Hard Reset Redux Reviews

[h1][b] TLDR: The uninspired world, boring narrative, and annoying gun mechanics make me not want to play or recommend this game. [/b] [/h1] [h1]PROS: [/h1] ➕Quality remake from a technical perspective [h1]NEUTRALS: [/h1] 🔹Unable to crouch 🔹Lazy achievements [h1]CONS: [/h1] ➖Underwhelming narrative ➖Too many gun variants with slow weapon swapping ➖Bland and boring world ➖Lack of interesting upgrades [h1] [b] Content (Game world/Narrative/Length) – [4/10] [/b] [/h1] Boring game world and forgettable/confusing narrative [h1][b] Gameplay (Mechanics/Difficulty) – [4/10] [/b] [/h1] 11 gun options and only ~3 of them are worth using. Switching between weapons is a pain. [h1] [b] Graphics (Quality/Performance) – [5/10] [/b] [/h1] Bland art style with everything being so similar. Graphical fidelity is average, just feels so uninspired. Runs well, I ran into no bugs. i9-13900KF | RTX 4090 | 64GB RAM | 1440p @ 240hz | Windows 11 installed on SSD [h1] [b] Audio – [5/10] [/b] [/h1] Average, nothing really noteworthy here. [h1] [b] Replay Factor (Longevity) – [3/10] [/b] [/h1] Aside from a ton of achievements, most of which are just the same thing but playing through the level on a higher difficulty, there doesn’t seem to be much to do. Maybe maximizing level run score? [h1] [b] Final Verdict – [4/10] [/b] [/h1] I never played Hard Reset, so Hard Reset Redux (HRR) is my entry into the series. I decided to buy this game after enjoying my time with Flying Wild Hog’s Shadow Warrior series. Unfortunately, HRR misses much of what makes Shadow Warrior so fun. My two largest issues with HRR are the annoying amount of gun options you have and the boring/bland world. To summarize the world first, I was consistently underwhelmed with the bland and boring game world of the future. The gameplay largely consists of moving from one uninteresting corridor to the next through the gameplay guise of unlocking doors and shooting machines. HRR does not utilize anything about a future cyberpunk-ish that makes it interesting or engaging. Furthermore and equally disheartening is the narrative is as boring as the game world is bland. As for the gun aspect, normally more options are good, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. How HRR does weaponry is you have 2 options - a rifle and a plasma gun (and later a sword), each being bound to F1 and F2, respectively. Each gun has 5 fire modes with tons of overlap. You have the rifle grenade which is pretty much the plasma mortar, or the rifle shotgun that is the plasma burst. Generally, there is a fire mode that is more effective towards certain types of enemies, like the shotgun/burst is for the swarms that hound you, where the RPG or railgun for stronger single targets. Oftentimes you’ll get a combination of enemies like a swarm pack with a strong single target. Flipping between F1+4 and then F2+2 constantly is just cumbersome and utterly annoying, amplified by the fact that each weapon swap takes a second or two. These 11 weapon choices could be easily consolidated down to half at most. Overall, while the game world and narrative were mediocre at best, those combined with the annoying combat made me retire HRR after 3.5 hours. I made it through about 6 or 7 levels of mundane before I had enough. As such I cannot recommend this game, but instead would recommend the Shadow Warrior series by the same developer. It’s not perfect, but Flying Wild Hog seemed to have learned from many of the issues plaguing Hard Reset when developing that series. [h1] [b] Recommend? [Y/N] [/b] [/h1] [h1]No[/h1] You can find my curator page here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Synik_GR

Solid enough Cyberpunk-esque FPS from the 2010s. It wont' knock your socks off but it is fun for most of the game's duration, other than a few grindy achievements and one particularly annoying boss battle. I recommend Hard Reset for FPS newcomers who need help with mastering movement, aiming, and target prioritization.

Very fun shooter with a short lenght but very replayable, the improvements and changes from the original to Redux make the experience a lot less frustrating and feel like a fair challenge. I beat the game in hard, insane and heroic mode and I thought I was going to struggle a lot more. The cyberpunk setting is fantastic and the encounters feel chaotic and fun. Quick switching weapons is very important, trying to keep them stunned as long as possible helps a lot to deal with the biggest threats. If you re looking for a game that scratches that Serious sam/Painkiller itch, then I really recommend giving Hard reset redux a try.