Hard Reset Redux

A real old school shooter, true to the genre's roots and packed full of action; its main flaw is the uninspired design, but every 90's shooter lover should give it a chance.

If you loved Hard Reset when it first released, give Redux a try, especially if you never played the DLC.

If you’re looking for some weekend entertainment and enjoy run and gun, first person shooter style games in a futuristic setting – at $15, you really can’t go wrong.

The big question is whether or not a game like Hard Reset Redux has a place in today's market... a market that has recently received the superb Doom. Whereas Doom took the essence of the franchise and smashed it, rather bloodily, into relevance, Hard Reset sticks firmly to its roots. There's space for both, but the old-school shooter is starting to show its age.

I wanted to love Hard Reset Redux, especially after coming off Doom, which had scratched that 90s FPS itch I have almost annually. There just isn’t enough here to satisfy. Gunplay feels weak, enemies are boring to kill, and the world wears out its welcome quickly. Nothing about this game is overly offensive to the senses, but it just never stands out from the pack either.

If you're looking for another retro-inspired FPS to play through now that you've completed DOOM, Hard Reset Redux is a competent option. Although it's dated and doesn't compare to the polish, scope and grandeur that is present in its competitor, it continues to be a decent and challenging game.

The developer’s desire to recapture the magic of a previous age clouded their vision of what constitutes good design, and created an experience fraught with antithetical decisions. As a result, Hard Reset offers an average game which becomes particularly tedious long before it ends.

Good old school shooter with good graphics. It is not a GREAT game but it is a good game and a solid deal at $20 on Xbox. I'd say price wise it is only rivaled by Wolfenstein Old Blood which I also loved and is also $20. This all lines up assuming you like and bought games like Doom and the first Wolfenstein. All of these games are for the same gamer IMO. It is true the cut scenes are a waste in Hard Reset and the game is simple by today's standards but it holds up well. Solid 7 or 7.5 game going into it expecting a classic Pain Killer or even Serious Same style game.

Good mechanics in shooting, but the game gets samey rather quick. Same enemies and assets over and over. The further in the game, the more it turns into a wave shooter instead of a story driven FPS. Developers are eager to call something on the floor that is a little bit tucked away, a "secret found". Item and weapon progression is in fact duplicated. 2 branches which in all but visual are the same. One in the standard bullets version, the other electrical/beam weapons. Both do almost exactly the same until an upgrade changes the basic working principle ****. For example there's a grenade launcher (bullets) and a mortar (electrical). Both have the same effect: one an explosion that affects multiple enemies and assets and the other an electrical ball which does the same only visually different (branching lightning). A shotgun and a blaster (branching lightning straight out of the gun). You get the idea. The story itself is weird and makes unexpected jumps which cut out important pieces. I stopped playing after level 5.

Hard Reset Redux Decently Fun, but super repetitive Hard Reset Redux is the extended version to Hard Reset released in 2011 nearly doubling this games length and of course extending the story... that is if you can actually follow what’s going on… Something about AI gone wrong and you have to save the city they occupy... I’m not even sure... If you’re playing Hard Reset you’re playing for the gameplay… And this game can be great fun at times… You get 3 weapons in this game... a rifle...a plasma gun, and later a katana… But both the rifle and the plasma gun all have 5 variations that you can unlock as you collect xp from secrets or just by killing enemies... As you progress through the game your meter will fill up and give you a skill point to spend on either a new weapon, a weapon upgrade, or gear upgrade… And these weapon upgrades are really all there is to keep the game feeling fresh and ultimately what keeps it even the slightest bit engaging… There are a few enemy variants that you can take down with any weapon, but you’ll clearly fall in love with one weapon type to deal with a certain enemy over another, for example I like using the shotgun on explosive enemies.. And I loved using the katana on pretty much everything else. I easily had the most fun with the katana... but the fact that I had a favorite weapon for every enemy type tells you a lot about how much weapon variety actually matters in this game… That is such a refreshing feeling, where I feel like in most first person shooters I can get away with anything and it doesn’t matter… but here it does unfortunately after you’ve played with all of the variants for a while, the game really starts to get boring and feels like it drags out way too long… Hard Resets biggest issue is hands down the level design… Every levels is activating switches while you kill everything between you and the switch… And every level really looks nearly identical… and honestly without having known that the game would be the same throughout, I was already unimpressed the moment the game started, as It looked like a dated bargain bin game Its gray and boring, but there are some cool nail-biting sections towards the end of the game if you can manage to drag yourself through 7 hours of the same thing to get there… You practically see all there is to see in level 1, minus a few boss fights thrown in there… Hard Reset Redux offers a great deal of fun with its weapon variety, But if you don’t like feeling like you’re stuck in a demo level for 8 hours, you’re better off looking for your fun elsewhere I give Hard Reset Redux a 6/10

Attention, c’est la version ‘Redux’, sortie aussi sur consoles en 2016, alors qu’il s’agissait à l’origine d’un jeu uniquement disponible sur PC en 2011. Non pas qu’on en ait quelque chose à fout’ soit dit en passant mais ça permet de meubler le premier paragraphe et d’ailleurs, à cet égard, je n’en suis pas peu fier. Et donc, c’est une sorte de FPS à la Doom, à savoir très nerveux et brutal mais contre des tas de robots énervés et autres machines pas très sympas, non, non. Les flingues sont personnalisables avec des sortes de points et tout ça… et tuent les ennemis quand on leur tire dessus, ouais, ouais, ouais. Mais y a pas de carte, alors on tourne un peu en rond dans ces niveaux comme un con. Le jeu semble un peu scénarisé… mais qu’on ne se méprenne pas, c’est bien trop bas de plafond pour raconter quoi que ce soit. En tout cas, ça tourne très bien (à 60 im/s) et ce n’est pas trop vilain… mais la direction artistique est pauvre et les sensations restent limitées. En vérité (hélas), ce petit merdier s’avère vite… trop répétitif. J’ai à peine tenu une heure et j’en peux déjà plus. Alors, hop, on le reset, le jeu… je veux dire, on le désinstalle parce que franchement, ça ira comme ça (c’est aussi chiant à jouer que les Doom ‘modernes’ !).