Hard Reset - Discussion Thread
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:ashamed:
Sucks! The game seems to have been received poorly. 
Hard Reset review: the game ends before it begins, despite fun play
Hard Reset review: the game ends before it begins, despite fun play
Ars said:
Completed the game yesterday and I quite liked it. Fortunately for me, I did not have much hopes on this title after having read the reviews so it turned out to be slightly better than what was expected.
For one, the campaign is very short and the storyline (whatever little there is!) is mediocre at best. Some unknown forces have invaded a dystopian cyberpunk city called 'Bezoar' and 'Major Fletcher' a military veteran and the protagonist is sent by some big-arse no-name organisation we know as 'The Corporation' to investigate the scene and eliminate them forces. The campaign is linear and the story is portrayed through graphic novel cutscenes between the levels a la Maxpayne. Games such as Painkiller and Serious Sam which do not essentially have a hard-core plot relies mostly on the run-n-gun circle-strafing combat. There are plenty of arms, loads of ammo and hordes of enemy AI to be killed in closed corridors. And that is all that counts in titles like these! Then again, the Polish devs. 'Flying Wild Hog' were originally working for 'People Can Fly', the same team that brought out Painkiller. There are plenty of explosive devices strewn around Bezoar city's levels not limited to just barrels and crates but electrical contraptions such as huge transformers, generators, display boards, vehicles etc. Some of them can reveal a secret area upon exploding and some others may take away a bunch of enemy AI hurling towards Fletcher.
The game however is a visual treat with the bright beautiful Bezoar city designed in a dystopian and futuristic cyberpunk world, noticeably similar to the Blade Runner/Tron movie. The game relies on a completely new engine developed by 'Flying Wild Hog'. The performance graphs are mentioned in the previous post.
The best part of the game could probably be the weapon system. The devs. seem to have thoughtfully designed this aspect. There are 2 basic weapons - the C.L.N. and the N.R.G. (and their respective ammo) Fletcher could use during the course of the game with the rest of them being transformations. Each weapon has the ability to transform and adapt itself into a completely different weapon. For instance, the C.L.N. can transform itself into an assault rifle, a shotgun, a grenade launcher, an RPG and a proximity mine launcher. Similarly, the N.R.G. can transform itself into a blaster, plasma thrower, rail gun and mortar launcher. Transformations barely takes any time and happens pretty quick. This way there are about a dozen weapons to beat the crap out of the enemy! Experience is rewarded in the form of nano points as each enemy is killed. They can alternately be picked up from secret locations and hidden areas. Once the XP bar fills itself completely, a nano upgrade is rewarded. These upgrades can be used to improve Fletcher's abilities (such as health and armor) or unlock a weapon or improve its abilities. Each weapon further has 3 upgrade modes. For instance, the scope can be added to the assault rifle and the rail gun, the RPG can have a laser guided homing upgrade, the shotgun can have a quicker reload upgrade etc. There is however no option to reload an arm (similar to Painkiller and Serious Sam); honestly there needn't be one in such shoot'em up titles. I've lost count of the number of times I pressed 'R' after clearing an area! :ashamed:
Picture courtesy: Interwebz!
The bright big HUD to the left bottom displays his vital statistics such as health (green) and armor (yellow), the nano points/experience collected (orange) and the ammo count (red/blue). Talking about ammo, the count is virtually unlimited and in all probability the player wouldn't run short of it at any point in the game.
Lest I forget to mention, the game is extremely punishing in the Normal difficulty mode and becomes frustratingly harder towards later levels. You will DIE, not once or twice but a dozen times or maybe more! Fortunately the difficulty can be lowered at any point during the game, however cannot be reverted back to the higher one. You wouldn't want to do that anyway. I had to switch to the Easy mode when facing the Titan at Level V.
Undeniable however, the game is fun while it lasts. Folks who loved the Serious Sam series and Painkiller might want to give this title a shot.
For one, the campaign is very short and the storyline (whatever little there is!) is mediocre at best. Some unknown forces have invaded a dystopian cyberpunk city called 'Bezoar' and 'Major Fletcher' a military veteran and the protagonist is sent by some big-arse no-name organisation we know as 'The Corporation' to investigate the scene and eliminate them forces. The campaign is linear and the story is portrayed through graphic novel cutscenes between the levels a la Maxpayne. Games such as Painkiller and Serious Sam which do not essentially have a hard-core plot relies mostly on the run-n-gun circle-strafing combat. There are plenty of arms, loads of ammo and hordes of enemy AI to be killed in closed corridors. And that is all that counts in titles like these! Then again, the Polish devs. 'Flying Wild Hog' were originally working for 'People Can Fly', the same team that brought out Painkiller. There are plenty of explosive devices strewn around Bezoar city's levels not limited to just barrels and crates but electrical contraptions such as huge transformers, generators, display boards, vehicles etc. Some of them can reveal a secret area upon exploding and some others may take away a bunch of enemy AI hurling towards Fletcher.
The game however is a visual treat with the bright beautiful Bezoar city designed in a dystopian and futuristic cyberpunk world, noticeably similar to the Blade Runner/Tron movie. The game relies on a completely new engine developed by 'Flying Wild Hog'. The performance graphs are mentioned in the previous post.
The best part of the game could probably be the weapon system. The devs. seem to have thoughtfully designed this aspect. There are 2 basic weapons - the C.L.N. and the N.R.G. (and their respective ammo) Fletcher could use during the course of the game with the rest of them being transformations. Each weapon has the ability to transform and adapt itself into a completely different weapon. For instance, the C.L.N. can transform itself into an assault rifle, a shotgun, a grenade launcher, an RPG and a proximity mine launcher. Similarly, the N.R.G. can transform itself into a blaster, plasma thrower, rail gun and mortar launcher. Transformations barely takes any time and happens pretty quick. This way there are about a dozen weapons to beat the crap out of the enemy! Experience is rewarded in the form of nano points as each enemy is killed. They can alternately be picked up from secret locations and hidden areas. Once the XP bar fills itself completely, a nano upgrade is rewarded. These upgrades can be used to improve Fletcher's abilities (such as health and armor) or unlock a weapon or improve its abilities. Each weapon further has 3 upgrade modes. For instance, the scope can be added to the assault rifle and the rail gun, the RPG can have a laser guided homing upgrade, the shotgun can have a quicker reload upgrade etc. There is however no option to reload an arm (similar to Painkiller and Serious Sam); honestly there needn't be one in such shoot'em up titles. I've lost count of the number of times I pressed 'R' after clearing an area! :ashamed:
Picture courtesy: Interwebz!
The bright big HUD to the left bottom displays his vital statistics such as health (green) and armor (yellow), the nano points/experience collected (orange) and the ammo count (red/blue). Talking about ammo, the count is virtually unlimited and in all probability the player wouldn't run short of it at any point in the game.
Lest I forget to mention, the game is extremely punishing in the Normal difficulty mode and becomes frustratingly harder towards later levels. You will DIE, not once or twice but a dozen times or maybe more! Fortunately the difficulty can be lowered at any point during the game, however cannot be reverted back to the higher one. You wouldn't want to do that anyway. I had to switch to the Easy mode when facing the Titan at Level V.
Undeniable however, the game is fun while it lasts. Folks who loved the Serious Sam series and Painkiller might want to give this title a shot.
Is this game stuttering for anyone else? After just 20 mins of gaming, it started to stutter like hell. I could even make proper turns. Almost a similar situation to what I experienced in Witcher 2. Not sure if it's my aging hardware or something else, but it's really buggint the hell out of me.
I guess so. I have turned off AA, won't reduce the graphic resolution to anything below 1920x1080 and the rest of the setting toggle between Medium and High. I'll post a screenshot of it when I get home.
--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
Found the stuttering issue, the 'Texture Quality' was set to 'Ultra' and that took a massive toll on my config, switched it to normal and it's working fine now.
--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
Found the stuttering issue, the 'Texture Quality' was set to 'Ultra' and that took a massive toll on my config, switched it to normal and it's working fine now.
Black_Hawk
Juggernaut
Just finished the game now... the campaign was rather short but enjoyable nevertheless! The overwhelming number of enemies at times were frustratingly difficult to handle, mowing them down and strafing continuously was the key to success here. 
HR Patch info from GSpy -
In a direct response to player demands and reviewer criticism, Flying Wild Hog launched the first patch for Hard Reset today, bringing adjustments it says will improve the sci-fi shooter while staying true to its old-school roots.
Patch 1.01 is now live, complete with triple buffering, benchmark mode, the ability to change weapon modes while in cooldown, and much more.
"FWH remains dedicated to their game design philosophy, and will continue to address community concerns as they arise," the studio said in a statement.
Full Hard Reset patch 1.01 notes are available on the Steam forums, and the major changes are highlighted below:
-- Weapon cool downs are disabled. You can change and use weapon modes while some other weapon modes are on cool down.
-- You are now able to sprint (shortly) even while sprint is still recharging, sprinting is now possible at any moment.
-- Sprint will now charge 20% faster than before.
-- Added Benchmark Mode from the demo.
-- Improved the time between switching between N.R.G. Weapon and CLN Firearm.
-- You are now able to switch difficulty mid-game (the lowest difficulty ever chosen during the whole run determines the achievements unlocked).
-- You are now able to check your Mission Stats while in-game by pressing the Tab key.
Flying Wild Hog also said more Hard Reset updates are coming soon, including a new game mode. We'll keep you posted.
In a direct response to player demands and reviewer criticism, Flying Wild Hog launched the first patch for Hard Reset today, bringing adjustments it says will improve the sci-fi shooter while staying true to its old-school roots.
Patch 1.01 is now live, complete with triple buffering, benchmark mode, the ability to change weapon modes while in cooldown, and much more.
"FWH remains dedicated to their game design philosophy, and will continue to address community concerns as they arise," the studio said in a statement.
Full Hard Reset patch 1.01 notes are available on the Steam forums, and the major changes are highlighted below:
-- Weapon cool downs are disabled. You can change and use weapon modes while some other weapon modes are on cool down.
-- You are now able to sprint (shortly) even while sprint is still recharging, sprinting is now possible at any moment.
-- Sprint will now charge 20% faster than before.
-- Added Benchmark Mode from the demo.
-- Improved the time between switching between N.R.G. Weapon and CLN Firearm.
-- You are now able to switch difficulty mid-game (the lowest difficulty ever chosen during the whole run determines the achievements unlocked).
-- You are now able to check your Mission Stats while in-game by pressing the Tab key.
Flying Wild Hog also said more Hard Reset updates are coming soon, including a new game mode. We'll keep you posted.
May be it's just me, but the game is extremely cheap when it comes to dropping wave after wave of enemies. It puts you in the most cramped positions at times and you keep on dying. The Atlas boss fight checkpoint was ridiculous. It's turning out to be highly repititive, and I don't mean in a good manner. I'm surprised you guys are able to complete it so soon, or may be I'm getting too old for this old school shooter. 
^simple question - were you able to complete the Serious Sam and Painkiller titles without using cheats? On normal difficulty i.e. If yes, this should be a walk in the park.
I found defeating Atlus pretty hard and had to lower the difficulty. Sadly it couldn't be reverted back to Normal. I guess the new update addresses that issue.
I found defeating Atlus pretty hard and had to lower the difficulty. Sadly it couldn't be reverted back to Normal. I guess the new update addresses that issue.
To be honest, I never completed those titles.
I have co-op'ed the hell out of Serious Sam, but never actually got around completing them.
I have co-op'ed the hell out of Serious Sam, but never actually got around completing them.
Black_Hawk
Juggernaut
Yes, that damn Atlas battle was hard even on the easiest difficulty level. But I had a even tougher time beating the final boss.... he's a beast to take down and worst is that the enemy forces that swarm you while you hit the final boss is ridiculously high! Harrowing!!
It was not the difficulty, but the amount of time taken to dodge and take out his weak spots took way too long. So dying towards the end of the battle and restarting it all over again was really agonising. 
Black_Hawk
Juggernaut
Ethan_Hunt said:It was not the difficulty, but the amount of time taken to dodge and take out his weak spots took way too long. So dying towards the end of the battle and restarting it all over again was really agonising.
Yes, by difficulty I actually meant this:
The repeat and rinse process of shooting his orange glowing armor over and over again. You die and damn you need to redo it all over again! Not fun!!
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