Scar Tries: Shrot
Good things come in small packages, and the newly released Shrot meets that description beautifully. If you’re in the mood for an RTS that is simple to pick up, Shrot might just be the game for you. For transparency, this is not a long article. As part of my ‘Scar Tries’ experiment, this is for games I’m experimenting with to see if it is worth more time.
The Steam Summer sale is nearly upon us, and that means spending a chunk of cash on games that I’ll eventually get around to. We all suffer from the backlog trap! I’m trying to get better at that, but it’s always nice to pick up some video games.
Developed by Spytihněv, Shrot is a spiritual successor of sorts to his first game HROT, a fantastic FPS that everyone should try at least once. This is designed to be a small real-time strategy game influenced by the RTS titles of old, and it accomplishes that role pretty damn well. You can buy Shrot on Steam for 10$, although it currently has a 15 per cent discount until July 4th. After tinkering with it for a few hours, Shrot is worth the asking price. We don’t get many RTS games anymore, so it’s always nice to appreciate the ones that do launch. Shrot is one of the good ones!
Shrot calls itself a ‘bite-sized’ RTS, but it packs a decent amount of content in such a small package. Between the campaign, multiple tutorial missions, multiplayer and an unlockable sandbox mode upon completing the campaign, there’s more than enough for strategy fans to enjoy. The graphics might be archaic, but you’ll never get lost in the terrain trying to find your units, and the interface is easy to understand.
As gameplay goes, it is relatively simple as strategy games go. There are only two resources in the game: money and oil. There is a capitalism joke in there but I’m not going to bother pointing that out.
Plop down an oil pump against that delicious lake of brown gold to gather oil, which is needed for everything from generating electricity to building stuff. Money is gathered with combine harvesters that roam the map for hops. That’s a new one, but it suits the harsh setting of the game. You can train a wide range of units, from infantry and cavalry to tanks and engineers, and they all have their different uses and strengths. Engineers can build pontoon bridges and clear minefields, while aircraft have the advantage of the sky (Obviously). The dozen mini-tutorial scenarios help with understanding how they function. Shrot might not be as complex as other strategy games, but there is more than enough depth for you to enjoy.
With so many game releases, it is easy for some to slip between the cracks no matter how good they are, and Shrot deserves more eyes on it. It does not cost much, it runs on pretty much anything (It’s even playable on the Steam Deck with the WASD/Keyboard profile), and it’s a lot of fun to play.
Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to play more of the campaign.
