HROT

Playtime: 6.9 Hours

Finished 16 September 2025.

Short and sweet! Played on Hard difficulty, tried to avoid looking up stuff but did check a Wiki for the locations of the secret level entrances (Episodes 2 & 3 only) because I wanted to play through everything.

This was a very short game that captured the old-school shooter feeling incredibly well! I takes only a second to notice how monotone this game looks, with lots of brown and grey; the aesthetic is very intentional as it's meant to evoke a drab look and desolate feel, given that the game's setting is based in Socialize Czechoslovakia. I think it manages to do it really well, and the well-paced levels and episodes tell a very succinct, yet complete story. All you really glean out of the 25 levels & epilogue (count includes 2 secret levels) is that the mysterious creatures and mutant invaders appeared as a curse after the Orloj stopped.

The gameplay is very solid overall; it's definitely on the simpler side of the "throwback shooter" genre, without any real bells or whistles. Weapons are straightforward, fun to use, and generally quite effective - though some enemies (particularly the zombies in Chapter 2) felt a little too tanky to match. You can't really fly across the levels in this game with advanced movement tech, but it still feels smooth, fast, and responsive. Like Dusk, it makes a commitment to avoid any hitscan enemies, allowing you to practice your Serious Sam impression a little bit and overall making this game feel like a true test of your ability to control an encounter. Levels are fun, don't last too long, and are very interesting to explore, while enemy variety never slows down -- there are some mainstays, but there are lots of enemy types that are distributed across the game in thematically-fitting areas, like the skull spiders in the catacombs or the newts in a couple levels near a beach.

Something that really sets this game apart is how quirky it feels -- given that this game was entirely made on a custom engine written in Pascal (which is in itself a huge achievement!), Spytihnev put a ton of personal touches, little references, and goofy interactible objects all throughout the world to play with. Though the basic gameplay is a simple, straightforward shooter with no real frills, there are vehicles you can drive, tops you can spin, toilets you can flush, washing machines you can cycle, wall portraits you can kiss (lol), etc. I feel like it's an expression of sorts for how much fun Spytihnev had making the engine and the game, and really hammers home the fact that this is entirely a passion project borne entirely from someone's enjoyment for the craft, not necessarily the profit. Overall, this game was a blast to play, and despite some points where I thought it was a little too faithful to the more aggravating aspects of old shooters, I think it's fantastic.