HROT

Gameplay and visuals of Quake + interactivity of Duke Nukem = HROT

HROT is a truly bizarre game, clearly heavily inspired by both Quake and Dusk, it's both of them and yet neither, as in many regards it's more akin to Duke 3D in the way it attempts to portray a realistic world. The game engine, a home developed one, like that of Dusk, is visually very close to Quake 1 or software Quake 2. The theme, a psychological horror like Amnesia or Dusk, combined with the visuals which lean hard into soviet era hungarian aesthetic results in a truly unique game - body horror and disturbing themes combine to create something that is hard to explain, but very playable. The body horror in particular is everpresent - vomiting guards, horses in gas masks, wheelchair bound foes who spit bullets, a gymn pommel horse with a rocket launcher, the game ramps up the wierdness to the point that nothing seems out of the ordinary. The concept, if considered long enough, is a meme and critique heavy perspective of a hungarian considering the insanity of their own lives in the context of video games, though HROT doesn't ask you to consider this any more than it asks you to simply exist in the world it portrays. Perhaps the best way to recommend HROT is 'Quake but at the end of each episode you get a recipe' or 'KingPin's visuals with Duke 3D's realism, and Stalker's world' but these imply that the game is far more derivative than it really is - HROT is simply HROT, a truly unique and special shooter, developed by someone in awe of Dusk, but with a much tighter understanding of what made Quake work. Where Dusk is all about subverting expectations and pushing you to a challenge limit, HROT is about cleverly balanced combat encounters. It matters not, HROT is simply put a wonderful game, well balanced, well paced and incredibly put together. At about 2 hours per episode. it's not too long, but it's witty, very european, and highly engaging, even if 50% of it appears to be sewer levels!

HROT checks all the boxes that make a great old-school FPS game. - great weapon variety. nothing out of the ordinary like Blood's napalm launcher or Ion Fury's bowling bomb, but HROT's weapon lineup are all useful and fun guns to shoot. - Very interesting setting. I don't know much about Czechoslovakian history, but it's set in a very charming socialist, pre-Velvet Revolution world. It was really fascinating place to design this game in. - fast paced gameplay with a tiny bit of spooky segments. HROT gives a lot of DUSK and Quake vibes, delivering really chaotic gunfights against a diverse bestiary of enemies. - Fantastic Level Design!!!! You're hunting for secrets and keys while navigating expertly designed levels. Each level is unique and cleverly mapped out. This never leaves the player lost, confused or stuck backtracking. - Very well optimized. HROT runs super smooth on practically any computer system. I only make a universal statement like that because it ran very well on my ancient 8 year old laptop. I had a tiny stuttering issue, but i mostly fixed it by setting the priority of HROT.exe to "high" via Windows Task Manager & closing my internet browser. This is an incredibly easy recommendation for any fans of retro shooters. It's a great value game at its undiscounted asking price of $20 USD!

This is a good title, cheap and fun, maybe its kinda complicated but its still fun, also it reminds me to quake. I specially like the tiny detail that you can destroy mostly everything.

I mean that pretty much sums it up. If you like one, you'll like the other. It's got great movement, fun gibs, absurd levels and bosses, mountains of secrets, great atmosphere and music, etc. The ONLY complaint I have is that the gun feedback/effects are a bit weak. It makes the SMG feel like a peashooter. But it's a minor complaint. You should get HROT. Absolutely, 100%.