Tales of horror are frightening enough to make us shiver in the moment or even lose sleep over several days, but they usually don't haunt us for that long. We're able to move on from reflecting on them because they're fake stories meant to play with our heads. But when it comes to real freak accidents or unexplainable phenomena that chill to the bone, that's when our fears become rational and grounded.
One such event is the Dyatlov Pass Incident in 1959, which is when nine hikers sought to reach Otorten Mountain by traveling through the Ural Mountains. However, all of them were found dead over a week later with baffling injuries by rescue teams, and to this day no one truly knows what could've scared them so much as to abandon each other in sheer terror. Polish developer IMGN.PRO seeks to fill in the blanks with its exploratory horror journey called Kholat.
In essence, this game's a so-called "walking simulator", as it were, where you're tasked with scouting out a considerably large open world with nothing but a map, compass, and flashlight by your side. The user interface is devoid of any hints or indicators that will help you, so all you have to go by are coordinates listed on your map alongside routes that will lead you to journals and notes. It's a matter of adventurous instinct that will motivate you to figure out how the hikers were killed, what the strange anomalies are that are happening around you, and who exactly your silent protagonist is. We were quickly reminded of Slender: The Arrival and its gameplay hook with collecting pages in an unfamiliar environment, but Kholat has a bit more going for it.
What you find is far more interesting since every paper scrap contains information that will further reveal how deep the rabbit hole goes. With many entries being voiced acted as well, we were compelled to go off the beaten path to see if there were any notes that would further clarify story details, even if some weren't necessary to acquire. The exploration itself is worthy to commend since its entirely nonlinear and feels organic, which makes this barren, snowy wasteland seem all the more mysterious and worthy of scouring for clues, even though a few dead-ends and pointless areas will make you groan along the way.
This self-guided, minimal gameplay calls Everybody's Gone to the Rapture to the mind, and while it and Kholat may have their moments of exciting discoveries, both suffer from massive amounts of monotonous walking that can get to you, but at least the latter has fast travel points between campsites to compensate for the boredom that will set in at times. And while it may try to spice things up with invisible, glowing monsters that stalk you, they're far too easy to avoid and see coming to be an interesting threat. All of this means that, like The Chinese Room's PS4 exclusive, Kholat banks its appeal on its narrative, atmosphere, and audio for the four hours or so that you'll be playing, and those areas managed to hold our interest just enough despite the lacking gameplay.
In attempting to creatively add to the Dyatlov Pass Incident, the vague story leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It could understandably come across as pretentious or nonsense, but we found the approach successful in how it manages to avoid being narrow in interpretation, since psychological, extra-terrestrial, and religious explanations are all reasonable approaches to what you'll discover. Part of what makes this come to life are the beautiful locales of caverns, snowy forests, and foreboding mountain trails under the night sky, which are aided by impressive draw distance and lighting. This isn't the most photorealistic game we've played, but we applaud how there are no loading screens to maintain immersion. It's just unfortunate that brief gameplay freezes and frame rate drops have to mar the otherwise smooth performance.
But we can say without a doubt that the sound department is Kholat's greatest strength. Sean Bean is a fantastic narrator despite having less lines than we expected, and those notes you'll come across guided by two other voice actors are impressive in their execution, too. What really uplifts the experience to a chilling degree is the atmospheric noise and score. Whether it be the rustling leaves, blustering wind, or unsettling howls of wolves in the distance, the soundscape perfectly complements the environment along with melancholy piano and vocal movements, mixed in with shrill string pieces and ambient, low-key tracks to unsettle you even when there's nothing nearby.
Conclusion
Kholat may be daunting to approach at first with its massive scale, but its eerie setting is worth exploring for its intentionally perplexing narrative and unsettling visual and aural atmosphere. The simplistic gameplay may turn some off with how tedious exploration can become with few scares and long stretches of nothing, but if you choose to remain steadfast on this trail, the sights, sounds, and story may very well be worth your effort.
Comments 15
An interesting review indeed - and one that makes want to jump in as I love games that aim to tell their stories in a way lead by the player. I remember this being announced for PC a while ago and am pleased it'll come to the PS4. I think because it sounds more on the horror end of things, there'll be something interesting to dig away at!
Thanks for the review @get2sammyb!
@Churchy I love the HevyDevy avatar!
Apologies to @DrJoeystein - these are his fine words not mine. I forgot to change the author.
Mr Bean is a fantastic narrator.
Hahahaha, ohh its Shaun Bean
My Missus loved the Rapture game ,think this could be her cup of tea. Still waiting for decent price drop on Until Dawn and Life is Strange.
@Grawlog Having researched this incident in detail, I can attest to the true creepiness of everything that occurred on that mountain. All of it is made more mysterious by the Russian governments unwillingness to talk about their findings and blaming the whole thing on Hypothermia and the delusions that can supposedly come along with it. The campers cut their way out of their tents, in the middle of the night with next to no clothing. Something frightened them deeply and they went running barefoot and unclothed into very cold weather. Some were found missing body parts, some were found with strange radiation poisoning and burns. And some were never found. Needless to say this was a truly unexplainable event further deepened by reports from locals that lived below the mountain of seeing strange lights and hearing strange sounds in and around the time of the incident. Also, the locals called it the mountain of the dead before this incident and it certainly lived up to that name.
@Grawlog There is a documentary on the whole event that is on Netflix I believe. There was a man that was supposed to go on the trip with the other 9 but backed out the day before. He made it his life's mission to uncover the truth the Russian government kept has kept under wraps all these years. The information he has found is truly mindboggling, and he believes there was an experimental weapon or just an experiment conducted on these people by the government. All of this occurring during the height of the cold war and the secrecy surrounding the government at that ti.e only compounds the problems. Give it a watch if you have the time.
The price point is the only thing keeping me from getting the game, since everything else sounds spectacularly spooky and fun.
@Hordak Thanks - I was wondering if anyone would recognise it. And also, it helps if I'm showing surprise when commenting on gaming news.
@SonyInfinity what is it called??? i really want to see it!!! though i doubt its on the canadian netflix.
@SonyInfinity Really interesting - I will seek the documentary out. I had read (by read I mean, internet articles) that the most plausible reason was an avalanche nearby scared them out of the tents, got split up, one group found the others dead and grabbed their clothes and then they tried to hide in trees. I can't remember the details but I like a good unsovled mystery.
@Rudy_Manchego I have that explanation as well. But that explanation poses more questions. Why did they find radiation poisoning and burns on several of the victims? Why would the Russian government be so quick to hush up an avalanche accident? Why we're all the coroner reports buried for years? Why we're some of the people missing facial features and limbs, but showed no sign of animal predation? Why take the time to cut yourself out of the tent when you could simply unzip it just as fast? What were the strange lights and sounds reported by the villagers at the base of the mountain? Why would the not go back to their tents and put clothes on once they realized the supposed avalanche didn't come their way and cover their camp? Many were found very close to the camp site, it's not like they couldn't simply walk back and at least cloth themselves. Also during the first investigation on the mountain not everyone was found. Then a week or two later when they were back searching they found a person shockingly close to the camp, right where they had been searching initially but never found them? None of it makes any sense and that is why many start talking conspiracy and cover up. The more outlandish claims talk of alien abduction and then dropping them back off only to die after their experimentation was done. Others claim the government was running secret radiation weapon testing, and that is why the lights, strange noises and radiation evidence was found. One victim was found splayed out in a tree, organs and guts strewn, but no animal bite or teeth marks to be found. The government won't confirm all these reports but MANY of the people working the investigation have come out and made these claims. Very strange and I'm afraid we will never get the real answer. As it stands now the Russian government considers the case closed and blames it on delusions brought about by extreme and prolonged Hypothermia. Unfortunately that doesn't explain any of the mutilated, burned, and naked bodies. Unless they want us to believe that one person among them became so delusional that he attacked his fellow hikers, committing unthinkable atrocities and then dying there himself shortly afterwards.
@SonyInfinity I must say, this is making me want to buy the game now! These kind of events are always intriguing and frustrating - we'll never get an answer yet we just want to know how it happened. I shall do more reading!
@Rudy_Manchego You should my friend, I consider it one of the four or five most baffling cases in recorded human history. It gets that strange. Some say aliens, some say mountain yeti attack, some say secret government radiation weapon experiments, some say possible avalanche (this one seems more implausible than the others because of how the bodies were left), and the offal report cites hypothermic delusions. You have to find the documentary, it is pretty informative as well, I think it is called the Dyatlov Pass Incident, I think.
The true story is very cool and strange this just sort of lames it, like midichlorines in starwars being used to explain the force I mean yuck way to take something magical and ruin it.
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