Hard Reset Redux Review

<p>I love cyberpunk narratives&period; Maybe it&&num;8217&semi;s just a general acceptance that our robot overlords will eventually take control and suppress human life&comma; or maybe it&&num;8217&semi;s just cool to see someone plug a wire into their head&period; Regardless&comma; <em>Hard Reset Redux <&sol;em>presents that dystopian future I like so much&comma; but in perhaps the blandest way possible&period; Lacking creativity in even its plot&comma; <em>Hard Reset <&sol;em>wanders through the same settings for far too long and only ever gets exciting when it throws a new weapon your way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The cyberpunk story that this game tries to tell is one of AI rising up and taking control of a city &&num;8211&semi; Bezoar&period; Machines are taking over the city and it is up to Major Fletcher to stop them from overtaking Bezoar&period; However&comma; not everything is as it seems and there may be more for Fletcher to worry about than he initially thought&period; The unfortunate thing is&comma; you play as a sheep&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t mean a literal sheep&comma; but a guy who just follows orders and his only defining trait is that he likes to swear and drink &lpar;two things which never really have any impact on anything&rpar;&period; He is cannon fodder&comma; dressed up as an action hero&period; The game tries to briefly explore this fact&comma; but only scratches the surface by having him realize that there is more than he&&num;8217&semi;s being told&period; It never really goes beyond that&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;109379" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-109379" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-109379" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03133026&sol;009&lowbar;HR&lowbar;scr&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Hard Reset Redux" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-109379" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Hard Reset Redux&comma;<&sol;em> Flying Wild Hog&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>You cannot do this in an action game&period; Not unless there is a payoff&period; This is such a huge issue for <em>Hard Reset Redux <&sol;em>because it is never able to transcend its by-the-numbers story or bland environments&period; There is a lot that can be destroyed in environments but that&&num;8217&semi;s because it feels like they never changed the template and just kept making the same areas with the same destructible pieces&period; Eventually you discover some other areas that tie well into the game&&num;8217&semi;s narrative of humanity&&num;8217&semi;s fight&comma; but they fail to be interesting since most of the enemies are the exact same&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even the puzzles that are in the game all follow the exact same approach&comma; causing them to be uninteresting&period; Is a door locked and you can&&num;8217&semi;t use the keypad&quest; Just follow the bright&comma; pulsating wire that leads to something for you to blow up or turn on&sol;off&period; This puzzle is basically the only puzzle in the game&comma; leaving <em>Hard Reset Redux <&sol;em>with an issue of repetition and uninspired design throughout&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I will say that there is a difficulty to the fights&comma; though&period; Battles consist of moving around a lot and constantly switching weapons to decimate the machines&period; There are a decent amount of things to select&comma; and I didn&&num;8217&semi;t even unlock everything in my first playthrough&period; One of the additions to <em>Redux <&sol;em>is a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;minikatana&period;com&sol;collections&sol;katana-sword">forged katana<&sol;a> that I did use on occasion&comma; but found getting up close to enemies was almost always a bad idea&period; I spent most of my time switching between a rocket launcher&comma; shotgun&comma; and mortar&period; These were far more effective when going against large bosses&comma; and sometimes they would require you to use specific weapons in order to get an advantage&period; The scale of the bosses is something to marvel at&comma; but they are very few and far between&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;109382" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-109382" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-109382" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03132946&sol;013&lowbar;HR&lowbar;scr&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Hard Reset Redux" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-109382" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Hard Reset Redux<&sol;em>&comma; Flying Wild Hog&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The interesting thing is how the game makes players use multiple types of weapons&period; Weapons will share ammo with other weapons because there are only two types of ammo available&period; For example&comma; the secondary fire on a shotgun might take up more ammo than the regular discharge of a shotgun blast&comma; but a rocket will almost always use more ammo&period; If you run out of traditional weaponry&comma; there are the energy-based weapons like the plasma gun and mortar that also share an ammo type&comma; but different from the more shell and bullet-oriented weapons&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll find yourself picking up ammo at a rapid pace&comma; but there will be some fights where it requires using more than just one type of gun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The benefit of using multiple weapons and switching between them at a more frequent pace is that the destruction goes off the rails&period; If it can blow up&comma; it will&period; Those destructible environments mentioned earlier become huge contributions to the spectacle of <em>Hard Reset Redux<&sol;em>&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just unfortunate that the game&&num;8217&semi;s framerate dips on a regular basis when a lot of things are happening at once&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not that bad&comma; but when the game is running at a really smooth framerate and then starts dipping&comma; you notice it&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s also the issue of the game simply stopping completely when loading into a new area&period; It might be the same chapter&comma; but there are issues where you can tell the game has segmented itself&period; I only found this disappointing because the game can sometimes have a nice pacing to it that abruptly ends&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;109378" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-109378" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-109378" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03133046&sol;003&lowbar;HR&lowbar;scr&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Hard Reset Redux" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-109378" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Hard Reset Redux<&sol;em>&comma; Flying Wild Hog&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s hard for me to recommend <em>Hard Reset Redux <&sol;em>when there are many shooters on the market that do what it does&comma; but far better&period; It feels like you&&num;8217&semi;re playing <em>Doom <&sol;em>or <em>Serious Sam <&sol;em>at times&comma; but with a cyberpunk aesthetic&period; That sounds neat&comma; but the game&&num;8217&semi;s aesthetic wears thin very quickly&comma; leaving you with a pretty bland gameplay experience that rarely feels anywhere near as exciting as its story suggests&period; This is a very boring title that only barely manages to attain any fun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PS4 review copy of Hard Reset Redux was provided by Flying Wild Hog for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;