TL;DR – HROT is a bizarre, heart-felt and engrossing boomer shooter that carries out it’s bewildering vision with gusto. While the game is short, it never overstays it’s welcome and between 26 missions spread over 3 episodes (each filled with secrets to find) and it’s endless horde survival mode the game easily justifies the price of admission. It may not be for everyone, but those who are looking for a shooter and are not worried about the latest and greatest in visual fidelity would be remiss for passing it up.
I picked up HROT a few years ago in a Humble Bundle dedicated to “boomer shooters” and honestly forgot about it as the game was in early access. A few days ago it finally hit v1.0 and released in it’s full form, so I thought I’d take a look at what I thought would be a fairly short and mediocre FPS experience. While the game was short, I was surprised at the amount of passion and depth that it contained. Initially the game might seem like another par-for-the-course entry within it’s genre, as you control a nameless voiceless protagonist with no backstory nor characterisation to speak of. Yet unlike most other boomer shooters, the game’s engine is coded in a 53 year old programming language (Pascal) which helps to give the game an authentic retro feeling. Owing to the limitations of it’s deliberately antiquated engine, HROT has a minimal amount of colours available and what colours it does use are distinctly brown. Unlike the litany of boring, brown-and-bloom 7th generation games however this stylistic choice is deliberate and is used to great effect to bolster the artistic style of the game which is deliberately oppressive, surreal and gloomy.
This style comes across through a large variety of environments, from brutalist city streets to mines to Hussite castles which are always desolate and relatively claustrophobic. HROT equips you with a flash-light (fortunately not bound to a separate weapon slot as in Doom 3) which often comes in use as the game’s lighting engine darkens internal spaces that aren’t immediately beside light sources. Yet the game doesn’t overtly focus on it’s gloomy indoor spaces, instead it forces the player to engage in a surreal road-trip, taking you across a swathe of areas across the Czechoslovakian SR while fighting for survive against a vast array of hostile creatures and mutants. These enemies comprise over 40 types which are included in the game (more than 1 per level), encompassing everything from headlines chickens and hazmat suited shotgun totting humans through to freakish boss monsters such as a possessed hobby horse and the floating head of Gustáv Husák. This road trip gains a further element of the surreal thanks to the amount of interactivity contained within each level, some of which are fairly humdrum while others contain spinning tops, working washing machines and even a fully functional model train-set in one level. Ultimately this is a game where one minute you are narrowly dodging trains while fighting a hordes of enemies amidst the ruins of a train station, and then next you are riding a cheap moped or enjoying a rave with bipedal newts. Ultimately the whole thing feels like a post-soviet fever dream, with plenty of references to the Czechoslovakian SR that will go over the head of most players.
Yet in spite of this bewildering feeling, HROT more than makes up with it for it’s well defined and executed gameplay. Aside from the vast variety of enemies that you’ll encounter, the game also has intelligently designed levels that are never too large and yet often (especially in the latter half) require some thought to them before proceeding. It’s often a sensible strategy to leave health items for later if you are relatively healthy, as you can be guaranteed that the level will loop around itself once the hitherto locked doors and passages have been opened. Similarly while you can ignore a lot of the enemies that are in your way, it’s generally worthwhile to eliminate them as they appear so that you have a clear route later on in the level.
Even dispatching them requires some thought, as while you can dispatch any enemy with most weapons, some are better suited to certain types than others. Most of the basic humanoid enemy types will drop ammunition that corresponds to the weapons they use, but never so much as to let you get comfortable. The grenadier enemy type for example will always drop one grenade, and it can be instantly killed with one carefully aimed shot of your grenade launcher. Thus you often have to balance the competing goals of clearing through the enemy hordes quickly so as not to take damage, while trying not to run out of ammunition. In this way the game heavily encourages you to become familiar with each type of weapon and to come up with your own strategy for clearing through the hordes without running low on certain types of ammunition. Do you stockpile your favourite weapons for the inevitable appearance of tougher enemies, or do you focus on eliminating each type as quickly as possible before taking advantage of the relatively basic enemy pathfinding for those tougher fights? Ultimately the choice is yours. These enemies are also placed with some care, as they are often used as a sign-post for where you need to go next, with reinforcements appearing as you gradually unravel the barriers within a stage in such a way as to encourage you down a certain path. Yet unlike many boomer shooters, HROT is careful not to pigeonhole itself by always spawning a big wave with each acquisition of a key and instead takes care to keep you off your balance. Sometimes picking up a key needed to proceed does cause a bunch of enemies to spawn in awkwardly close range, such as a kamikaze appearing almost directly behind you. Yet sometimes even the most choreographed trap turns out to be totally safe, leaving you with a sense of unease but untouched reserves of ammo, armour and health.
As a consequence HROT always keeps you guessing and prevents you from getting too comfortable. You never really know if you’ll be prepared for the next fight, with intense battles for survival often appearing out of nowhere much like the occasional boss fight. These bosses range from the nonsensical such as a possessed hobby horse or fairground gorilla through to a tank or even the bear riding commander of the Russian Federation. Yet ultimately it’s the charm of the game and it’s world building that keeps you coming back for more even after getting shredded by a cheekily placed kamikaze enemy or ferocious attack dog (that does a surprising amount of damage). You just never know what is going to happen next, and the game seems to relish in this chaos. Morbid Soviet-era housing estates can end in an abrupt need to dive into the depths of the sewers, jump across buildings after utilising the power of environmental ventilation systems or fight against enemies riding bumper cars. Nothing is ever guaranteed and it’s this sense of uncertainty that will propel you forwards across 26ish missions of your abjectly puzzling post-Soviet road-trip.
Once you’ve finished the aforementioned adventure (and gained the 3 recipes which function as rewards for beating each episode), HROT drops you off into an epilogue where you… rebuild an Astrological Clock. Initially you’ll be tempted to think this is just a gimmick, but there’s a lot to be said for the fact that the lone developer of this game genuinely went out of his way to reproduce an entire astrological clock that you can set to any date or time that you do desire. There was no reason for him to do this, aside from the fact that it was what he wanted to do. You can even re-visit it from the main menu at any time thereafter, should you be curious to what it looks like on a certain date or time.
But if witnessing this sort of self-inflicted developer madness is not your scene, then the game also includes a surprisingly enjoyable Endless mode with 4 different arenas each of has individually crafted waves. These arenas are a lot of fun and throw a gradually increasing amount of enemies from across the entirety of all 3 episodes including bosses, of which there is one per 5 waves. To entice you to play through this mode, there are 3 achievements with the latter only unlocking once you’ve survived 15 waves. Much like the rest of the game, these arenas manage to deftly balance the difficulty and you never feel too short of ammunition nor health.
Ultimately HROT is a testament to the joys of organised chaos, with it’s eclectic mix of enemies, environments and a constant amount of suspense which keeps you guessing. While it is short, you won’t feel short-changed as the sheer variety of enemies, weapons and areas will keep you coming back for more. HROT is a true passion project, and while it won’t be for everyone I have no hesitations recommending it to FPS fans who are willing to grapple with a visually dated yet charming game.
