Close in spirit
BINARY DOMAIN
Why play Hard Reset? The question is actually simple – from great love for stupid, frankly, to the shooters, of course. Well, you know, where there is nothing besides explosions and fingers at all, but blowing Fresh Bet sister sites up and firing a lot of fun.
The game was released five years ago and was created by those who had a hand in development Painkiller And Bulletstorm. True, it does not reach either one or the other Hard Reset, but this does not detract from its virtues. If in 2011 you didn’t have time to make sure this, it's time to correct the situation – the other day an updated and fit version of the game was published, entitled Hard Reset Redux.
Decay
The twenty -fifth century. Gloomy future with endless rain, gray skyscrapers and cold neon light. People live in fear of robots who got out of control, and somewhere around the corner in one of the bars, Rick Deckard probably overturning a stack behind a pile.
If the craving for shooters is combined with love for cyberpanka, then Hard Reset will not spend your time in vice – it can withstand visual style and creates the right mood with design, music and even sounds. Everything was collected, of course, from genre stamps, but as part of the gaming industry they were not so tanned, and the overall result is quite worthy.
► There is no life on the streets – the city seems to be abandoned.
► But all these advertising shields, posters on the walls, shimmering bars and abandoned cars attract attention and make you believe that people really lived here before our arrival. There is even something in this.
Calm life in such a world, you yourself understand, is impossible. The city of Belfegor is attacked by reasonable machines seeking to penetrate the archive containing digital "casts" of the personalities of millions of citizens. There is a theory according to which the threshold of the development of artificial intelligence is limited, and the archive can help robots … In general, then everything is in this spirit. It is only important for us that the brave Major Fletcher stands on the path of robots. He is angry, drunk and ready to arrange a real tin genocide.
The plot is served only between levels in badly drawn comics, which you want (and this is possible) to miss immediately. Of course, if desired in the history of Major Fletcher, you can find both exciting turns and a lot of interesting references to cult works in the cyberpunk genre, but this desire will hardly arise. History spoils the presentation, and stupid dialogs finish it off. And at the levels themselves the plot does not manifest itself in any way, and events quickly disappear from the head. Do not try to start the Hard Reset Redux for the History.
► It is not entirely clear that Fletcher is more angry: the fact that the robots cut thousands of inhabitants, bursting into the city, or the need to work overtime due to iron.
Flesh and steel
But for the sake of speed, explosions and a pleasant metal clang, start boldly. The game leaves for the only element – shooting. You can shoot from impudent pieces of iron from a machine gun and a plasma gun, which seems to be the same machine gun, but slower.
This, in a certain way, is the arsenal of Fletcher and is limited. But, collecting containers with nanits at levels, you can get hold of special glasses and spend them on new modes for two available guns. A dozen such glasses, and now the machine gun is spectacularly transformed into a shotgun or RPG, and the plasma gun begins to fry robots with electric discharges.
It is important here that all weapons variations sound shocking and very convincingly felt. When a machine gun sends shells into battle, you literally feel all these steel nodes that tirelessly work under the metal body of the gun.
And how enemies react to hits! Robots show off everything around with spars, scatter metal plates, fall apart into parts, explode, touching each other. Add to this that most of the enemies of the enemies on the screen are dozens, or even hundreds. It is difficult to convey the sensations from their destruction in words, but a combination of sounds, special effects, recoils from weapons, frantic speed and the need to constantly move causes almost euphoria. At the best moments, the game is no worse than ASMR videos.
► levels are full of explosive elements. Wherever you are shooting, something will be caught fire, explode or begin to emit electric arcs.
But in a reprint, the developers came up with how to strengthen and supplement the effect. Between the Hard Reset itself and the Redux Flying Wild Hog version managed to restart the old shooter Shadow Warrior, And there they often had to shoot, but swing the katana. So, the developers allowed the experience gained in the case: from now on, you can feel like a Hard Reset samurai. Fletcher will find Cyberkatan as a lighting sword buzzing like a light. Well, in order for her to attach it to, stupid cybersiy cybersby was added to the army of opponents, rushing in crowds literally from each junk.
The mechanics of stabbing and sensations from her, quite expected, migrated from the same Shadow Warrior. And that's good. The blade is pleasantly buzzing and zombies cuts like a hot knife oil. It is convenient to control the trajectory of shocks, and the collision of the blade with the flesh is perfectly read. With a katana, you can get chased behind other robots, but it is no longer so easy to get a sword with a sword – it is clear that initially the behavior of enemies did not take into account the use of cold weapons by the player. However, as an additional weapon that allows you to quickly get rid of enemies that have been in the immediate vicinity, Katana is quite appropriate.
► too often and thoughtlessly swing the sword is still not recommended. The difficulty of the game is quite high, and the hero can trample very quickly.
But all pleasure is built precisely on the "tactile" sensations. The game is not trying to create interesting situations – you just encounter crowds of enemies on large arenas. How, however, in most similar shooters. But there is progress in this area: in the original, it was often necessary to fight off the army of robots in narrow corridors, where there was nowhere to turn around. In the updated version of such “entertainment” there are much less, the developers revised the location of enemies.
In general, in almost every element, a reprint is better than the original. The only exception is the graphics that unexpectedly. The picture in the updated version is worse than in the original five years ago. Many textures noticeably closed in Redux and some light effects disappeared. But the developers separately boasted the transfer of the game to the latest version of their company engine. However, a big tragedy still did not happen-the game looks good even with such a picture.
* * *
Hard Reset is not the game that someone will call your beloved. Remember a dozen years later you will hardly become it. But here and now she can give a lot of pleasure. She does not require much time and does not ask her to take her seriously.
Pleased
Sharped
- Perfectly sustained stylistics;
- directly shooting in is perfectly;
- Katana in Arsenal came to the place.
- bad presentation of history;
- The game once after time locks the hero in the arena with a crowd of robots, without inventing anything new;
- The picture looks worse than in the original five years ago.
How we played
What: A copy is provided by the publisher on the release day. On what: Xbox One How many: Ten hours to pass the campaign.
"Achivka" of the editorial office
From sin away
Destroy the entire electronics of the house so that the microwave cannot evolve.
About localization
Only the text has been translated. There are no complaints about the translation, but in the PC version of the original there was a good Russian-speaking voice acting and textures were also translated. There is no such reprint – on both platforms.
Site assessment
7.0
Fine
Verdict
If the new doom is already outward, but I still want something similar, then this is a good option. Clumsy places, but funny and kinesthetic enough to bring joy.