Hard Reset

[Tyler]

Bad hud.

 

Was about to say the same thing...

 

Game looks interesting though.

[SRINI87]

Gamespot full interview

GameSpot: We understand that Hard Reset is a PC exclusive. Why make this choice? What do you think the game gains by being a PC exclusive?

 

Michal Szustak: For a new studio it's always easier to make a single-platform game, and we really wanted to create and use our own tech. Our engine was built with one thought--to be used in a first-person shooter that uses lots of physics and destruction, with outstanding graphics and also optimized to do the job well. There are many games published on PCs that are just ports from consoles, and we all know that today the power of a current-gen console is similar to a four- to five-year-old PC.

 

If you want to show some amazing graphics, it's better and easier to develop the game for PCs. Also, in the era of movie-like shooters almost "on rails," with player-environment interaction as limited as possible, we wanted to create a game for old-school PC players, raised on all those forgotten Dooms, Quakes, and Painkillers.

 

GS: With a release window of September 2011, there's not a lot of time between now and when your game comes out. How long has the game been in development? Why only reveal the game now?

 

MS: We started developing Hard Reset in April 2009, so now it's been more than two years. Why reveal so late? We believe that players don't like those two or three years of hyping, with lots of web site counters and teasing all the same assets. And after three years of waiting you finally get information saying the game will show up half a year later than promised! Then, after those six months, two more months of waiting! Personally, I really hate it. So we decided to show our game when it's ready. When it's literally done. No postponements. We want the players to trust us, and we will do our best to get them good games in the future.

 

 

 

GS: We understand that Flying Wild Hog actually consists of members from numerous other studios. Why form this new studio?

 

MS: I think most of our employees were tired of this corporate style of management implemented nowadays in all the "big" studios. We wanted to create a place with a flexible management system, sort of an old-school "garage" studio. For many years different people were trying to convince us that it's impossible to create a good game without all this fancy corporate structure, time sheets, almighty producers, etc. It's not true, and we will prove it. We are trying to create a place without everlasting, constant crunches--a place where every member of our team can and should add something to our projects, without the limit of a glass ceiling.

 

GS: What can you tell us about the story of Hard Reset? We understand it's set in a cyberpunk future reminiscent of movies such as Blade Runner.

 

MS: Yes, Blade Runner is one of our major inspirations, but of course not the only one. The thing that I really like in cyberpunk is that most of the protagonists aren't meant to save the entire world; they are just trying to survive in a world dominated by powerful forces such as corporations or authoritarian regimes. And our background story is just like that--you are not supposed to save the world or humanity; you just want to discover what's really going on and survive. So we have our hero, Major Fletcher, who is a "proud" soldier of the Corporation, and after a regular mission he discovers that he is unable to distinguish a friend from a foe and the other way around. It's a typical story, but adding to this, Fletcher is hiding his mental disorder--some pretty surprising stuff can happen!

 

GS: What type of game is Hard Reset? Is it more of an open-world shooter like the Far Cry series, or something more linear, such as the Modern Warfare games?

 

MS: Hard Reset is definitely not an open-world shooter like Far Cry, but it's also not a shooter on rails, the kind that Modern Warfare is. It's rather similar to old-school shooters like Doom, where you had to search the level to get a key card, and where you will find secrets--sometimes really challenging ones.

 

 

GS: We couldn't help but notice that the main character wears a spiffy eye patch in the teaser trailer. How will this device be used?

 

 

MS: This eye is a part of our thrilling cyberpunk setting, but it is also used in some weapon modes--I don't want to spill too many beans for now, but you will be able to unlock some fancy weapon add-ons that make use of Fletcher's implant.

 

GS: On the topic of gameplay, what more can you reveal about the interface featured in a few of the screenshots you've released? What do the different bars and icons refer to?

 

MS: As you know, we don't have regenerating health, so one of the bars is used to display health. We also have a shield meter, stamina for sprint, energy/ammunition for weapons, and, of course, the N.A.N.O. bar. N.A.N.O. is the currency that you will gather to buy new weapons and upgrades.

GS: Given that Hard Reset will be a PC exclusive, how hard will it push modern computers? Will PC gamers need a space-age computer in order to run it, or will the performance be fairly scalable?

 

MS: We will announce official hardware requirements soon, but I'm sure you will be surprised. We've got some really good engine programmers, and I can promise you that even a five-year-old PC will be sufficient to play Hard Reset. But if you own a pimped-up gaming rig, the experience will be much more intense.

GS: What were some of your sources of inspiration for Hard Reset, either for the story or gameplay?

 

MS: A lone hero lost in a dark, futuristic city--I could list many cyberpunk books or movies utilizing this motive. William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Philip K. ****--we love them all. Regarding the gameplay, we wanted to create a game where you eliminate hordes of enemies, using not only interesting weapons, but the environment as well. There are many destructible objects in the game, such as cars or explosive barrels that you can blow up, dealing damage to your enemies, and we also have a spectacular electricity system; for example, destroying a cash machine will electrocute all nearby enemies. So the main inspiration were games with such a gameplay style--again, Doom, Painkiller, or Serious Sam--but I must say that Hard Reset came out pretty unique since there are loads of destructibles that you can use to your advantage.

 

GS: What can you tell us about the game's multiplayer?

 

MS: There is none! Seriously, you can gather achievements and level scores and compare them to your friends--that's all. Why? Because nowadays there are just too many games focused only on multiplayer. We had to choose whether we wanted to put all our efforts into creating the best single-player experience or add a multiplayer mode just to fill the check box and still get it done worse than in other games focused on multiplayer modes.

 

GS: Are there any other points you'd like to highlight about Hard Reset?

 

 

 

MS: If you're tired of all the boring shooters on rails where all the encounters are heavily scripted and you can't even move too much, Hard Reset is for you. Hard Reset gives you the opportunity to eliminate hordes of enemies each time in a different way, so maybe you'll want to play again and again just to see how you can use our gravity mines in different ways or why an electric grenade and stasis field are such a great combo. And you want to beat the game at least twice, since finishing Hard Reset once is not enough to check out all the cool weapons and upgrades.

 

GS: Thank you for your time.

[SRINI87]

First preview

 

Hard reset preview- beefjack

[Tyler]

Philip K. ****

 

[Aftrunner]

 

PG13 IVG FTL.

[SRINI87]

Gamespot preview

 

Hard Reset is a deceptive game. On the surface, this PC first-person shooter from upstart developer Flying Wild Hog feels pretty simple. There's no reload button, there's no crouch button, and there's no magical duffel bag full of grenades, flash bangs, or other tactical items you need to memorize a dozen hotkeys in order to use. You just sort of run and gun like it's 1995 all over again. At least that's how it goes for the first few minutes. Then you stumble upon an upgrade terminal and suddenly that whole business about Hard Reset being a simple shooter gets thrown right on out the window.

 

Hard Reset is a sci-fi shooter through and through. The story is pure cyberpunk noir, a tale about a guy named Fletcher who works for a massively powerful corporation that he discovers a few none-too-pleasant secrets about. The world instantly recalls images of Blade Runner with its rainy nighttime cityscapes and bright neon signage, and it feels as though most of the residents that populate this place are murderous robots instead of actual living people.

 

Those futuristic sensibilities take on a large role in the gameplay, specifically in regard to those aforementioned upgrade terminals. While you start the game with only two weapons--one that fires regular bullets and one that fires plasma blasts--you routinely collect bits of glowing orange currency called N.A.N.O. that you can use to upgrade either of these two guns--or yourself!--to high heaven. So while you start the game with two very basic weapons, you soon unlock the ability to upgrade either gun to the point where it can use five different firing modes, each with three upgrade slots. The same goes for upgrading your own combat gear, granting you a total of 45 different upgrade slots to mix and match for your preferred play style

 

Want to take that plasma rifle and make it so that it can also fire a crippling lightning grenade that slows down any enemy in its path? Go ahead. Want to upgrade that assault rifle so that it can instantly morph into a double-barreled combat shotgun? Feel free! But maybe consider further upgrading that firing mode so you can shoot EMP buckshot and reduce the reload times while you're at it. And then think about upgrading your own gear to enhance your weapons shield, add a tactical visor, and a pre-death "enhanced perception mode" that grants you an upper hand when you're really on the ropes. Oh, and did we mention the gun that shoots through walls? Yeah. There's a lot you can do with those upgrade terminals.

 

None of this means Hard Reset is any less the run-and-gun shooter that it starts out as. It's still a fast-paced game where enemies come at you hard and fast and you can sprint around like an Olympic athlete. But as you're running around, you'll be constantly flicking the mousewheel to switch firing modes, with the onscreen gun stylishly morphing on the fly into something altogether different. The little grunt robots that look like Wall-E, if Wall-E had a radial saw attached to his torso, can be taken out with a single shotgun blast, but you soon encounter big charging robots that you need to maintain plenty of distance from, at which point ranged rocket attacks become more handy. And these encounters tend to mix up enemy types, so you'll need to respond by flipping around firing modes rather frequently.

 

For the most part, we really enjoyed Hard Reset's brand of frantic shooter action. The weapons are ludicrously extravagant in the best way possible, and there's a genuinely intimidating level of challenge on normal difficulty. But the level design doesn't always harmonize with the weapon and enemy design. At one point we had to take on a group of those heavy charging bots on a narrow street filled with demolished cars and other litter. The amount of physics-enabled debris is impressive from a technical perspective, but not so much when you're trying to sprint away from an enemy hell-bent on pancaking you, and suddenly that garbage can that tumbled into the road stops you mid-sprint. And the narrowness of the street wasn't much help, either, making strafing side to side a nearly useless tactic. But fortunately, this sort of thing was more the exception than the rule, with other levels offering more space to play cat and mouse with your robo-foes

 

From the moody cyberpunk atmosphere to the final boss encounter against a skyscraper-size cyborg, we liked what we played of Hard Reset. It's a throwback game that seems to know exactly what made '90s-era PC shooters fun, and while it stumbles here and there, we had a good bit of fun with it. Hard Reset doesn't appear to be the second coming of the single-player PC shooter, but it still does a fine job of reminding you why the best part of the future will be blasting killer robots into bits of scrap metal. Expect to see this PC-only title released next month.

 

src:Gamespot

 

looking good..

 

weapon ugrade system looks very good

[SRINI87]

 

 

[somu]

These look AWESOME.

[spindoctor]

reminds me of the artstyle of singularity.

[SRINI87]

Hard Reset is a Sexy Cyberpunk Shooter That Took Me By Surprise

 

It's okay if you've never heard of Hard Reset, the new single-player cyberpunk first-person shooter coming next month from Polish developer Flying Wild Hog. Up until a couple of weeks ago, no one had. It happens. It just doesn't happen often with a game this good being released this soon.

 

Evolve PR is calling Hard Reset a study in shortened public relations campaigns. Rather than present the gaming public with the game and then spend a year or two trickling out videos and screenshots, Hard Reset is being promoted over the course of three months, beginning with a single screenshot, a teaser trailer, and then a gameplay trailer. The game was first announced on July 13. It's coming out next month on the PC.

 

You can understand how this can be confusing for today's game journalists, so used to learning about new titles at least a year in advance. I wouldn't have expected the first trailer to be out by now, let alone a playable preview build.

 

And yet here we are.

 

Bezoar City stands as the last bastion of humanity in the grim future of 2436. The dirty streets reek of the loss of hope, littered with refuse, decorated with fading graffiti, and dotted with scraped and dented hovercars that hint at bright and shining 50's-era futurism beneath their rusted exteriors. Neon glows amidst the decay, advertising products and services that once mattered. Now only survival matters.

 

Continue Reading @ Kotaku

 

so far so good ..

[Tyler]

RPS has mentioned a few niggling issues with the gameplay. Hope they're fixed before launch.

[SRINI87]

Yep

 

and some complaining abt " no quicksave"

[Tyler]

Yeah quicksaves are a must if they're going for the "old school FPS" approach.

[dante77]

I am pretty sure they'll have quick saves its PC exclusive game after all. Weapon upgrade system

[Tyler]

Check they RPS preview. They say there are no quicksaves, only checkpoint saves which too are unfairly placed.

[Big Boss]

No quicksave in an old school fps= FAIL

[spindoctor]

for the past 2 years, all the publishers have understood that you don't necessarily have to release games in september-november for good sales and pushing them back to Q1 of the next year works just as well. as a result, gamers have had a steady flow of good games for the 6 months between september and march.

 

it seems to me that this year, they have all forgotten those lessons. so many releases bunched up together that there isn't a single game which won't suffer in sales. what chance does this unknown indie game have when it goes up against all the heavyweights that will be releasing september onwards?

 

these guys should have learned something from that new cyberpunk game EYE that released on steam a week or two ago. it's broadly the same kind of game, an eastern european pc exclusive shooter and it has been in the top 5 games sold on steam ever since it released. the game is supposed to be good, but it needs some patches and polish. but the main thing that is driving their sales is that they picked their release window perfectly, because these are the 3-5 weeks where there are no major releases so people are willing to try out new stuff.

[Tyler]

I agree. I probably wouldn't have bought E.Y.E. if it had released in the same window as the heavy hitters.

 

Although I must say this looks like a much more polished effort and it's coming from folks with experience in the industry. E.Y.E. is made by a team of 10.

[SRINI87]

PC Shooter Hard Reset 'Too Heavy To Run On Five-Year-Old Consoles' - Dev

 

Hard Rest is an old-school cyberpunk PC shooter, which generates some impressive visuals thanks to Fying Wild Hog's brand new engine - but you won't be seeing a console port down the line.

 

"It's a PC exclusive," co-founder and programmer Klaudiusz Zych told NowGamer. "The content is just too heavy to run on 5-year-old hardware in consoles."

 

Hard Reset was only announced last month, but is so far along in development that it's due to launch in September - and the short promotional window has helped indie studio Flying Wild Hog to do what it does best"

 

"We could focus on making a game and polishing it," said Zych of such a late reveal. "We are a small indie studio, so we wouldn't have the resources to hype our game for a year or more."

 

The developer also confired that Hard Rest is single-player only and will feature "about 8-10 hours of gameplay for a first playthrough."

 

Pricing, publisher and a specific release date have yet to be confirmed.

 

src:nowgamer

 

:scratchchin:

[Tyler]

Translation: "we will wait to see how it does on the PC and if it is a hit we'll start working on a console port."