Hard Reset Extended Edition Review Summary

Impressive visuals and an immersive cyberpunk atmosphere plus enjoyable weapon upgrades are undermined by limited enemy variety, a short campaign, and a predictable story.

Impressive graphics and visuals: Many reviewers praise the game's graphics as amazing, beautiful, and detailed, with some noting they still hold up well despite the game's age. The visuals are consistently described as gorgeous and technically impressive.

Immersive cyberpunk atmosphere: The game excels at creating a dense, dark cyberpunk atmosphere with detailed environments and a compelling setting. The neon-lit cityscapes and grim tone are consistently commended.

Enjoyable weapon upgrade system: The weapon upgrade system is frequently highlighted as a strong feature, providing incentive to explore, experiment, and progress. Upgrades add depth and flexibility, keeping the gameplay from becoming boring.

Varied and fun weapons: Reviewers enjoy the variety of weapons, noting they are unique, punchy, and fun to use. The dual weapon system with multiple firing modes and upgrades adds significant variety.

Epic and challenging boss fights: Boss fights are described as epic, massive, and satisfying, with challenging encounters that leave a strong impression. The scale and difficulty of the bosses are frequently praised.

Limited enemy variety: The game has very few enemy types, leading to repetitive and monotonous combat encounters with little visual or behavioral diversity.

Short campaign length: The campaign is relatively short, typically taking only 3-6 hours to complete, which players find too brief.

Uninteresting and predictable story: Reviewers find the story unengaging, banal, and predictable, often losing interest in following it.

Confusing and underdeveloped story: Players frequently find the story confusing, poorly explained, and difficult to follow, with many noting it is a mess or incomprehensible.

Minimal or non-existent storyline: Many reviewers state the game lacks a substantial plot, with almost no story or backstory, and the narrative is extremely weak or non-existent.

Fast-paced first-person shooter: The game is a fast-paced FPS with arcade-style run-and-gun action and linear levels.

Dual weapon upgrade system: Players wield two base weapons, ballistic and energy, which can be upgraded and transformed into various forms like shotgun or railgun.

Weapons have multiple fire modes: Each weapon features several switchable fire modes, such as shotgun, rocket launcher, and energy blasts.

Old-school shooter style: The game evokes classic Doom or Quake with fast movement, dodging, and straightforward shooting.

Shoot hordes of robots: Combat focuses on shooting robot enemies with distinct attack patterns in arena-style encounters.

Excellent overall performance and optimization: Players widely report the game runs smoothly, is well-optimized, and performs lightly on a variety of hardware. Many highlight stable framerates and fluid graphics.

Crashes and stability issues: Several reports mention crashes, including consistent crashes at specific points, after restarting, during chapter reloads, or after defeating many bosses. DLC is also noted to cause CTD and affect stability.

Occasional FPS drops and stutters: Some players experience framerate drops during intense battles, near fireplaces with many particles, or due to general lack of optimization. Minor stutters are also reported on weaker PCs.

Runs well on low-end hardware: Users confirm the game works on older or weaker systems, such as a 10-year-old PC, low-spec APUs, or even a kettle, with playable framerates. This indicates broad hardware compatibility.

Level loading and graphical glitches: Players encounter issues such as levels not loading, decor disappearing, minor graphics glitches at level starts, and flickering. These are often resolved by restarting the game.

Appeals to old-school FPS fans: Many reviewers recommend the game specifically to fans of classic shooters like Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein. This is the most frequent target audience mentioned.

Buy only on sale: A recurring theme is that the game is worth picking up at a discount but not at full price. Several reviewers explicitly advise waiting for a sale.

Play on higher difficulty: Multiple reviewers suggest playing on maximum or at least medium difficulty for a more engaging experience. Some note that the highest difficulty is only for skilled players.

Straightforward run-and-gun shooter: The game is praised for its simple, action-focused gameplay where you just shoot and blow things up. It is recommended for short, casual sessions of mindless fun.

Fans of Painkiller and Serious Sam: Reviewers repeatedly compare the game to Painkiller and Serious Sam and recommend it to their fans. These titles are the most common points of reference.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $10.00.

Game completion: 8.0h.

Story completion: 5.0h.

Session length: 1.0h.

Endgame: 10.0h.

Players often find the core shooting immediately satisfying, but many report the game becomes shallow and repetitive by the third level or after the first hour. Enjoyment then depends heavily on tolerance for old-school arena combat and repetition.

Friction: repetitive first half; shallow and repetitive combat by the third level; bullet-spongy enemies and weak impact cues; slow health recharge during fights; tedious weapon switching; no crouch and no flashlight.

Old-School FPS Veteran: Strafes and dodges through linear arenas, swaps weapon modes, uses explosive scenery, and manages health and ammo pickups. Motivation: To recapture the feel of classic skill-based shooters with modern graphics and no modern cover or regeneration systems. Stance: buy.

Hardcore Challenge Seeker: Plays Hard, Insane, or Heroic, accepts checkpoint restarts, dodges dense enemy swarms, and uses hazards tactically. Motivation: To master punishing combat and prove skill on the highest difficulties. Stance: buy.

Achievement Hunter: Replays the campaign on multiple difficulties, hunts secrets and environmental kills, and chases full completion. Motivation: To complete achievement lists and collect difficulty-tier rewards. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The reviewed feedback shows the game generally runs well on Steam Deck and through Proton, with several users reporting smooth performance at maximum settings. The main friction points are aiming and controller comfort on Deck, offline achievements not unlocking, missing cloud saves, and some Linux setup variance. No evidence of external launchers, unreadable UI, battery drain, anti-cheat errors, or widespread crashes was found.

Linux and Proton: Linux and Proton feedback is predominantly positive: users report the game running perfectly, smoothly, and out of the box with default Proton, Proton 7.0-1, and latest Proton. One review mentions standard Steam Play beta enablement and an older Proton beta, which is setup context rather than a blocker. A single mixed Linux report concerns the Redux build, but the broader consensus remains strongly positive.

Monetization: The reviews describe a short, low-priced FPS whose additional DLC is free or included with the base purchase. They contain no credible evidence of real-money paid randomized pulls, loot boxes, pay-to-win sales, convenience monetization, confusing currencies, or aggressive limited-time pressure.

External guides: The feedback shows a wiki and guide dependency driven mainly by opaque combat and module mechanics and an unclear story, with secondary complaints about level visibility and navigation. No farming, drop-rate, loot-table, inventory, crafting, or blueprint evidence triggers a higher-tier classification. Under the strict priority, the presence of instructional-data complaints makes this Tier 3: The Student.

Compared to classic shooters: Reviews frequently compare the game to Serious Sam, Painkiller, Quake, Doom, and other old-school shooters. It is seen as a throwback to the style of these titles.

Short game length: Many reviewers note that the game is relatively short, with playtimes ranging from about 4 to 8 hours. The base campaign is often completed in around 5-6 hours.

Developed by Flying Wild Hog: The game is developed by Flying Wild Hog, an independent studio composed of industry veterans. Reviewers often mention the team's background, including work on Painkiller and The Witcher.

Includes Exile DLC: The Enhanced Edition includes the Exile DLC, which adds new levels and boss battles. This expansion extends the game's length and content.

Russian localization available: The game offers full Russian localization, including voice acting and interface text. This is appreciated by Russian-speaking players.