For those who are interested, Vostyok has posted a post on the doomworld about why this episode seems a bit unfinished Here is part of the post: "Sadly what started as a collaboration kinda evaporated and i had to finish up what was available with the short amount of time given. Sadly it wasn't in the greatest of states on release so there is a lot of context missing. I'll be going over this when i get the time and hopefully clearing up some of the missing B-plot"

lol so the reason why Walker leave them behind is like "alright i've seen enough, f this im out" without telling them XD

This map definitely feel rushed, like it lacks something, maybe scripted event with more ghosts spawning in and You can not reach general and decide to run away. Or maybe general decide to stay with his soldiers and sacrifice himself to lock ghosts, stop them from spawning, I do not know. Some kind of feeling that every thing is wrong and staying there will not end good.

Overall I really liked Hard Reset, but I have to say the final level here felt a little bit off to me. There should have been more to do while in the bunker underground, and the boss fight feels a bit too easy as you demonstrated here. Still an amazing game though and I loved every second of it!

The ending of episode 1 in Duke Nukem 3d comes to mind.

He walked away because his name is Walker

kinda strange how walker just nopes out. Like why would he abandon the soldiers at that time out of the journey? Hard reset is totally playable and still extremely fun, but it's missing that polish to the lore that made 2063 and Afterglow a truly different experience. Also why isn't the yellow key door blocked by an invisible wall? It was for me and I had to noclip

I was expecting those eyes you see in Afterglow's spire level to appear (since that thing's implied to be the being who's been stalking Walker since his wife's death), which imo would be a much better reason for Walker to run away suddenly.

So you're Walker, the very same character you met in Ashes Afterglow in the Flooded District.

For people who commented why Walker bailed out, you do get attacked by 2 sentry guns AFTER you turn on the base generators. This leaves the possibilities of: 1) General Isaiahs Greys wants you SILENCED 2) Someone else had already occupied the control room and wants you OUT 3) The rogue AI Athena either intentionally/accidentally identifies you as a threat You can go to the stairs and even try both elevators to get down to reach Gen.Grey though the elevators refuse to take you there. Walker bailing out has the same notion with the players, he has NO IDEA what is going after the sentry gun malfunction.

Ngl the whole mod hell the entire universe of ashes makes me want even more now. Like I really wanna explore the world even further now, the weapons, the mutants, the gangs, characters it's all just absolutely amazing to me. Like I really wish there was more information on some things too like some of the Mutants, like where the hell do gas bags and empties come from.

Just finished it. Once again very good. Found a pagb 666 graffito :D

Playing through this left some... Strange impression (damn, I talk like the Walker now). Some parts feel odd compared to the previous games. Weapon order is screwed up: help screen still says that 4 is for automatic weapons, 5 - incendiary, 6 - explosices and 7 - rifles and 8 - super heavy. Guess what? Double barrel is an automatic weapon, modular rifle is an incendiary weapon, flamer moved to the 8 and grenade launcher to 9 - seems not a big trouble, but damn I missed weapon keys so many times, pulling out a wrong weapon and loosing health/dying. Journal became totally useless, just a detail, can't find any clues there and the maps aren't giving much help. Weapons are pretty interesting too: upgrading is interesting as you have to find an opportunity to do so, but I would still prefer the Afterglow variant of simply crafting the modification, it feels like you care about the weapons you use and have a choice. The police pistol stops being useful past the homestead, the HP rounds are interesting addition, but mostly useless: finished the game without firing a single round. The lever action IMO looses to the new hunter shotgun until Rigs upgrades it, then the hunter shotgun looses entirely. Speaking of the hunter shotgun - finally! Pristine barrels! At least the Walker sees sense in that). Modular rifle looks like the main feature of the game, but I never changed the configuration until I got an MG upgrade, so the feature feels completely unnecessary. The crossbow rocks. Crowbar also finally got the upgrade, waited for this since the very first game. Blaster now has an interesting charging mechanic and pierces enemies, making it the strongest weapon in the game. Thumper feels lacking, both in ammunition and in function. The school map is just filled with respawning Empties that turn onto you as soon as you pull the trigger once: you have to go with the crowbar for the most of the level. Withered are pain in the butt, as their radiation puke goes through walls, instantly giving you lethal poisoning you can do nothing about but load a save game as you are already dead. The homestead level is just hard to navigate. Outskirts are good, no problems I can remember. Cordon is one of the best levels, still it has a problem of alerting everyone once you use anything but the crossbow. And then, after reloading 10 times due to accidentally running into someone, you still have no option but to piss off the general by opening fire. Sommerville station is just a filler. Still, finding Peppino made me smile. The green line has the only problem of that the General says nothing after the mutant arena, feels odd. The Mall is confusing to navigate. Why the Hammer survives after the same amount of wrath as in the last level? At death's door feels very short, also I accidentally broke the elevator there. Also, hello to the respawning empties again. This time no-one even warns you about having to keep quiet.The Black Water is just a macguffin here, I see no reason why it is necessary to defeat Hammer. ChokaWorld is just a troll map: thin ledges, surprise pipebombs near the key and as landmines in the theatre, gladiators punching you outside, C4 that blinks like a pickup but it is actually a trap by Choka Tom. Michonne Circle is the best map story-wise, you meet younger Porcelain and learn that she used to be a waiteress, see how the tunnels change through the years. No access to THUNNNNDDERDOME(((( The city map is a good node to the city map in the first Ashes game. And the last one is a really rushed map, showing no reason why the Walker left New Guard to die down there: literally five minutes into the map you are left with nothing to do down there but to leave. The Hammer battle is pretty good, although the theme doesn't kick so hard as Mindwar did in Afterglow. Again, why did Walker need the Black Water to kill Hammer? The ending is good, we finally learn what happened at the Wall when Scav was at the dam. So... Hard reset is a strange thing in the series: so good, but, probably, unfinished. Leaves an impression of a Bethesda Fallout: you do this because you should and not because you have a reason. Tried to keep it short, but there are so many nuances to note)

Felt a bit rushed, will have to rewatch the original Ashes run to better understand the ending.

5:30 sniped

Huh. Having even watched all of the other episodes played through and listened to various lore videos, this ending did leave something to be desired. I can only presume this is because there is more to add in the next installment and they kept the meat thin on the bone here.

Oh... I think I would need to replay the original games to fully understand the ending... I assume the soldiers were killed by the mutant warlord who was the end boss in the original Ashes? I expected Walker to meet him/them too... Also, the apparition monsters have really spooky sound design. 👻

Its possible to enter the reactor core?

Didn't understand the ending, what a hell was that....

Started replaying Ashes after finishing HR. It funny that I felt no tension during the 2063 finale compared to HR when exploring the spire. Probably the fact that HR spire is completely quiet and it evokes that X-23 feeling from stalker. In general, I feel that HR has no real reason to exist. It provides no new real insights to the setting, other than the big titty mutant gf. There really was no need to see the events alluded to in 2063.

Overall game was kinda short? WTF is that ending. Previous games had so much more immersive and better endings with bunker bosses, nuke launches, so much wow. This is just MEH.

Man, what a rushed map, the devs felt they where done with this? Heck even i could make more then this and im not much of a coder.