Welcome back to the haunting cyberpunk dark game of Hard Reset this time we are reviewing the Extended Edition brought to us by Kalypso Media and developed by Flying Wild Hog “And they said pigs could not fly”. If you are unfamiliar with our original review Click Here <- Insert link). The original was released back in 2011 with almost no marketing and only available via digital download. The games took approximately 5 – 6 hours to complete which of course for the fans; this left them wanting more, so now you get that chance with the Extended Edition.
The extended version comes with an additional 3 hours of gameplay, new creatures, a new boss, five new campaign missions, as well as two additional levels for the survival mode, also one final added addition an improved graphics engine.
Hard Reset reminds me of games like Painkiller and Serious Sam, these games where also over the top old school style shooters. So what is the story? You take control of Major Fletcher an ex-Army combat veteran in the last remaining human city of Bezoar. You are dragged into a conflict against mankind’s greatest enemies; fletcher will soon learn that nothing is as it seems “Possible Matrix theme here”. Story; well dialogue in game, is told through a comic style script, if you wish to skip these you can, it’s not really highly relevant.
I have to say one and old school style shooter never really needs an in-depth story to get the players changed. Hard Reset purely focuses on blasting the living hell out of everything on screen in the best way possible.
Weaponry, big weapons all round her from mini guns, grenade launchers to the futuristic plasma gun. To add to the weapons you also are given gravity grenades, mines that can be launched “Mine Launcher I should have said there” and finally a cattle prod the blasts the enemy with an electric charge, this is just a few of the many weapons in-game that you will get your hand on via the upgrade system.
While moving around the levels you will need to pick up weapon cache and health drops these are found when enemies are taken down. Warning do not believe what you see on screen is the correct numbers of enemies to be killed, so do not be fooled they have their friends that will just spawn out of nowhere.
There may not much variety with enemy types in the first release, the developers have added four new additional created to blow away now; even with the extras you will still see the same enemies from start to finish with only a few changes to them. For an example the giant bipedal robots at the start that change at you at high speed will come back towards the end with more armour and sometimes rockets. With the mix of robots equipped with either mini-guns or rocket launchers add to that; you now have three bosses, one extra from the original. If you are an achievement whore then you will be happy to know, there are now an extra 13 achievements to get.
Hard reset gets harder as you go along not by throwing more types of robots at you, but from chucking crap loads more at you. I would of liked to of seen more enemies types to fight against, but thanks to the evolving weapon system and the lethal utility’s scattered around the environments made it an interesting journey never the less.
So what are the options to kill the enemy with? Or should we say what you can upgrade too? How about a shotgun? If you upgrade this item you can throw out energy rounds that are able to stun enemies for a short amount of time. Then take the energy mortar, upgrade this baby with the stasis field and you can dramatically slow the enemy down giving you a great advantage over the playing field.
Hard Reset has been built with the Havok Engine so you can expect some great physics including the ability to electrify water by taking out electrical nodes and explosive barrels. The games visuals are stunning, with greatly detailed environments and well detailed enemies, the outdoor environments are just so beautiful.
This game is a pure over the top run, dodge collect survival game from the 90s, you must draw in the enemy and blow them away the fastest and the most efficient way possible. The original Hard Reset was pretty short; this was one of the main complaints from the fans, even though the game allowed you to replay through the game with EX mode, which allowed you to start the game at the very beginning with everything unlocked from your original play through. Good news for fans, Flying Wild Hog has given us 3 extra hours of gameplay to dig our teeth into and to test out our new upgrades which we were unable too much in the original.
Hard Reset is certainly not for the hard-core FPS players or players that like a strong story plot, this game is pure mindless fun. If you are a player from the original Hard Reset, do not get upset as Flying Wild Hog will be bringing you all the content soon via DLC. Extended edition still does not give us loads of weapons to choose from however the upgrade system makes it feel like you do, there are a numbers of new upgrades to choose from and new firing modes as well.
Overall:
Hard Reset Extended Edition is a crazy and over the top, which gets difficult over time. Easy Mode is a good choice to start the game as normal is solid and hard mode was OMG to sodden hard. This game now has plenty of hours to dig your teeth into and will take any avid shooter sometime to complete, if you are not an avid old school shooter then expect to be tested to the max.
Flying Wild Hog this is an epic achievement what you have achieved here so keep up the good work. We personally loved playing this game from start to finish, and would recommend this game to any gamer this is looking for something like Painkiller or Serious Sam.
Specs:
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Pentium 4 / AMD Athlon 64
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Disk Space: 4 GB free hard drive space
Video Card: 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GS / ATI Radeon HD 3870 or better
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c
Sound: DirectX Compatible
Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor: Intel Quad Core 2.3 GHz / AMD Phenom II x4 2.5 GHz
Memory: 3 GB
Hard Disk Space: 4 GB free hard drive space
Video Card: 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT / ATI Radeon HD 4870 or better
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c
Sound: DirectX Compatible
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
