E1M4: Sokol Gym

Sokol Gym is the fourth mission in HROT Episode 1 — Kiss Me Gustav, which has another new, and somewhat unexpected miniboss.

# Walkthrough

    The Player enters the map in a utility tunnel, which continues from the hall at the top of the ladder in Sewage Treatment Plant. Around the corner are two Kejdovecs on a catwalk above a Soviet Shotgun.

    Past them, the tunnel ends in a room overlooking a canal, with two planks covering a hole. Break them open and drop down to another utility tunnel below. There is an exploding barrel and a switch next to a grate that looks into a room with a valve, which has a second grate on the other side. Throw it and a panel at the other end of the tunnel will open, while two Smaskous appear to ask you what you think you are doing.

    Enter the newly opened portion of the tunnel where there is another switch and the second grate. Throw the switch to open the room with the valve, which also contains a Konfident and a Smaskou, directly across from the entrance to the first secret.

    Turn the valve and the tunnel will fill with water. Swim up to reach a water course, and follow it around until you reach an open area with a catwalk leading to a door ahead of you and a ladder to the right, where a Konfident is hanging around and muttering. At the top of the ladder is a Submachine Gun and three Smaskous guarding a set of stairs with a door at top.

The door leads to a shopping district on **Red Army Street** (**Rudé Armády**), which includes a **Gift Shop** (**Dárková Síň**), a **Milk** store (**Mléko**) with two bags of Semi-Skimmed Milk, a **Fashion** store (**Móda**), a **Grocery Store** (**Potraviny**), a **Fruit - Vegetables** store (**Ovoce - Zelenina**), a **Buffet - Expresso** store (**Expreso Bufet**), which is of course closed, and a store for **Footwear - Leather Goods** (**Obuv - Kož. Galanterie**). Walking forward, an announcement is made yet again: **We buy leather, feathers, plastics, paper, ash, bones. (Vykupujeme kůže, peří, umělé hmoty, papír, popel, )** After wondering who would spend their hard earned Koruna on ash, we continue on!

    To the right of the **Gift Store** is the entrance to an apartment building, where a Smaskou is coming down the stairs to go on his shift. A Kejdovec is hanging out on the landing at the top next to a door, along with one Koruna. Enter the apartment overlooking the shopping district which is shared by two Konfidents. In the bedroom is a security monitor and a wardrobe containing one Koruna.

    The apartment has a second door leading to a balcony overlooking a courtyard, where the Aluminum Key awaits the Player. It sits in front of a laundry room with a washing machine where you can earn the Rodeo achievement.

    On taking the key, two Konfidents will appear to explain to that it does not belong to you. Drop down into the courtyard where you will find a sign that says **Object in Socialist Care of the Supervisory Committee of the Consumer Cooperative** (**Objekt v socialistické péči dohlížecího výboru Spotřebního družstva**).

    Exit the courtyard and turn right where you will find the Aluminum Key door, which opens to a flight of steps leading down to **Majakovského** **Street**. Here you will find a Kejdovec walking his two S.U.P.s along a canal, with a Konfident watching in approval. There is an information kiosk with advertisements for Gott, which is near the entrance to the second secret.

    Take the catwalk across the canal where there is a door and a bag of Semi-Skimmed Milk. The door opens to the catwalk where you met the two Kejdovecs at the start of the map, at the end of which you will find the Rusted Key. Returning to **Majakovského** **Street**, there will be a Skapucí and two Hazmat Suits who strongly object to your actions.

    Return to **Red Army Street** and turn the right where you will find the **Garage** (**Garáže**). Through the double doors is an elevator with a sign that says **Warning! Elevator! Weight Limit 1400 kg** (**Pozor! Výtah! Nosnost 1400 kg**) and a button.

    Ride the elevator down to the parking garage where a Kejdovec and two Smaskous are on the lookout for car thieves. There are also some clips to the right, a Koruna in an empty room off the garage, and a Medkit.

    The Rusted Key door is at the left when entering the Garage, beyond which are two Sewer Rats, a Kejdovic, and two Hazmat Suits, along with a bag of Semi-Skimmed Milk. At the end of the corridor there is an elevator which will return you to the shopping district on **Red Army Street**.

    Three Smaskous will emerge from the **Gift Shop**, where they have been buying some bullets as a present for you. Inside the shop you will find a Grenade and the Common Key. Prepare yourself, because once the key is taken the shopping district will erupt into an arena battle, with numerous Smaskous, Hazmat Suits, Kejdovecs, and Konfidents appearing to make your life more interesting.

    Behind the truck in front of the **Grocery Store** is an alley where you will find the Common Key door and a Hussite Hand Cannon. Beyond the door is a storage room that contains two Sewer Rats, a ventilation duct, and the entrance to the third secret.

    Break open the ventilation duct and proceed through it until the side walls drop, when you will be confronted by two Smaskous and a Hazmat Suit. Continue through until you reach a second ventilation duct that drops you onto **Spartakiádní Street** in front of the **Sports Club** (**Tělovýchovná jednota**).

    To your immediate left are some Grenades, and across the street on the **Sports Club**, a sign that says **Warning! Falling Plaster!** (**Pozor! Padá omítka**). Beyond this is a football field where you can amuse yourself by scoring a few goals with the ball, and perhaps even earn the  Kick achievement.

    There are also some clips and a button that will open the door to the **Sports Club**, where three Hazmat Suits and a Konfident are leaving with a satisfied glow after their refreshing workouts.

    Inside the **Sports Club**, the entrance to the Gym is blocked by two bollards. To the right is a locker room, where a Smaskou and Skapucí are dressing out next to the entrance to the fourth secret. Inside the lockers, you can find a Medkit and one Koruna, and across from them is the switch to open the gym.

    Inside the Gym is another of the game's most unlikely enemies, and the entrance to fifth secret. You will be attacked by a Goat, who may be small in size for a boss, but is actually pretty tough in terms of the damage it can absorb. Goat is very similar to Fierce Gorilla, jumping around like a crazed chimpanzee and shooting rockets at you. When killed it will drop a can of Tasty Canned Chicken for you to recover.

    To the left of the basketball backboard is a doorway to some stairs down to the A3-5 button that will end the level, just beneath a sign that says **Under the Leadership of the Communist Party for Further Development of Physical Education** (**Pod vedením KSČ za další rozvoj tělovýchovy**).

**Previous:** E1M3: Sewage Treatment Plant  **Next:** E1M5: Palace of Culture

# Secrets

### Secret 1

In the utility tunnels at the start of the level, where you turn the valve to raise the water level, there is a nook opposite the valve. Stand there, and as the water rises, swim up until you reach a small recess that contains a pail of Soup Main Course Cake.

### Secret 2

On **Majakovského** **Street** there is a sign against the wall in front of the water course that says **Fishing Prohibited** (**Zákaz Chytání Ryb!**). Interact with the wall just to the right of the sign and the wall will open to reveal a hidden area containing some shells, a bag of Semi-Skimmed Milk, one Koruna, and a Smaskou.

### Secret 3

In the storage room with the Sewer Rats behind the Common Key door is a cracked wall on the right hand side of the room, next to a stack of boxes. Whip out your Hussite Hand Cannon, and get excited when you blow it open and find a Lightning Gun waiting for you.

### Secret 4

Inside the **Sports Club** (**Télovýchovná Jeonota**) there is a locker room on the right that has a flag of Czechoslovakia draped on the wall, as any patriotic club of the CSSR would do. Wall through the flag to find some Tasty Canned Chicken and a Wifebeater.

### Secret 5

    Also found inside the **Sports Club** (**Tělovýchovná jednota**), this secret can be found in the Gym at the top of the first ladder to the left. Simply climb to the top of the ladder and interact with the wall to open a panel and gain 5 Koruna.

# Lore

* The Sokol movement is an all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech lands of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was based upon the principle of "a strong mind in a sound body". The Sokol, through lectures, discussions, and group outings provided what Tyrš viewed as physical, moral, and intellectual training for the nation. This training extended to men of all ages and classes, and eventually to women. Though officially an institution above politics, the Sokol played an important part in the development of Czech nationalism and patriotism, which found expression in articles published in the Sokol journal, lectures held in the Sokol libraries, and theatrical performances at the gymnastic mass festivals called slets. After World War II Sokols held one more slet in the Strahov Stadium in 1948 before they were suppressed by the Communist Party, which tried to replace the tradition of slets with mass exercises employed for propaganda purposes - the Spartakiads. Many of the Sokol members were imprisoned or exiled. The Sokols reappeared briefly during the Prague Spring of 1968. After years of hibernation, the Sokol movement was revived for the fourth time in 1990. A slet was held in 1994 after the fall of Communism, with 23,000 Sokols participating. Presently, the organization focuses on physical training in gymnastics and other athletics.

* The Tatramatka is a top loading washing machine produced by the former **Tatramat** company. Founded in 1845 as a producer of nails and currycombs for grooming horses, it switched to producing domestic kitchen goods after World War I, and zinc-coated and painted barrels, water heaters, electric ovens, and automatic washing machines after World War II. It began production of automatic top-loading washing machines in 1969, and front-loading washing machines in cooperation with **Elektronska Industrija of Yugoslavia** in 1972. In Czechoslovakia, it was the number one manufacturer of automatic washing machines and domestic water heaters. At the beginning of the 1990s, **Tatramat** controlled 88% of the automatic washing machine market in Czechoslovakia, a near monopoly. On May 12th, 1992 it was acquired by **Whirlpool Slovakia**, and on April 1, 2020, changed its name to **Stiebel Eltron Slovakia**.

* The The truck in the commercial area off **Red Army Street** (**Rudé Armády**) in front of the **Grocery Store** (**Potraviny**) and **Fruit - Vegetables** (**Ovoce Zelina**) store is modeled on an Avia A31. Avia Motors s.r.o. is a Czech automotive manufacturer. Founded in 1919 as an aircraft maker, it diversified into trucks in the post WWII reorganization of Czechoslovak industry, making new commercial vehicles. As early as 1946 a prototype of the Škoda R-706 vehicle was developed, and the first vehicle and bus series was built in 1947.

* The sign for the Consumer Cooperative Supervisory Committee refers to a Soviet movement with three goals: to help members save money; to promote the moral development of their members and, where possible, their political consciousness, they organized a wide variety of cultural and educational activities; and to use the general meetings of their societies to teach working class members to participate in running the cooperatives.

* The posters on the information kiosk on **Majakovského** **Street** advertising **Gott** refer to Karel Gott, who was a popular Czechoslovak singer in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1970s, Gott achieved domestic success and appeared regularly on television, including in a ten-part serial entitled Karel Gott in Slaný. In Germany, one of his most successful markets, he celebrated his breakthrough in 1970 with the song *Einmal um die ganze Welt* and was a star in both West Germany and East Germany. He regularly appeared in television shows like the ZDF-Hitparade. Gott recorded a cover version of the song *All by Myself* called *Kam tenkrát šel můj bratr Jan* (*Where Did My Brother Jan Go This Time*), dedicated to Jan Palach, the student activist who killed himself by self-immolation as a protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in January 1969. The song was recorded in 1977 while Soviet troops were still present in the country. In 1990, Gott announced the end of his career, and arranged a long farewell tour, however, its success of the tour led him to retract his decision. He remained popular in a number of countries, and performed widely outside the Czech Republic. In 1996, following the renewed public interest in his career, Gott won the *Český slavík* (*Czech Nightingale*), and won the accolade every year following, with the exception of 1998 and 2012, until his death in 2019.

* **Spartakiádní Street**, the address of the **Sports Club** (**Tělovýchovná jednota**) at the end of the level, refers to Spartakiad, the event created by the Communist Party to replace Sokol gatherings.