Remnant Records
Remnant Records
Game
Game2023
Hardwar
Developer Jordan Freeman Group, The Software Refinery
Hardwar (sometimes stylized HardW[a]r or given the full name Hardwar: The Future Is Greedy) is a 1998 science fiction flight simulation computer game developed by The Software Refinery and published by Gremlin Interactive. In the US, the game was distributed by Interplay under license. The box artwork and styling for game was created by The Designers Republic, who also worked on the Wipeout series. The soundtrack… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
89 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Nov 3, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
93
LovedLoved
51 positive · 4 negative
95% range 83–97%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 51 | 4 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 15 | 0 | 19 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
52 of 56 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
94% recommend · 51 yes, 3 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 54 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (54 of 58 positive).
Longtime fans praise Hardwar as a unique and underrated space sim that has kept them coming back for over 20 years. [1][2][3] Players love the game's atmosphere, soundtrack, and freedom to trade, fight, and scavenge on Titan. [3][4][5] Some reviewers report technical issues with the Steam version, including crashes and broken graphics. [6][7]
Liked
Representative posts
- [6]
Hardwar is a great game that was ahead of its time. This version however, is unplayable. It already takes a fair bit of tweaking to prevent the game from crashing at launch, more to stop it from giving you nothing but a black screen with audio. Once you get past that, the textures are bugged to the point that the 3D visuals in game are completely unintelligible; lingering on the screen after being rendered, …
- [1]
I'm a long time veteran player who has owned and played this game for over twenty years, as I have the original 2-CD copy with both discs still intact, and compared to the other similar space sim shooters out there from the past to the present (even though this game doesn't actually take place in outer space), this still gets my vote as one of the best yet underrated space sim games ever made due to its uniqueness …
- [3]
Its been over 20 years since I last played this game and its still great. Flying around Titan listening to WarpFM is an experience everyone should have. Flight is fun, combat is fun and the cut-scenes are brilliant.
- [5]
Hardwar is a Sci-Fi Retro Flight simulation with cool music and atmosphere. You are a freelance "Moth" pilot trying to survive in the city of Misplaced Optimism on Titan. You can become a merchant, pirate, bounty hunter or scavenger. Gameplay: https://youtu.be/WkXpOSOD11s You will explore the world of the planet and visit various cities located inside craters connected by a network of tunnels. The colony fell into …
- [11]
It's kind of like a mix between Mount & Blade and Descent, but without knights or confusing world geometry. The game lets you conduct business and shoot down "moths" as they're called. You can attack criminals or rival faction members to collect bounties. Starting a repair shop is the easiest way to earn passive cash with the only requirement being of owning a building in a heavy traffic spot, but you can also …
Summarised from 34 of the 85 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
94% of the 54 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Hardwar. The complaint that keeps coming up: technical issues like crashes and broken graphics. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Ed Lomas of Computer and Video Games summarized: "Hardwar has a brilliant atmosphere, lots to do, and a great sense of freedom. Just make sure you can put up with the first few slow hours." Paul Presley of PC Zone said: "In many ways, Hardwar is half a game. Or to be precise, half of another, much larger game. If this were the engine driving the ground-based sections of something like, for want of a more recent example, Elite, then we'd probably be looking at the ultimate game here."
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 89 · most liked firstI'm a long time veteran player who has owned and played this game for over twenty years, as I have the original 2-CD copy with both discs still intact, and compared to the other similar space sim shooters out there from the past to the present (even though this game doesn't actually take place in outer space), this still gets my vote as one of the best yet underrated space sim games ever made due to its uniqueness as there was nothing else like it at the time. You play as a freelance pilot in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To the handful of Hardwar diehards, this is what you expect it to be: the game, pre-patched up to UIM 6. No surprises there. It's the same game I've been coming back to for 20+ years now. I've not yet found anything else that scratches the particular itch Hardwar does. If you haven't played or even heard of this game (which, frankly, is the vastly more likely option) Hardwar is a trading/fighting/scavenging sim set in an isolated colony occupying a handful of large craters on the moon Titan.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hardwar: The Future is Greedy is like an old sports car: it feels great to drive, the vibes are unmatched, but what's under the hood has become outdated in ways that can be extremely annoying if you don't have the patience to rewire things and do some troubleshooting. If somewhat obfuscated mechanics, spending up to 10 minutes to remap your controls and looking up guides in case you got lost are dealbreakers for you, I'm afraid you may have to sit this one out. If they're not, let me tell you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No review will do this game justice. An hardcore game from anno 1998.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its been over 20 years since I last played this game and its still great. Flying around Titan listening to WarpFM is an experience everyone should have. Flight is fun, combat is fun and the cut-scenes are brilliant.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fans of tiny massive machines going H.A.M. are in luck as Modiphius are joining the fray with a new ed. of Polish studio Strato Minis' 6mm scale mech wargame Hardwar fascinated by this, post Warhammer Legions Imperialis there was a few new sci-fi 6mm games announced/published but much as we're...
neutral · AI labelView post →Hardwar is a great game that was ahead of its time. This version however, is unplayable. It already takes a fair bit of tweaking to prevent the game from crashing at launch, more to stop it from giving you nothing but a black screen with audio. Once you get past that, the textures are bugged to the point that the 3D visuals in game are completely unintelligible; lingering on the screen after being rendered, displaying broken geometry, and flickering off and on with correct and incorrect maps.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Welcome to a broken moon, broken city, and a broken society. Misop is full of opportunities that many will miss, while learning the ropes. Far more hours than Steam will ever count has been spent in these craters.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Celestial Heavy Transport. 6mm sci-fi for Hardwar, forthcoming game from @modiphius.bsky.social . Also rather good for Horizon Wars: Midnight Dark, available now on n Wargame Vault! 😁
neutral · AI labelView post →Hot damn. The table Jeremy set up for our first game of HARDWAR looks amazing! 😲
positive · AI labelView post →Bah. I'd really hoped to have my African Federation HARDWAR miniatures in a more finished state for today's first game, but such is life. At least none of them are bare, gray plastic.
neutral · AI labelView post →Such good memories... I loved so much exploring this small yet rich mining city. Elite Dangerous on a small scale, but where you get to know each NPC pilots and behaviours. And the music from Warp Records was incredible.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Man. My poor African Federation Phalanx got absolutely SMOKED in today's HARDWAR Quickplay game. At one point towards the end I had a single element left on the table to Jeremy's four. Ouch.
neutral · AI labelView post →I've been avoiding playing Hardwar because I'm pretty sure if I ever did, I'd immediately want to make a game just like it.
positive · AI labelView post →Hardwar is a 1998 freeform trading combat flight sim from UK Developers the software refinery. Now thats the dry details and let me be as biased as possible with this game, this is not an impartial or neutral review this is written by a fan of the genre and has played most of the games in this genre minus the new Elite Dangerous. Hardwar is set on Titan, about a century or two after for some reason the backing corporation pulled out, sabotaged the mass drivers that sent and recived…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is worth more than its weight in all the IDM songs it ships with
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Driver; you are the wheel man, meets euro truck simulator, on the Saturn's moon Titan. You, trade, scavenge and fight your way to riches. 8 hours in and I've only just braved the first proper mission. I have spent some time in the multiplayer and with goodolgaming.com community. Fantastic game with an awesome soundtrack that I have turned off. Its Titan Moth Simulator, go take this scrap metal to Downtown Recycling. Tip: don't tab-out to change your podcast in an airlock, you are not a cat,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ooh. I've read the demo rules for the new HARDWAR miniatures game and they're pretty solid. www.kickstarter.com/projects/mod...
positive · AI labelView post →HardWar finally on steam!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Age of Empires, Quake, Starcraft, and Fallout are games from the late 90's that defined PC gaming. Hardwar absolutely deserves to be on that list, but for some reason, it never got the attention it was worthy of in its day. Now its back, and if you enjoy any games from the 90s, you need to give Harwar a chance. With compelling lore, a impressive dystopian atmosphere, futuristic dogfights, and a living economy that is effected by the players choices, this game deserves a second changes to make…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In the game Hardwar (1998) that I played as a teen there was this thing about people being poisoned by radioactive tampered meat, with the characters in the video clips looking more and more ill as the game progressed.
neutral · AI labelView post →One of the under-the-radar greats! I still hold on to my original copies on CD. No game has ever been quite the same for me and I've gone back to it repeatedly for over 20 years. I bought it on sight to support it and deeply hope to see a sequel or true remaster one day. This game is worth every penny if you want a true unique experience from the late 90's. The game does not disappoint and allows you to have complete freedom to do as you wish.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Another piece from @modiphius.bsky.social forthcoming sci-fi battles game, Hardwar: the Spartacus hardbot. Also rather good for Horizon Wars: Midnight Dark.
neutral · AI labelView post →6mm Hardwar Science Fiction Miniatures Game Funds in First Kickstarter Hours - @modiphius.bsky.social #Hardwar #Miniatures
neutral · AI labelView post →Desolate, murky and inhumane. There's just nothing like (Misplaced) Optimism.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a rare gem! I played this game for 100s of hours in the early 2000's and really happy it is brought back to life, truly :). It is kinda sandbox trade / fight / build game. See it as a far predecessor of the X3 / X4 games. The plot is nice but short, the game is more about enjoying the eerie foggy atmosphere and the surroundings. There are a couple different moths (planes running on solar powered batteries) and a couple weapons to slap onto them. This game stems from a time games…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hardwar is a Sci-Fi Retro Flight simulation with cool music and atmosphere. You are a freelance "Moth" pilot trying to survive in the city of Misplaced Optimism on Titan. You can become a merchant, pirate, bounty hunter or scavenger. Gameplay: https://youtu.be/WkXpOSOD11s You will explore the world of the planet and visit various cities located inside craters connected by a network of tunnels. The colony fell into decay, and the colonists lost the ability to travel in space after large…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →New f4mi video mentions Designers Republic and their work on Wipeout,,, got me thinking of the other game they contributed heavily to, the criminally underrated Hardwar
positive · AI labelView post →This game has got the hardest licensed soundtrack known to man holy ♥♥♥♥
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is one of the *best* all time space pirate fighter/trader games ever created of all time. I will argue that no single new game today even remotely compares to this one. All someone would have to do is remake this game with today's technology and you would be a millionaire. I absolutely do not understand why that hasn't been done yet. The replay ability of this game is unbelievable. Try this game. You absolutely will not be disappointed.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The old game I wish was still going is HardWar Imagine elites combat but in canyons and caverns of a sizeable moon.. Trading posts, missions & a bit of server cases pvp
positive · AI labelView post →This game was under sold and unknown by the gamers of the time. I was lucky enough to have a friend back then to tell me about how cool it was. It's a top ten for me and the replay-ability has proven worthy for all these years. One of the best games ever!! IMO.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have been playing this game off and on in some form since I purchased it back in 1998. It hasn't aged the best, bust I still recommend giving it a try!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hardwar Fab little game.
positive · AI labelView post →I was really looking forward to playing this again, but I can't get it to work. Crazy neon broken graphics followed by a game freeze. It's a shame, I loved the game back in the day.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As an old fan of this game, and owner of the original CD's, I'm glad to see Steam pick up this game and port it for use on modern Windows 10 or later pc machines. Optical drives are being phased out, the latest laptops no longer have a CD drive, and external CD drives are awkward to use with the original CD discs. Also, not having to switch CD's mid-game is another advantage of the Steam version of fhis game. Setting up the Display settings on the Steam version is annoying as i had found it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →On my god. FINALLY!! Guys if your reading this and have no idea what this game is, this is my childhood, got this game as a demo in like 1997-8 and LIVED IN THIS WORLD the fact that steam has this game FILLS me with a happyness no other game has matched, its made is 1997! and its still really good, yes the AI ships get buggy but its from 1997!!! if you love space ship shims this is for you! and the funny thing is its not even in space xD tip: rebind your controls as they are OG controls back…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hardwar PC Big Box release. Not a game that I ever knew about until maybe a year or so ago where I was made aware that it was a Designers Republic effort on the packaging/box art... And yeah it shows! No idea what the game is like, but the box sure is selling me on it!
neutral · AI labelView post →It's kind of like a mix between Mount & Blade and Descent, but without knights or confusing world geometry. The game lets you conduct business and shoot down "moths" as they're called. You can attack criminals or rival faction members to collect bounties. Starting a repair shop is the easiest way to earn passive cash with the only requirement being of owning a building in a heavy traffic spot, but you can also manufacture goods for sale. There's a plot and the main goal is to get out of Titan.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Favourite track of the day #22: "Blown" by LFO, from the album "Sheath". One of the lesser known but massively influential British electronic acts of the 90s, signed to Warp Records. Appeared on the Warp-produced soundtrack to "Hardwar", a classic early PC game #favetracks
neutral · AI labelView post →I cant believe I'm playing this on steam ! Way cool , I lost my disks years ago great game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You can still play it, there is a Steam release for Windows machines en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardwar...
neutral · AI labelView post →TRAPEZOID EDITION! I'm kinda loving how special editions are harking back to the era of incredible '90s PC gaming big box designs, it's very nostalgic. I'll pass on this one (though I'm looking forward to the remaster itself) but I'm not immune: I grabbed niche-Korlis-defining-game Hardwar recently
neutral · AI labelView post →Update: the artstyle just 👌 Oh Wow for an old HardWar fan. Also I suck at the game, took two tries to get past the intro thing 😅
positive · AI labelView post →Played this when it came back in the 90'. Was as good as I remembered it was. And this reminded me when you had no waypointers and you had to read / listen gameworld so you could advance in the game's story. Core Game mechanic is awesome and would like to have new games made as living as this one is. It's like EVE online on moon with AI. Recommended.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There just aren't enough words to describe how happy this game has always made me. I originally bought it for like $5 or $10 bucks at a grocery store back in the 2000's sometime. To have it re-released to work on current computers is a DREAM I've had ever since I could never get it running on windows 7 back in the day. I thought I'd never be able to play it again and was SO sad. Now... I can play again, and die happy :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I spent so many hours playing this as a kid. If you like Elite, and you dont mind playing a game from the early 90s with early 3D rendering, I strongly suggest you try this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Been making a new Faewave / Endless Chronicles game on the sly for a while. If you remember PC cult classic X Hardwar you'll be into it. Browser based. Cool soundtrack. Different game modes. Multiple career tracks in core game. It's called... Optimism.
neutral · AI labelView post →A game by the name of Hardwar did this fairly well. You have these solar powered hover ships like bladeless helis in Titan's low gravity about the size of a large car and they have these underslung cargo-pods, which are like backpacks that go underneath.
neutral · AI labelView post →Same but I'm getting this game Hardwar to work on Linux, lol.
neutral · AI labelView post →I ran a big solo game of Hardwar the 6mm mechs and tanks game with a full starter box per side www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0Sz...
neutral · AI labelView post →Modiphius (publisher of Star Trek Adventures, Fallout) Is getting into mech wargames with the Hardwar Miniatures game, which is funding on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/mod... Run several mechanized factions in conflict with each other. I was never a big mech nerd but the art's cool.
neutral · AI labelView post →Ah, I think I still have a copy of Hardwar tucked away somewhere, very neat game with some very cool iconography and aesthetics. I remember it didn't run very well on my first Win 95 PC and then didn't run at all on XP, so have never experienced it at its best.
positive · AI labelView post →This games dope AF, I love Narcotics
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of if not the finest style of this game I played the original way back itvwas brilliant then and is brilliant now
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My favorite game from a past life (when CD ROMs ruled). Great story line, interesting inbedded videos that are craftilly done; graphics were way ahead of its time. I've wanted to play this ever since it sort of disappeared 20 years ago. Thanks to whoever resurrected Hard War...where the future is greedy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →GREAT!! Retro game I bought this years ago and loved it, STILL love it. This version is actually an updated and modded version from the original, allowing you to install manufacturing equipment into your hanger, turning it into a business. The story gives you new items, and is pretty structured. But you don't have to play the story and the rest of the game is very free form. While its graphics aren't much these days I still highly recommend it. Oh BTW I also recommend using a joystick or…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →All I can say is well done to the production team who brought this to steam. I've still got the original boxed pc version. This was one of my favourite games from the 90's being a successor to Elite although you are restricted to the moon of Titan. It was probably one of the few sandbox type games at the time and it's up to you what role you want to play, legal or otherwise. It's fairly simple to play but hard to master as there are many options/roles. If you think you will enjoy Starfield…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →**Game crashes when trying to start a new world – unplayable!** I purchased Hardwar on Steam, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to play it at all. Every time I launch the game and select "New World", it asks me to select a saved game, which makes absolutely no sense when starting a new game. Shortly afterwards, the game simply closes without any error message. I've tried multiple times and attempted different solutions, but nothing has worked. It's extremely frustrating to purchase a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hardwar is new to me, seems cool! my 90s favs were MW2 and the Earthsiege games, Homeworld, Starcraft, DN3D, and Civilization II we had no consoles, so that entire side of the game landscape is alien to me, but i have done my research!
positive · AI labelView post →
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