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HROT - Quake-inspired shooter set in socialist Czechoslovakia

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014



https://af.gog.com/game/hrot?as=1649904300

M8qE3xh.jpg


Reminded at 3DR Discord. From the Czech developer of LEGIE and Tragedy of Prince Rupert.



Soviet details:


https://twitter.com/kotolout/status/1180220869907492866
https://twitter.com/kotolout/status/1179825368502550528

Preview article from Czech website: https://www.vortex.cz/ceska-retro-fps-nas-vezme-do-prahy-v-roce-1986/

Google translate:

TIP takes players to socialist Czechoslovakia, but is set in an alternative history of 1986 and at first glance resembles the original Quake. Instead of traditional first-aid kits, however, you collect bags of semi-skimmed milk, face enemies in gas masks and move near the notorious Prague backdrops. The working version I tried took me to Vyšehrad, to the railway bridge at Výtoň and to the Prague underground.

TIP boasts a double charge of retro atmosphere when betting on seemingly outdated technology and even older scenery. His gloomy dark depressed mood also corresponds to the overall stylization and concept of the game. Spytihnev was said to have dreamed of the game since the mid-1990s, but he started to work much later. “The idea comes from the time I played Quake, or Chasm: The Rift, which was a kind of“ Russian Quake ”. At that time, I imagined what it would be like to have a “Czech Quake”. But before I learned to program, it was too late for such a project, because the development went ahead and any game without the most modern effects was pejoratively marked as obsolete and left with shame without interest. And I wanted to have the graphics exactly the same as in 1997 - shaky low-poly, fuzzy textures, ”the author told me.

According to his words, he plunged into work only in 2017. He wanted to create his own engine that mimics the look of contemporary technologies. Spytihnev, however, did not intend to develop his own engine just to make his creation as much as the games he inspired. “Technology is one's own work, but not because of contemporary aesthetics. I wanted to make my own engine primarily because I enjoy it, ”explained the developer of the TIP action. As we have said, we will talk to the eighties and move primarily in Prague. “I chose the topic of socialism because I find it dark - Soviet gas masks, concrete, sirens. But it is just atmospheric and, for some, even a nostalgic backdrop, politics will not be solved there. I like the underground, whether subway, collectors, exhalations, civil defense covers or even undiscovered medieval spaces, ”describes Spytihnev,

At the same time, it remains true to the spirit of classic shooters, even when it comes to level design. Do not expect any corridor. The test level is an intricate labyrinth of intersecting corridors, in which there is no shortage of locks, keys and switches that will eventually open the entire entwined network. Traditionally, collecting weapons and ammunition or the mentioned need to use first-aid kits. As for the arsenal, I touched a classic pistol, submachine gun, shotgun, grenade, but even a sickle as the local starting weapon, which you reach when you run out of ammunition. As far as your enemies are concerned, not only humans will face you, but also various monsters, of which the horse in a gas mask is probably the most bizarre crowd so far for me…

How long the game will be, what platforms it will target and at what cost, is not yet certain. Of course I worked on the version on Windows. “The plan is to release the first episode, which will have 9 levels, and then see itself according to interest. The original date of December 2019 but I miss and I do not promise a new term. But it shouldn't take long, ”Spytihnev said. The first episode is situated in Prague. However, we would not have to move exclusively in the Czechoslovak capital. The author also warns that nobody imagines her realistic representation. “There is always only a key dominant landmark that characterizes the site, but the rest is devised and simplified for FPS needs. Where the next episodes will take place and whether they will occur at all is still open, ”he added.
 
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Wunderbar

Arcane
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Nov 15, 2015
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8,809
Looks brown, kinda like Chasm The Rift.

edit. and it's mentioned in the article. Though, it was Ukrainian Quake, not Russian.
 

Baron Dupek

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
1,870,765
sounds like You Are Empty on Quake engine
good luck then
and they better give dismemberment from Chasm or I'll be disappointed
if they release it, that's it
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Oh trailer and Steam page:





HROT is a single-player retro FPS set in a small socialist country neighboring Soviet Union (Czechoslovakia) after an unspecified disaster in 1986. Those times were terifying and so is the game.

You start in a civil defense shelter deep under a Prague Metro station. As a proud holder of the military readiness badge you know what your duty is: put on a non-functioning gas mask, load the vz. 52 pistol and protect the peace and your socialist homeland from the strange intruders*.

  • The classic gameplay and vibe of romeric shooters from 1990s including a fitting brown retro aesthetic.

  • You'll find a shotgun, a vz. 13 SMG, a rocket launcher and even some secret experimental Soviet battery-powered weapons (e.g. a ball lightning launcher). If you run out of ammo, you might find the hammer and sickle coming in handy.

  • Handcrafted levels inspired by real locations with an emphasis on historical details. Every level contains socialist paraphernalia which nowadays can only be found in museums or your grandma's attic**.

  • Flushable toilets and destructible light bulbs.

  • A custom engine written in Pascal imitating 1990s software-style rendering with unfiltered textures and polygon jitter.

* Madmen in raincoats, killers in protective suits, autonomously attacking dogs, horses and goats
** Eastern Bloc only
 

cretin

Magister
Douchebag!
Joined
Apr 20, 2019
Messages
1,347
retro was a mistake. It seems it really is too much to ask hack nerds to merely be inspired by the design philosophies of the time instead of aping it 1:1 shitty graphics included. Whats the point of my $300 GPU again?
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Well from a purely production standpoint, if you don't have money it'd be much better to try aping old style and make something out of it than try to make a poor version of modern graphics (which you can see from those poorly constructed asset flips.)
 

Bad Sector

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
A demo for this is out:



I didn't knew about the game until today when some people mentioned it on Twitter. I just finished the demo and it feels like a much better Chasm: The Rift. I'm not sure about the Quake comparisons though, even though the levels have more verticality than Chasm, they are still grid-based like Chasm and rely more on button and keycard hunting than Quake did. I think if you have played both games, you'll find HROT to be much closer to Chasm than Quake.

Personally i really liked the demo though i think there are several things that can be improved, like a bit more bass-y sounds and perhaps a less wimpy feeling jump (it is kinda weird because the actual collision treats jump as quite high - i think higher than Quake even - but the camera doesn't move very far vertically, giving the impression that your jump is very low). One thing that i really liked was the feel of the rocket launcher.

I'll be looking forward to this.
 

Bad Sector

Arcane
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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yeah, one thing it certainly doesn't have compared to Chasm is the asset quality. The engine might have been limited, but IMO the textures were among the best in the DOS era, even better than Quake, especially in the addon levels, e.g.

nsqiTmb.png


(though sadly it is hard to find good examples because every screenshot i see either uses the 320x200/320x240 resolution which is too low for the textures to show properly or has brightness turned to maximum which washes out the colors)
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,156
Now played by pagb666 in all of his silent glory.



It looks like shit, with dark, depressing and ugly scenarios and crazier people. How close to reality it is, Ruskie codexers?
 

fuzz

Liturgist
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
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Location
Bakersfield
Watched the playthrough of E1L1, loved the backpacks dropping from enemies like in Chasm: The Rift. Shotgun seemed a bit lackluster, hope there will be a double barrel version.
Also no dismemberment. :negative:
Speaking of Chasm, the "never-dying" zombies were a nightmare fuel.
 

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