Hard Reset is not a game that was built with all latest modern gameplay advances in mind. There's no cover, there's no regenerating health, there isn't even any reloading. What will greet you is frenetic combat, hordes of robotic enemies, backpedaling, and lots and lots of gunfire.

Taking place in the future city of Bezoar, the game revolves around you, a soldier of the monolithic Corporation, who is tasked with defending the city from robot hordes that wish ill will towards it. The setting, heavily inspired by such cyberpunk works as Bladerunner, is a marvel to behold, with a great amount of detail placed into the environment and backgrounds. Looking up, and seeing layers of massive streets, flying cars, and distant towers is just as impressive as walking up to a holographic ad that revolves around you, promising you immortality for a fair price. The game nails the setting, despite the story being secondary to the action.

And action is definitely the name of the game, here. Small bands of robots, ranging from little knee-high spheres with attached whirring blades, to lumbering ape-like automatons all stalk the streets, appearing from destroyed walls, from behind corners, and even in storage containers, trying to kill you. They're relentless, even when you shoot pieces and limbs off of them.

The weapons you're given start out as a traditional machine gun and a rapid-fire nergy weapon. By collecting something called Nano, you can get upgrade points to spend on your weapons, or yourself. This can power up the weapons you have, or add new weapons, such as a grenade launcher or arcing electricity gun. You can also upgrade your own abilities, making it easier to find Nano, spot enemies, take damage, or get more ammo, to name a few. It's a simple enough system, though the idea of having to spend these precious, irrecoverable points on weapons that may or may not be useful (some of them are not, that much is for sure) seems just a little unfair.

The environment also offers numerous opportunities to take down your foes, as scattered about the city are a number of large electrical devices and bright-red barrels. Shoot these, and you can see the robots around you crumple like so much scap metal covered in electrical impulses, or simply blown to bits.

Hard Reset isn't what I'd call a complex game. The story is minimal, the gunfire is often, and the enemies are numerous. It has some good pacing, allowing you to take a breather and look for Nano after decimating a small horde of foes, but for the most part, you'll be emptying clips of ammo into the robotic menace. If there was a significant problem with the game, I'd have to attribute it to the checkpoint system of the game. Though it does lend a sense of urgency to your life when you know you can't quicksave after defeating every opponent, the checkpoints tend to feel too spaced out, with far too many opportunities to die between them. This can make some stretches of the gameplay frustrating, as you might be seeing them over and over again.

Still, the game is good for what it is: a simple, straighforward shooter in a cyberpunk setting with minimal frills. If you're looking for something different in the dearth of cover shooters that litter the market, and just want to shoot some dang 'bots, then look no further for your fix.