basically soviet quake
not perfect but this game's only real weakness is the bunch of fuseboxes hidden out of sight you have to look for and shoot to progress
(finished first episode, plan to come back when more content is released)
Absolutely nails the Soviet Quake aesthetic it sets out to. I have a couple gripes, such as some areas where it's not really clear how to progress. Will be very curious to see how this game shapes up as it makes its way out of early access.
Absolutely nails the Soviet Quake aesthetic it sets out to. I have a couple gripes, such as some areas where it's not really clear how to progress. Will be very curious to see how this game shapes up as it makes its way out of early access.
Demo was really promising, movement and weapons were excellent though the enemy's felt a bit bullet spongey, but I'm very excited to see this game come out of early access
Still in early access, but the first full chapter was excellent. It's a retro shooter that gets pretty much everything right. At first I wasn't a huge fan of how BROWN the game is. Pretty much every color is a variant of brown. While it doesn't make the game the prettiest looking shooter, it does work very well with the sound design to create a very effective atmosphere. It can get pretty spooky at points, especially with the end boss of chapter 1. The gameplay is pretty great, all the guns feel pretty good, except the submachine gun which sounds a bit too quiet and is not particularly accurate. The level design is good, and it gets better as it goes on. Especially in early levels, it can get a tad annoying trying to figure out where to go, especially given everything is brown. It could help if important switches were easier to see. Movement is really fast, which compliments the great enemy variety and aggressive ai. Overall, a very solid retro inspired shooter. I look forward to seeing how the game progresses. The start of chapter 2 is very promising.
Hrot is another classic shooter that scratches that boomer itch. It is fast, it has a few enemies with different approaches and it has keys. Everything is there what there needs to be. But what really sticks out to me is that eery almost spooky atmosphere. It let me overlook that 95% of the game is brown/grey. The ambient is fantastic and it really hits that industrial eastern country feeling. Now and then it gave me almost that Silent Hill feeling. It is pretty short though at the moment. But at this point it is still in early access. I hope we get another set of great grim levels.
quakers we're not this desperate are we :)))
da yiss beeg meelkors
this game is sooooo gross i love it
This game feels like everything the original Quake would have been if it was given time to be completed. Very atmospheric and satisfying experience.
Really don't get what people see in this game. I got this in the boomer shooter Humble Bundle a year or two back while it was still in Early Access and with its full release today finally beat the last episode after getting through the first two episodes some time ago.
This game is just barely on the precipice between alright and straight up middling. Enemies are bullet sponges, none of the weapons feel that good, and the game is a Scrooge when it comes to ammo to the point where it feels like a genuine flaw instead of a purposeful design decision. The atmosphere is good at times but there is way too much brown sewers and factories. The level design is also not that great and confusing at times. I had enough fun with it, but I'm glad I just got this in a bundle. You can do a lot better than this game when it comes to modern boomer shooter throwbacks.
This game is just barely on the precipice between alright and straight up middling. Enemies are bullet sponges, none of the weapons feel that good, and the game is a Scrooge when it comes to ammo to the point where it feels like a genuine flaw instead of a purposeful design decision. The atmosphere is good at times but there is way too much brown sewers and factories. The level design is also not that great and confusing at times. I had enough fun with it, but I'm glad I just got this in a bundle. You can do a lot better than this game when it comes to modern boomer shooter throwbacks.
This review contains spoilers
HROT is a "Boomer Shooter" FPS developed by Spytihněv; developed in the vein of older FPS games like Quake and the like. Recently it came out of Early Access, I had it sitting in my library for a while but I wanted to wait until it fully came out to truly give it a spin.
I'll start with the story since there isn't too much in the way; you're in 1986 (according to the steam page) Soviet Union (specifically the Czech Republic as multiple mentions of Prague were in the game) as you find your socialist country surrounded by invaders. You decide to go out and kill these invaders and that's kind of it that I was able to find aside from fighting a parody of current Russia's leader Vladimir Putin as he rides both a bear and a pterodactyl in a hilarious yet difficult boss battle during the end, before jumping into his mouth, shooting his heart and then jumping down a toilet as well as mentions of how if the Orloj Clock Tower astronomical clock is broken than the world is doomed, which you later fix after the battle in the Epilogue. Other than that, for the most part any lore is kind of spread apart, which is fine cause I was mostly focused on the gameplay and atmosphere.
The Gameplay was great, more throwback shooter gameplay with secrets, boss battles, and the such. Truth be told, I don't really have much to say here that the likes of DUSK, Quake and other shooters like this haven't already done. What I can tell you are some of the more noticeable things that popped in my mind; some of the levels in the first episode when ramping up can be on the confusing side in terms of layout but the more the episodes go on the better it gets, shift is a giant kick which you can use to both kick enemies and enemy grenades back and when timed right it feels amazing. I think Episode 3 is my favorite just from how insane it really gets, from fighting Salamanders or Otters with giant guns to the ability to save adorable dogs from cages to murder attacking enemies (which was my favorite part of the game, you can indeed pet the dog in this game). Other things to mention is that driving around the motorcycle is a lot of fun running people over, and also to keep an eye on your environment because this game will surprise the hell out of you real quick with enemies (mainly static vehicles coming to life to try to run you over). The double barreled shotgun will be your best friend along with the grenade launcher; and I guess the final note I can throw down is that you can interact your environment like opening cabinets to find ammo and in some levels keys, of which like other old school first person shooters you need to open doors that leads to the end of the level. For the last stage of Episode 3, don’t bother fighting the mech, bring it back to the area you started and let it fall down the stairs cause you’ll need the pickups for the ACTUAL final boss. Last thing, I tried with everything but no rocket jump that I could find, so unless I'm dumb as s h i t don't even bother to do it cause it won't work.
The Atmosphere/Art Design/Everything else for the most part was solid; at first the drab tone kind of got on my nerves a bit, especially with the sewer levels in Episode 1 (titled Kiss Me Gustav) but the more I played (mostly from Episode 2 and 3), the better it got and the more variation it had in it's environments. Keep in mind, I love oppressive atmospheres, It just took a while for me to get adjusted. Graphics look like Quake and other old shooters and as a simp for old throwback games I love it, the enemy designs are great environments whilst samey looking for the most part change up later on. The only criticism I have in this part is that two of the weapons, the Pistol and Machine Gun, feel under powered like a pea shooter; while I understand the pistol is supposed to be a weak weapon you have as a backup I don't really like it as a weapon mainly due to the fact that even if it's weak that it should still pack some sort of feeling. Otherwise, honestly this section is the strongest part of the game; it has it's identity in the sea of browns and blacks and it's not afraid to really get the Soviet aesthetic down.
To finish off my thoughts, if you like old school throwback shooters than I feel like most people would like HROT; it's gameplay of finding keys and opening doors, interacting with the environment in small but interesting ways, shooting your way through strange creatures, etc. I enjoyed my time playing HROT, it has a unique personality with it's own inside jokes (like getting a recipe for food at the end of each Episode? Strange but made me chuckle) that I don't totally understand but I appreciate the hell out of, it grew on me the more I played and to me was it's best at Episode 3 (Again, not a lot of games let me kill a parody of Putin before jumping down his mouth and into his throat in an episode called "The Gastroscopy", which look up on your own time lol). Is it worth your time and money? I thought it was good enough to get my money's worth but I guess 6 hours for 20 dollars depends on what you really find to be worth the price. It's unique and it deserves it's place in the Boomer Shooter pantheon, and a must play for the h o e s like me that love retro stuff.
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
I'll start with the story since there isn't too much in the way; you're in 1986 (according to the steam page) Soviet Union (specifically the Czech Republic as multiple mentions of Prague were in the game) as you find your socialist country surrounded by invaders. You decide to go out and kill these invaders and that's kind of it that I was able to find aside from fighting a parody of current Russia's leader Vladimir Putin as he rides both a bear and a pterodactyl in a hilarious yet difficult boss battle during the end, before jumping into his mouth, shooting his heart and then jumping down a toilet as well as mentions of how if the Orloj Clock Tower astronomical clock is broken than the world is doomed, which you later fix after the battle in the Epilogue. Other than that, for the most part any lore is kind of spread apart, which is fine cause I was mostly focused on the gameplay and atmosphere.
The Gameplay was great, more throwback shooter gameplay with secrets, boss battles, and the such. Truth be told, I don't really have much to say here that the likes of DUSK, Quake and other shooters like this haven't already done. What I can tell you are some of the more noticeable things that popped in my mind; some of the levels in the first episode when ramping up can be on the confusing side in terms of layout but the more the episodes go on the better it gets, shift is a giant kick which you can use to both kick enemies and enemy grenades back and when timed right it feels amazing. I think Episode 3 is my favorite just from how insane it really gets, from fighting Salamanders or Otters with giant guns to the ability to save adorable dogs from cages to murder attacking enemies (which was my favorite part of the game, you can indeed pet the dog in this game). Other things to mention is that driving around the motorcycle is a lot of fun running people over, and also to keep an eye on your environment because this game will surprise the hell out of you real quick with enemies (mainly static vehicles coming to life to try to run you over). The double barreled shotgun will be your best friend along with the grenade launcher; and I guess the final note I can throw down is that you can interact your environment like opening cabinets to find ammo and in some levels keys, of which like other old school first person shooters you need to open doors that leads to the end of the level. For the last stage of Episode 3, don’t bother fighting the mech, bring it back to the area you started and let it fall down the stairs cause you’ll need the pickups for the ACTUAL final boss. Last thing, I tried with everything but no rocket jump that I could find, so unless I'm dumb as s h i t don't even bother to do it cause it won't work.
The Atmosphere/Art Design/Everything else for the most part was solid; at first the drab tone kind of got on my nerves a bit, especially with the sewer levels in Episode 1 (titled Kiss Me Gustav) but the more I played (mostly from Episode 2 and 3), the better it got and the more variation it had in it's environments. Keep in mind, I love oppressive atmospheres, It just took a while for me to get adjusted. Graphics look like Quake and other old shooters and as a simp for old throwback games I love it, the enemy designs are great environments whilst samey looking for the most part change up later on. The only criticism I have in this part is that two of the weapons, the Pistol and Machine Gun, feel under powered like a pea shooter; while I understand the pistol is supposed to be a weak weapon you have as a backup I don't really like it as a weapon mainly due to the fact that even if it's weak that it should still pack some sort of feeling. Otherwise, honestly this section is the strongest part of the game; it has it's identity in the sea of browns and blacks and it's not afraid to really get the Soviet aesthetic down.
To finish off my thoughts, if you like old school throwback shooters than I feel like most people would like HROT; it's gameplay of finding keys and opening doors, interacting with the environment in small but interesting ways, shooting your way through strange creatures, etc. I enjoyed my time playing HROT, it has a unique personality with it's own inside jokes (like getting a recipe for food at the end of each Episode? Strange but made me chuckle) that I don't totally understand but I appreciate the hell out of, it grew on me the more I played and to me was it's best at Episode 3 (Again, not a lot of games let me kill a parody of Putin before jumping down his mouth and into his throat in an episode called "The Gastroscopy", which look up on your own time lol). Is it worth your time and money? I thought it was good enough to get my money's worth but I guess 6 hours for 20 dollars depends on what you really find to be worth the price. It's unique and it deserves it's place in the Boomer Shooter pantheon, and a must play for the h o e s like me that love retro stuff.
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
The most authentic Quake clone since the 90's.
I think the core game here is really fun, as is a lot of its wackier ideas. Throwing you against an army of newt men for exactly one level and then never mentioning it again is just fantastic, as are the splashes of fantastical whimsy contrasted against the harsh industrial setting. But, unfortunately, I think those moments are too few and far between. Most of the game is just going through areas that all look and feel the same. I think I could genuinely remember only a handful of individual levels since they all look alike and ask you to do roughly the same thing. The weapons all felt pretty uninspired as well, with the only real interesting ones (the crossbow and especially the Lightning Gun) feeling strangely underutilized. Again, the core game here is a lot of fun, but its levels, weapons, and encounters lack a level of variety that would have pushed it from good to great.
One of the most atmospheric, creative, and surprisingly hilarious shooters I've ever played. Everything from the ground up is built around this hyperspecific time and place of 1980s Czechoslovakia that makes it feel so personal. This is not the kind of game that would ever come from a committee, this is the work of one lunatic through and through.
The "game-feel" is one of the biggest challenges for retro shooters in my opinion and HROT nails it. The weapons aren't the most unique but they all serve their purpose well and are satisfying to use. Beyond the gameplay there's just so many bizarre and memorable things in this game that I could easily ramble about for hours but I'd rather not spoil them all. All I'll say is the amount of work that must have gone into one-off gags just makes them all the more hilarious to me. Play this game. It's legitimately one of a kind.
The "game-feel" is one of the biggest challenges for retro shooters in my opinion and HROT nails it. The weapons aren't the most unique but they all serve their purpose well and are satisfying to use. Beyond the gameplay there's just so many bizarre and memorable things in this game that I could easily ramble about for hours but I'd rather not spoil them all. All I'll say is the amount of work that must have gone into one-off gags just makes them all the more hilarious to me. Play this game. It's legitimately one of a kind.
Slav Quake
While just a start, the first currently released episode of HROT shows tons of promise. Throwback shooters have become sort of an epidemic recently, with many different developers hungry to emulate the fast-paced shooter action provided by games like Quake and DOOM. For the most part, this increasing trend of retro-style shooters has largely been great, yet a few entries have fallen more to the wayside.
Does HROT keep the trend going of well-made retro shooters? Yes, but we're slowly beginning to see how these "meat and potatoes" boomer shooters need more than just the bare fundamentals of the genre to truly elevate it beyond a mere "Quake clone."
HROT does what it can to distinguish itself from its contemporaries, yet it isn't really within the gameplay or weapons. The general feel of the gameplay is pretty much Quake with a more realistic-looking arsenal, but HROT sets itself apart with its Soviet-era visual style and spooky atmosphere. Swapping the visual pallet of a shooter like HROT may be enough to win over a decent-sized audience (I certainly am eagerly awaiting more levels with anticipation), but we're nearing a point where we really need to start asking more from these shooters than just "be basically Quake but look different." Games like ULTRAKILL attempt to heighten the stakes by including combo mechanics, DOOM Eternal clearly has the presentation and hyper-polish of your average AAA release, and AMID EVIL tried to emulate the geekier side of the genre by taking homage from Heretic/Hexen. HROT is just Soviet Quake like many people are correctly reiterating. If the general bar for quality for the rest of HROT stays from where we started, I'll be more than impressed and happy with my purchase, yet more is needed to be done with this genre to keep it alive past this early revival phase.
Does HROT keep the trend going of well-made retro shooters? Yes, but we're slowly beginning to see how these "meat and potatoes" boomer shooters need more than just the bare fundamentals of the genre to truly elevate it beyond a mere "Quake clone."
HROT does what it can to distinguish itself from its contemporaries, yet it isn't really within the gameplay or weapons. The general feel of the gameplay is pretty much Quake with a more realistic-looking arsenal, but HROT sets itself apart with its Soviet-era visual style and spooky atmosphere. Swapping the visual pallet of a shooter like HROT may be enough to win over a decent-sized audience (I certainly am eagerly awaiting more levels with anticipation), but we're nearing a point where we really need to start asking more from these shooters than just "be basically Quake but look different." Games like ULTRAKILL attempt to heighten the stakes by including combo mechanics, DOOM Eternal clearly has the presentation and hyper-polish of your average AAA release, and AMID EVIL tried to emulate the geekier side of the genre by taking homage from Heretic/Hexen. HROT is just Soviet Quake like many people are correctly reiterating. If the general bar for quality for the rest of HROT stays from where we started, I'll be more than impressed and happy with my purchase, yet more is needed to be done with this genre to keep it alive past this early revival phase.
[this review will be changed when the game is finished]
This game is still in development and only one of its 3 episodes is out so I wont say too much, but so far this is a very solid, well made, and enjoyable boomer shooter with some good level design, great enemy designs, an interesting setting, great gunplay, and fun fights. I do hope future episodes try to seperate themselves from this episode's more bleak, brown & grey color pallete, as while it's signifying and very atmospheric in one episode, for multiple it wont quite work.
This game is still in development and only one of its 3 episodes is out so I wont say too much, but so far this is a very solid, well made, and enjoyable boomer shooter with some good level design, great enemy designs, an interesting setting, great gunplay, and fun fights. I do hope future episodes try to seperate themselves from this episode's more bleak, brown & grey color pallete, as while it's signifying and very atmospheric in one episode, for multiple it wont quite work.
Excellent gamefeel and evocative environments. A technical accomplishment, as well.
A very solid Quake-like shooter that stands out from the deluge of Doom-likes with a more muted and dreary setting. You're still rewarded for bunny hopping and blasting grenades, but this is less back-to-back arenas and more tight corridors and spaces where verticality matters. Levels feel like real and tangible places, and the weapon selection gives every gun something of a niche.
It is still a work in progress but this is a game worth watching.
It is still a work in progress but this is a game worth watching.
Played through Episode 2
Played the entire game at 4am and it was cool
The soviet-era gigantic sculptures, brutalist buildings, and the world constituted of bleak low-poly and low-res textures, set in
1986 Czechoslovakia, seamlessly merging soviet bleakness with the otherworldly nightmarish feel of Quake .
literally GONCHAROV.
1986 Czechoslovakia, seamlessly merging soviet bleakness with the otherworldly nightmarish feel of Quake .
literally GONCHAROV.
This is the one big "old school shooter revival" game that everyone has been raving about that I just don't get. All the guns and gameplay are bog standard for the genre, and that about summarizes the game. It doesn't really experiment or subvert anything and just feels kinda generic, but at least has a decent atmosphere. 5/10
Symphogear GX Adjacent
this seems like it's made specifically for the weirdos who liked the more sparse and offputting aspects of the original Quake. you get way more rockets than rifle rounds, and even though there are more than 50 enemy types, most of what you face are the main enemy archetypes from Quake. its main strength is mixing this very american design philosophy with a particularly culturally specific representation of 80s czechoslovakia (mainly in the architecture), which makes for a strange mix.
those old "slavjank" titles are usually focused on verisimilitude - even if it's oddly represented by the mechanics or structure - while the Quake formula begs for maximum abstraction. Hrot tries playing both sides, but ends up being its own perplexing middle ground. at least it's an interesting conflict to see being wrestled with throughout the 3 episodes, which become gradually more lost until the last few levels from the 3rd episode transform into small, sepia dollhouse arenas.
those old "slavjank" titles are usually focused on verisimilitude - even if it's oddly represented by the mechanics or structure - while the Quake formula begs for maximum abstraction. Hrot tries playing both sides, but ends up being its own perplexing middle ground. at least it's an interesting conflict to see being wrestled with throughout the 3 episodes, which become gradually more lost until the last few levels from the 3rd episode transform into small, sepia dollhouse arenas.
HROT is the throwback FPS of choice for non-posers
Quake with a Trench Gun
It's kinda fun ig
chapter 1 is trying to find the games identity and its just a normal boomer shooter. chapter 2 then gets REALLY spooky and the atmosphere is incredible. chapter 3 is a silly little funny guy chapter, lots of personality and jokes.
TL;DR
good horror, good jokes
i scared
:)
TL;DR
good horror, good jokes
i scared
:)