In mere days, Flying Wild Hog’s gorgeous PC-exclusive cyberpunk shooter will be ready to party like it’s some vague, indeterminate part of the nineties. As someone who quite likes iron sights, doesn’t mind regenerating health and tries to avoid running backwards wherever possible, I had a few blasts through the demo to see if it could do its job and convert me into a paying customer.
The high-ranking private security type I’m controlling has been pulled away from the bar to investigate the first attack of what becomes an invasion by growling, sawblade-equipped death machines. In seconds, investigation becomes shooting. And it’s great – the default machine gun is ferociously loud, and even the most absorbent of bullet-sponge robots take hits with considerable force. Both that and the other gun, a lightning-spewing energy rifle, can be upgraded at certain terminals not just with token stat-boosts but with mods than morph them into completely different weapons. For this demo, most of the unlocks are, well, locked, but it’s still possible to turn the ‘NRG’ gun into a mine launcher (where the mines continuously lash out with glowing tendrils of electricity for several seconds) and the machine gun into a shotgun – a gloriously fun-to-use toy that absolutely shreds smaller foes. The main issue with turning two guns into six? The new modes aren’t nearly visually distinct enough from their parent weapons, so it’s not immediately apparent what you’ve just switched to without taking an eye off the murderous AI hordes to check the HUD. That’s no fun. Plus, the animations for mode switching aren’t quite as cool as they could be; a panel might shift and a barrel might extend, but ideally these things would be folding in and out of themselves in wildly different configurations like a confused Decepticon.
It helps that the things you’re shooting are genuinely menacing. The lowliest breed of bots attack in swarms of increasing size, leaping at close range to saw your face in half. The biggest, meanwhile, belie their broadness with rapid dash attacks combined with a ground-punching area-of-effect move, with a surprisingly wide splash radius. There’s not a huge variety of enemy types on show, but as a demonstration of Hard Reset’s approach to combat it works – fights are breathless one-on-six showdowns that test evasive manoeuvers just as much as aiming. None of it is particularly clever or original, but it’s certainly on the exciting side of frantic. Roughly five-sixths of the environment will explode once shot, and using these hazards to your advantage – it’s incredibly tough to battle large groups without them – adds some much-needed depth.
Amazingly, even with a screen full of robots, lightning and detonating cars, the demo looks and runs marvellously. From the harsh lights of translucent billboards to the cracked, rain-slicked streets, Hard Reset boasts a vision of the future that is at once oppressive and bright, broken and bleeding-edge. It’s lovely, even if there aren’t many chances to stop and admire it. Within the world are some nice little touches – hidden rooms behind destructible walls, holographic interfaces with are seamlessly interacted with in-game, and at least one cement mixer that, upon catching a stray bullet, grows a pair of robotic legs and flees. Speaking of destruction, it’s not simply aesthetics that benefit from Flying Wild Hog’s in-house tech. There’s a convincing heaviness to the way objects react to gunfire and explosions – larger stuff like walls and vehicles hurl debris through a thick cloud of smoke and dust, while items like tyres and cabinets are thrown back, landing with a clunky thud. The best fight scenes are utter maelstroms of sparks, bits of dead robot and the charred remains of anything in a fifteen-metre radius that wasn’t nailed down.
Now for the caveat. It’s a good little demo, but other than some new weapon and enemy types I’m not convinced the full game with provide an experience that meaningfully expands on it. Supposedly an antithesis to the pseudo-on-rails nature of linear modern shooters, there are a conspicuous abundance of corridors here, and not much other than shooting bad dudes or breaking down walls to do in them. To be fair, this was a tutorial section, and almost definitely not representative of the finished game as a whole. Still, hopefully Hard Reset’s old school ambitions won’t entirely preclude some new tricks, because even with a few nitpicky issues this demo has taken it from a curiosity to a great fat beeping blob on my radar.
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