HROT

About HROT

HROT was made by Spytihněv and released on Steam in May 2023. Its own page says those times were dark and terrifying, and so is the game, and it is written in a custom engine in Pascal that imitates 1990s software rendering, with unfiltered textures, polygon jitter and a brown retro palette.

After an unspecified disaster in 1986, you start in a civil defence shelter deep under a Prague Metro station. As a proud holder of the military readiness badge, you put on a non-functioning gas mask, load your vz. 52 pistol and set out to protect your socialist homeland from strange intruders, through rain-swept squares, a culture house, twin-spired churches, sewers and a road out of town.

The fighting is classic 1990s shooting: a shotgun, a vz. 13 submachine gun, a rocket launcher, a secret experimental Soviet battery-powered weapon and, if ammunition runs out, a hammer and sickle. Levels are handcrafted from real places, full of museum-piece details of Eastern Bloc life, with gas-masked figures and grotesque creatures waiting in the gloom. Its Steam page says it is not suitable for youth under the age of 30, by decision of the committee.

It suits players who like old-school shooters with a bleak, grimy horror mood.

How to play HROT

1. Buy it on Steam and run it on Windows.
2. Fight through each handcrafted level with the weapons you find.
3. Look for secrets in the levels, including a secret experimental weapon.
4. Use the hammer and sickle in close combat when ammunition runs low.

Tips

• Explore off the main path; the levels are full of secrets and details.
• Keep a spare weapon loaded for when the creatures come in numbers.

Questions