HROT

Oozes atmosphere with a keen sense of horror, and a charming sense of humor. HROT is one of the rare few games with a very strong sense of personality. There's lots to interact with which is great, and what really kept me playing was the fact that I had no idea what was coming next. This is thanks in large part to how well the levels are designed--fundamentally great--and how many little details there are. You'll never get lost despite the maps feeling labyrinthian which is deserving of praise. There are lots of secrets per level, including some secret levels, which I'm not quite good at finding myself... but they're still fun to seek out. I found myself returning to places I've already been just to make sure I didn't miss any tiny detail that would lead to a secret. The soundtrack is pretty ambient, though it knows when to kick in and drive the emotions home. I found myself getting quite creeped out thanks in large part to the soundtrack. There's a few good scares, but I don't think they would've worked nearly as well without the soundtrack keeping the unsettling atmosphere at a palpable level. Pair that with the great sound design, and you'll find yourself looking over your shoulder as you navigate through some rusty, bleak hallways. I really want to give praise to the little details in each level. Some levels have one-off interactable gags, and there's even a little minigame you can find just by looking around. HROT is a really interesting and unique shooter. The game's definitely charming, and I'd even say it has some quirky bits, which I mean in the best way possible. There's still a lot of secrets I have to discover, but I spent a good 4.5 hours on this game and enjoyed every single minute. I'd say this is worth a purchase even at full price, especially if you're the type of player that loves exploring levels and finding secrets. Oh, and I just have to say, love the Wolfenstein 3D and Robocop references.

I was struggling between a rating of 3 and 4 stars, honestly. The atmosphere is wet and gritty, with good ambient sounds and background music. The graphics old-school, but fitting with some interesting hostile mobs. There are secrets to find and the environments are somewhat interactive. The gameplay and level design is mediocre though, there are other old-school-shooters out there, that do a better job in that regard. There isn't much variety. Its a good little shooter and recommended - worth the price of 17€, if you like old-school.

There's has been a lot of old-school style FPS made by indie devs in the last decade, but most have a common problem, despite clearly being made with passion and love for the genre, there kind of lacking an identity due to how much similar it is to its inspiration (mostly "Doom", "Quake" and "Half-life") to the point that it's stuck in its shadow then standing on its own. So far it's one the best old school fps I have played in a while, it does feels like i went back in time to 1997 with this one, something I rarely feel about retro-style games. Clearly inspired by "Quake" with pride, but it also remind me a lot of "Chasm: The Rift", a pretty good quake clone for it's time that I played a lot growing up. Anyway HROT is really GOOD!!! The dark soviet 1986 setting, gothic horror atmosphere, cool lighting effects and arsenal of weapons. Highly recommended

Hrot is a Quake-inspired first-person shooter with a twist. It features nostalgic design reminiscent of the Quake games, with a simple gameplay that includes an array of various enemies to kill and a selection of weapons to finish that tasks. There are keys to collect and insert in the right slots, and buttons to press in order to progress. Furthermore, there are secrets to discover as well. The game features a gloomy, dark atmosphere of the Kafka-esque post-1968 (aka 'normalization') era Czechoslovakia. There is a lot of references to daily life in Czechoslovakia - grocery stores, cars, butcher shops, monuments, silly Communist-era mottos and public notices. Grey box-like apartment buildings towered in the background, as I had to walk through the painfully familar 'Cosmonauts' subway station - which is actually not called that anymore ... Metallic factories and sewers change to the Jan Žižka military memorial, and uranium mines, and then to North Bohemian countryside. On the shortwave radio sets you can listen to the eerie Czechoslovak Communist broadcasting, and kiss the portrait of the Chairman Gustáv Husák ... And all of that comes on top of a fast and fun action, though some players may get lost in the game's 3D mazes. Not that it's very different from the 1990s FPS games. At the time of this review I finished two episodes of the game that is currently in-development.

I leave the sewers to find a large, open-door area, crawling with enemies. At my current state, any well-placed shot could end me. I deftly dodge around hails of gunfire and grenades, and through precise shooting and careful movement, I make it through without a scratch. Having finished picking up the fallen horde's weapons and ammo, I notice a tractor in the corner. As I approach, the tractor comes alive and kills me instantly. It is at that moment that I knew I kinda love HROT. If you're like me, you should play this game. Admittedly, it starts way stronger than it ends. The weapons all become very familiar well the end of the first episode, the level design falls off, and the tense, almost survival-horror atmosphere gives way to an annoyance with the amount of wave combat segments and backtracking. But at no point does HROT stop being, not to mince words, completely insane. As long as you keep playing, you will keep seeing things that'll make you think "wow, I never thought I would ever see THAT". If that's not enough to get you interested, maybe HROT isn't for you. But if seeing messed up things happen in a solid shooter is your thing, you owe it to yourself to play HROT at least once.