Cyberpunk is a genre that has a lot of potential for depth in it's themes. For examples, look at the classic cyberpunk noire, Bladerunner; or the more recent gem, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. And then there is Hard Reset, by Flying Wild Hog Games. Flying Wild Hog is a developer made up of some of the people from Painkiller, and boy does it show.
Hard Reset is set in Bezoar, a dystopian city run by a corporation called "The Corporation". You play as Fletcher, a character who throughout the game, all we really know about him is that he gets drunk often. About half way into the game, you are told "Oh, by the way. Did we mention he can download people's personalities into his brain and have conversations with them? Yeah, probably should have mentioned that."
The story really feels like a joke. And not even a well told one. One recited by someone nervous and not great at timing or details. It definitely had great potential, telling the tale of Fletcher fighting robots and conspiracies to save Bezoar. Unfortunately, Hard Reset misses or skims over a lot of key plot details, and expects us to somehow already know everything that's going on. [img_inline width="300" align="right"]http://thereviewcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/hardreset3-300x176.jpg[/img_inline] But honestly, it's to be expected from a game that only gives us narrative through the cutscenes in loading screens.
All I really could figure out about the story for certain was that robots were bad and needed to be shot. Fortunately, that was the best part of the game. There are two different main weapons in the game, which seemed a little minimalist at first. Then I unlocked my first upgrade. I was given the choice between four different upgrades for each weapon, each upgrade basically being it's own weapon. There were typical weapons for the bullet-gun - grenade launcher, shotgun, RPG and submachine gun. And then the plasma gun had more original uses. Like a 'tazer' that fired out lightning to all the baddies close by, a railgun that acted as a sniper rifle, or even a stasis field that would slow down all the robots charging through the area of it's effect. And then once those upgrades were unlocked, you could modify them with secondary fire modes. [img_inline width="300" align="left"]http://thereviewcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/hardreset1-300x187.jpg[/img_inline] So really, what looked like two weapons was really a dozen.
Oddly, there weren't as many enemy types as there were weapons. I can remember about five types of regular robots that would attack me, seven if you include the two bosses. The amount of baddies didn't effect too much though. I mean, when you've got thirty robots attacking you at once - mostly at close range - you don't think too much of 'this one looks the same as the last fifteen!? Not for the first few hours of the game, anyways. Seeing as Hard Reset lasted under five hours for me, this wasn't too much of a problem.
Thinking about it now, enemy types weren't the only repetitive aspect of the game. The music - stereotypical techno - grew stale quickly. But more importantly, the environments all seemed about the same. You were either outside, under the shiny blue lights...Or inside, under shiny blue lights.
I can't help but feel Hard Reset's short, five hour campaign did more good to the experience than bad. Any more than that and I might not have finished it. But yes, the game was great fun. Linear, filled with enemies and a plot thin as something that's really thin, Flying Wild Hog managed to make it fun. Which is usually the biggest seller of a game to me. It might not win any awards, but was absolutely worth the time I invested.
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As always, feedback is appreciated. Thanks to Pimppeter2 for feedback on my last review. Also, check out more reviews by me and friends at TheReviewCast.com
Hard Reset is set in Bezoar, a dystopian city run by a corporation called "The Corporation". You play as Fletcher, a character who throughout the game, all we really know about him is that he gets drunk often. About half way into the game, you are told "Oh, by the way. Did we mention he can download people's personalities into his brain and have conversations with them? Yeah, probably should have mentioned that."
The story really feels like a joke. And not even a well told one. One recited by someone nervous and not great at timing or details. It definitely had great potential, telling the tale of Fletcher fighting robots and conspiracies to save Bezoar. Unfortunately, Hard Reset misses or skims over a lot of key plot details, and expects us to somehow already know everything that's going on. [img_inline width="300" align="right"]http://thereviewcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/hardreset3-300x176.jpg[/img_inline] But honestly, it's to be expected from a game that only gives us narrative through the cutscenes in loading screens.
All I really could figure out about the story for certain was that robots were bad and needed to be shot. Fortunately, that was the best part of the game. There are two different main weapons in the game, which seemed a little minimalist at first. Then I unlocked my first upgrade. I was given the choice between four different upgrades for each weapon, each upgrade basically being it's own weapon. There were typical weapons for the bullet-gun - grenade launcher, shotgun, RPG and submachine gun. And then the plasma gun had more original uses. Like a 'tazer' that fired out lightning to all the baddies close by, a railgun that acted as a sniper rifle, or even a stasis field that would slow down all the robots charging through the area of it's effect. And then once those upgrades were unlocked, you could modify them with secondary fire modes. [img_inline width="300" align="left"]http://thereviewcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/hardreset1-300x187.jpg[/img_inline] So really, what looked like two weapons was really a dozen.
Oddly, there weren't as many enemy types as there were weapons. I can remember about five types of regular robots that would attack me, seven if you include the two bosses. The amount of baddies didn't effect too much though. I mean, when you've got thirty robots attacking you at once - mostly at close range - you don't think too much of 'this one looks the same as the last fifteen!? Not for the first few hours of the game, anyways. Seeing as Hard Reset lasted under five hours for me, this wasn't too much of a problem.
Thinking about it now, enemy types weren't the only repetitive aspect of the game. The music - stereotypical techno - grew stale quickly. But more importantly, the environments all seemed about the same. You were either outside, under the shiny blue lights...Or inside, under shiny blue lights.
I can't help but feel Hard Reset's short, five hour campaign did more good to the experience than bad. Any more than that and I might not have finished it. But yes, the game was great fun. Linear, filled with enemies and a plot thin as something that's really thin, Flying Wild Hog managed to make it fun. Which is usually the biggest seller of a game to me. It might not win any awards, but was absolutely worth the time I invested.
------
As always, feedback is appreciated. Thanks to Pimppeter2 for feedback on my last review. Also, check out more reviews by me and friends at TheReviewCast.com