IRON CURTAIN

Retro-style shooter HROT is surprisingly whimsical for its grim looks

- Ted Litchfield

The star of the show in Sovietcore boomer shooter Hrot is solo developer Spytihnev’s levels, all of which are inspired by real-life locations in and around Prague. The tenement blocks, metro stations, churches and castles of this twisted version of the city all feel like cheeky de-makes of real-world locations, a MyHouse. wad blown up to huge proportions. The levels twist and fold in on each other in surprising ways, and Spytihnev likes to troll.

He almost feels like a dungeon master in active conversation with you – or chuckling at your blunders – rather than a level designer who created these areas and stepped back. There’s almost always some kind of trick to activating switches or picking up keys, with walls falling away to reveal enemies, trap doors dropping you into sticky situations, or even the game outright teleporting you to a completely different part of the map – Hrot is absolutely stuffed with little gags like these that never failed to get a chuckle out of me, and even when I got punked, I always appreciated it.