Shadowcat on 11/9/2011 at 09:33
Yeah, it's obviously not perfect; but at the same time it's doing a bunch of things really well. And it really is amazingly pretty. Look around. Look up! There are plenty of sights to take in.
Personally I tend to take John Walker's opinions with a pinch of salt. Did you try the demo? Try the demo! Then try it again with different upgrades.
mothra on 11/9/2011 at 09:35
those are all things that can be patched, the main reason I replayed the demo that often is what the game does best: EVERYTHING MUST EXPLODE (even yourself) so I preordered it. And fortunately I can play the game on ultra settings with no slowdowns. But I agree that the input/weapon switch delay is very annoying. It does not have the fluid movement of old school shooters. But oh yes, that game gets my blood pumping.
Sulphur on 11/9/2011 at 14:37
They got the shooting right all right. It's immensely satisfying to play, even with all the numerous electrical hotspots conveniently placed around everywhere for no logical reason except making things go spark *SPZZT* BOOM.
I see the poor checkpointing/lack of quicksave becoming a pretty large problem in the full game, though. That's probably the one thing from the RPS review that you don't have to take with a grain of salt. They'd better relook at the checkpoints or patch in a quicksave right quick. As it stands, rather gorgeous to look at and play through, though the design could wind up incredibly one-note by the end of the full game. I'll probably get it at some point later on in the next couple of months.
mothra on 14/9/2011 at 16:20
FULL GAME:
well, they certainly heard the criticism:
- better indication of weaponmodes on HUD
- a fast option for the animated menue
- much more checkpoints than in the demo, one particulary bossfight that was criticised in the press got 2 checkpoints between waves and b4 the endfight
- weaponswitch is a little quicker
BUT, during combat switching between modes or weapons still requires for the animation and a cooldown to stop so for me it is "lagging" but it seems intended.
On the other hand the weaponmodes get that powerful once you got a few unlocked I can see that a quickswitch/dial system would make you twitch-ueber-god, still, I am missing it from an "oldschool" shooter. All in all that game is sweet. Don't expect any story or exploring, usually it is just a very big map seperated into chunks you travel while seeing other parts of the map in the background, picking up upgrades or pushing a button along the way.
But now to what is REALLY important:
WEAPONS: it may be only two weapons but the different modes and alt-modes are really good for different situations, a blast to fire off and the gun itself looks really alive during transitions and shooting. The machinegun gets all glowy and hot, steam coming out of it and blurring the screen, the energy weapons spins up into a frenzy.
ENEMIES: you have exploding and damaging robots that swarm you (3 classes), shooting ones, grenadelauncher-dudes (heavy armored), "gorillas" from the demo that try to smash you into corners, that's it - so a little disappointing there (mind I did not finish the game yet but I am fairly far into it)
ENVIRONMENTS: the city backdrop is really amazing, the amount of detail put into it as well. you will be walking streets, scaffoldings 1000s of meters in the air, constructionsites of skyscrapers without any invisible walls so falling off/being pushed off can and will happen. jump between metro tracks while trains speed by casting shadows on the walls and making your screen shake. dozens and dozens of stuff to blow up !!!!!!
ENCOUNTERS: it is the old arena-style gameplay....get into an area, fight off waves either triggered by you arriving or doing certain things, then the doors open and you can proceed. the game usually drops a few mobs before and behind you, so moving around is a must. they mix it up with open-wide areas or cramp you into small spaces and drop a few gorillas in there :)
BOSSES: stun-lock and get rid off the mobs, then shoot the glowy stuff - what do you want from me ?
"Everything must explode"
Amen to that.
Update: finished it, steams says 6.3h, did not seek out all secrets and did not pickup/find all upgrades. it certainly is over soon with no "ending" at all, just a big bossfight that is exhausting but OK imo. they just throw everything they have at you between sniping the boss and dodging his EVIL LAZOR (no checkpoint this time, 3 tries)
mothra on 23/9/2011 at 00:39
shameless resurrect since Hard Reset got its 1.01 patch which addresses each and every gripe I had with the mobility and weapon switch times. Which makes it more awesome and puts it now in league with Painkiller and Doom.
Patch 1.01 changes:
Benchmark Mode - You can access the Benchmark mode in the 'Extras' menu.
Command line benchmark mode - Benchmark is also accessible from the Windows command line - in order to launch it enter hardreset.exe -benchmark.
Additional Mouse button bindings - You can bind the 4th and 5th mouse buttons.
All keys button bindings - you can now bind all the buttons on Numerical Keypad (except forn number 5).
Sprint (shortly) even while still recharging - Sprinting is now possible at any moment - you don't have to wait till the sprint bar fills up.
Sprint will now charge 20% faster than before.
Disable Weapon Cool-down period - Weapon cooldowns are disabled now. You can change weapon modes while the weapon is on cooldown.
Improved the time between switching between N.R.G. Weapon adn CLN Firearm.
Single Switch-Weapon Button - the F key will now switch between weapons.
Mid-game difficulty change - You are now able to switch difficulty midgame (the lowest difficulty ever chosen during the whole run determines the achievements unlocked)."
Disable sprint effects - You are now able to disable Motion Blur and Fov widening while in sprint. Tick the appropriate box in Game options menu.
In-game Score report - You are now able to check your Mission stats while in-game pressing the Tab key.
Disable logos - You are now able to disable starting logos in the Game options menu.
Small healthpacks now regenerate 20 HP instead of 30 HP.
Audio mode detection - The game will display the current system Audio Mode in Audio Options
Triple Buffering - Added in Video Options
MLAA antyaliasing was substituted with FXAA antyaliasing.
Various improvements with game geometry.
We introduced the changes you were writing that you want, hope you will have fun.
Stay tuned as we will have some more things coming.
Angel Dust on 23/9/2011 at 03:51
That's fantastic. While I had a lot of fun playing it, I had more than few issues with various design decisions they made but they've addressed pretty much all of them. Looks like I'll be firing it up tonight then.
henke on 16/3/2012 at 09:27
It's part of the latest (
http://www.indieroyale.com/) Indie Royale bundle, along with a bunch of other stuff that noone cares about. I'll probably be picking it up myself in a few days.
EvaUnit02 on 16/3/2012 at 10:06
Picked it up for 75% in the Steam Xmas sale, it's a good game, but not in the same league as Painkiller and NecroVision. I do plan on getting the Extended Edition expansion DLC, whenever that's released onto Steam.
Kolya on 17/3/2012 at 00:58
Just played through the demo. Such a great environment. And so little to do in it. :erg:
