Hrot

HROT is such an incredibly unique game. While the majority of the gameplay is pretty standard boomer shooter gameplay, every once in a while it will hit you with some crazy curveball that keeps everything fresh. The more normal aspects of the gameplay feel very fleshed out and polished, movement feels good, and all the guns fill their niche well. Overall, the gameplay experience is cohesive and enjoyable, and it changes things up enough to always stay interesting. The biggest strength of HROT, in my eyes, however, is the atmosphere and world building. The game takes place in a Soviet post apocalyptic Czechoslovakia. Based on this description, I expected something akin to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Metro, and while they do share some faint similarities, HROT carves out a unique identity of its own. It feels like most things in this game have a meaning or an idea behind them, but it was very hard for me to actually assign meaning to some of them. Instead, they conveyed only a vague notion of a feeling or an idea, but these notions ultimately added up to a very distinct feeling of post Soviet despair. It is one of the few games that consistently surprised me without ever feeling random or incoherent. This is a game you absolutely should not skip. It is weird in all the right ways, and with around seven hours of playtime, it is something you can comfortably finish in a week or so.

HROT is like playing a forgotten Quake game from an alternate timeline where the Soviet era never ended. The atmosphere is incredible, with its gloomy Czechoslovak setting, weird humor, and oppressive industrial environments giving the game a really unique identity. The shooting feels great, the levels are fun to explore, and finding secrets is always rewarding. It may look a bit too brown and repetitive at times, but that only adds to its strange charm. A very solid retro FPS and a must-play if you enjoy old-school shooters with a strong personality.

❤ Audience ❤ ☐ Beginner ☑ Casual Gamer ☑ Normal Gamer ☐ Expert ☼ Graphics ☼ ☐ Bad ☐ Alright ☐ Good ☑ Beautiful ☐ Fantastic ♬ Music ♬ ☐ Bad ☐ Alright ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful ☐ Fantastic ☠ Difficulty ☠ ☐ Easy ☑ Average ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Hard ☐ Unfair § Bugs § ☐ Bugs destroy the game ☐ Lots of bugs ☐ Few Bugs ☐ You can use them for speedrun ☑ Nothing encountered ☯ Story ☯ ☐ There is none ☐ Bad ☑ Alright ☐ Good ☐ Fantastic ⚔ Gameplay ⚔ ☐ Frustrating ☐ Sleepy ☐ Boring ☑ Fun ☐ Challenging ۞ Game time / Length ۞ ☐ Really short (0 - 3 hours) ☑ Short (4 - 7 hours) ☐ Few hours (8 - 20 hours) ☐ Long (21-50 hours) ☐ Very Long (51-100 hours) ☐ Extremely Long (101+ hours) $ Price / Quality $ ☐ Full price ☑ Wait for Sale ☐ Don't buy ☐ Refund it if you can