RetroHOT is one of the recent entries to the #MAKEITSUPERHOT competition, where people take the time-stop mechanic and artstyle of SuperHOT and turn it into one of their own creations. The time-stop mechanic used by all of these entries is that the enemies and bullets being shot at you only move when you move. When you are standing still, they don’t move or move to a crawl, which calls for an interesting use of strategy to the usual run-and-gun gameplay. In RetroHOT, it still has that mechanic, but puts a big Wolfenstein filter over everything. The gameplay is very simple as you can only look and aim on a single plane. If an enemy is in the way of the shot, he gets hit. If you are in the way of the shot, it is game over and back to the start.
The time-stop mechanic is really put the good use here as you can clearly see when an enemy shoots and where the projectile is, giving you plenty of time to plan an approach and how to deal with the group of enemies. There are explosive barrels scattered everywhere, so you can make use of those to take out your enemies, but you also have to keep an eye on your positioning as well since those same barrels can be used on you instead. The game itself is very simple, but the combination of the Wolfenstein graphics and the general SuperHOT gameplay, make it feel and look really unique and makes for a very nostalgic play.
Download the game jam prototype build on Moddb.
Played it? We’d love to know what you thought about it.
