Flying Wild Hog launched their so far PC-exclusive Hard Reset‘s improved version on consoles, but at what cost?

Hard Reset Redux appeared on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One aside from the PC re-release, but it turns out that the game looks worse than the original edition! The developers know about this issue – this is why they issued a statement about the two main differences in the graphics.

„1. Baked Ambient Occlusion (Hard Reset) has been changed to a Dynamic system (SSAO): One of the main undertakings that we made when developing Redux, was to upgrade the game to the new version of our in-house Roadhog game engine (RoadHog v2). The new Dynamic system is one of the changes that came with this move of engines, as our new engine no longer uses Baked Ambient Occlusion (none of the games we’ve released have used this post the original Hard Reset). The new Dynamic system used in Redux is an overall improvement, as it works on ALL OBJECTS instead of ONLY STATIC ones. This is an important change in a game like Redux, as it features a ton of dynamic objects with physics. So this new system works better to highlight more of the objects that players will be directly interacting with during their playtime (e.g. characters, barrels, terminals etc). Nothing has been removed from the game, as it just currently uses a different system which highlights more objects instead of a pre-determined selection.

“2. Textures and Post Process: As with the Occlusion system, we have changed the post-processing filters we used in the original Hard Reset. Redux does not use the same Image Sharpen Post Process which was used in the original H.R. This change was made to decrease aliasing, which cause flickering during camera motion. Because of this the game can at times look worse during static screens, but it looks better in motion. Hard Reset Redux is a game where players will constantly be moving and shooting; so this change was made to improve the overall visual experience that the game delivers during gameplay.”

Missing textures and particles are due to a bug in all three versions.

So to recap, the different engine means they had to use different effects. Still, how big is the difference between Hard Reset and its Redux version? See for yourself below. Still, did Flying Wild Hog caught the Ubisoft-virus because of the PS4 and X1?