time. The team only added the saber because it was cool (it is), but never thought about how it was integrated into the game.
While the moving and shooting is top-notch, the level designs themselves have some real issues. With the levels using a Blade Runner motif things tend to look very similar throughout each level you are in. It’s not hard to get yourself turned around without even knowing it and end up back at the very beginning of a stage. These levels aren’t huge, so it’s not a major issue, but it is one that could have completely been avoided. You see, Hard Reset Redux doesn’t have a map of any kind. Not on the heads-up display, or in the pause screen, or mapped to a button, or anyplace that I could find. For a future cop/solider person you sure are left without some pretty basic things to do your job. I don’t know one person that has played the game and not gotten lost a few time while playing. It’s a shame because a simple mini-map would have fixed this. Hell, you already have this cyber eye-piece which apparently is just there to look cool, something of a theme now.
While the shooting is great, the weapons themselves are really, really lacking. One of the reasons I loved Painkiller so much was that it has a wide array of brutal weaponry. Hard Reset Redux does in fact have a number of weapons, but each is just an add-on to the two base guns. You get a traditional gun that shoots bullets, or snaps into a shotgun, or a rocket launcher, and an energy, err, sorry, N.R.G. weapon that shots all sorts energy stuffs that can also be modified. While each weapon serves a purpose and can deal with certain enemies better, but each add-on barely changes the way your base weapon looks. So any screenshot I take will look like I’m only use one of two weapons if you don’t know what you are looking for. Thankfully these add-ons are a load of fun, but most have specific uses which means you’ll probably be sticking with the shotgun and energy pulse weapon for most of the game.
In the end Hard Reset Redux had a lot of potential that simply went to wate. While the game may play as fine as it did in 2011, the graphical issues and lack of any new features aside from a dash simply can’t warrant a purchase. It feels like one step forward and two steps back in terms of what a remaster should be. I mean, at the very least you can make the game look better than it did five-years ago. If you were a big fan of the original then you’ll have a good time here, but if you are new or on the fence about this once I’d recommended keeping clear.
Pros:
+ Shooting is as fast and fun as ever
+ Large and exciting boss battles
+ The dash button is a godsend
Cons:
– Lacking graphical features from the 2011 original
– Convoluted story
– Very little added to make things better
– Really showing it’s age
*A copy was provided for review*
*Reviewed on the Xbox One*
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