Kholat (PC)

In the northern Urals, on a mountain known as Kholat Syakhl – “Dead Mountain” in the local language – nine hikers go missing. Weeks later, they are found, their bodies lightly clothed and lying in the snow, despite the bitter cold of the Russian winter. Mysterious injuries only add to the confusion surrounding their deaths. This might sound like the setting of a typical horror movie, but it’s actually a description of real events that developer/publisher IMGN.PRO have made the theme of their survival horror game Kholat. We took our own the trip to the Urals to check out this uncanny story for ourselves.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident

Aliens, the Soviet military, supernatural forces, or unusual natural phenomena; there are all kinds of different theories and rumors about what might have happened – or who could be responsible. There’s not a single explanation that goes unchallenged, and to this day the mystery has not been solved. And this is right where Kholat comes in. As a nameless protagonist, you are send up the snow-covered slopes of Kholat Syakhl to find out what you can about the mysterious disappearance of the hikers.

Map and Compass

The locations to explore include eerie forests, mysterious buildings, dark caves, and imposing mountain passes. When you find a journal page, things get really interesting, with the appearance of ghostly, shimmering figures. The game uses found documents as checkpoints, and individual locations can be used to fast travel later on.

Despite the uncanny atmosphere, the only real threat you’ll run into are certain dark and shadowy figures lurking about, who can bring your investigation to an abrupt, nasty end. There’s no way to fight them, so the only thing you can do is run. But even though you can only sprint over very short distances, it’s usually pretty easy to get away from them. So while these mysterious beings can be pretty scary at first, it doesn’t take long for the fear factor to wear off. The real challenge is trying to find your way around the snowy mountain landscape, always keeping an eye on your map and your compass. Extremely important here are the coordinates written on walls and the like, which you can use to find out or confirm your current location. That’s pretty much it as far as the gameplay is concerned – Kholat offers little in the way of variety.

Another thing I found disappointing was how short the game was. Players with lots of experience with this kind of game will find that it doesn’t take much more than five hours to find all the pages you need to solve the mystery. There are also some annoying limits on your freedom of movement. For example, the fact that you can’t jump means that even tiny obstacles can turn what appears to be a pathway into a dead end.

Nice and Creepy

But even better than the awesome graphics is the game’s incredible sound design. Wolves howl off in the distance, the wind whispers as it brushes the landscape, and brushwood cracks beneath your feet, all making their contribution to Kholat’s eerie atmosphere. Rounding out the whole experience is some pretty great background music, which adds additional dimensions to an already complex and immersive ambience of sound. From the first few seconds of the game, the the interplay of graphics and sound creates a heavy, at times menacing, at times melancholy atmosphere to take the player on an emotionally charged journey.

There’s little voice acting in Kholat, and what little there is is only available in English (or Polish). The most important journal pages are read by none other than Sean Bean, who also narrates certain key scenes, in an almost philosophical tone. The sound here is excellent as well.