Buy Kholat

The game refreshingly throws you completely empty handed into its cold, dead world, with no indication where to go whatsoever. It left me pleasantly unsure what to expect and this produced a very authentic initial immersion. Once you recover your essential equipment (a compass, a map and a flashlight) and after you discover your first few key locations, the game keeps rolling on the same steady pattern until the end.

You spend the bulk of your time slowly exploring snowy grey landscapes to investigate a strange incident. The very convincing snow and effects convey a superb impression of extreme coldness and desolation. Realistic sounds of constantly blowing wind, creaking ice and footsteps in the snow are only surpassed by the spooky distant whistles and howls occasionally heard. The remarkable sound design also features brilliantly chilling music.


Overall the game looks great but is not without repetitiveness in between the few, more interesting and unique supernatural moments.

The very intriguing premise loses some of its appeal on first contact with the anomaly, mostly because it draws you to expect something more unconventional or inventive. The narrative leads to an appreciable journey into madness that nonetheless manages to stay intriguing throughout, albeit confusing.

Aside from the main event locations you must discover, the game is peppered with articles and journals hidden more or less uniformly through the world. Normally I rarely appreciate collectible hunts but Kholat handles these well. A very audible sound cue heard from a generous range informs you whenever you stand nearby a page, and once you hear it it is generally very easy to get to it. Discovering them is optional but adds greatly to the story's development. The notes are then marked on your map, which incidentally helps you reorient since it's so very easy to get lost.

It is notoriously difficult to use a map completely without UI guidance, especially for someone like me who gets easily disoriented. It is hard to keep track of where you've been since the map is also not explicitly detailed. Navigating around the environment is the game's sole challenge, so getting the hang of using the map and compass is imperative if you are to gain any enjoyment out of it. There are no puzzles to solve or situations that require thoughtful decisions.

The only thing to fear, aside from losing your way, are the various manifestations of the anomaly and the occasional trap. Death is instantaneous and wholly unnecessary to the plot. It presents the game's most annoying element as it only forces you to restart at the last checkpoint with absolutely no gained benefit. Your only way around is avoidance but you don't need to get smart.

Despite the harsh conditions, you never have to rest or get warm. This is not about survival. Your character does not even seem to be affected by the cold in any way. There may be an explanation for that in the game's ineffective ending but I will not spoil it, except to mention that it inspires ambiguous conclusions that are completely open to interpretation. It is only satisfying in the sense that it keeps you thinking about the story long after you've stopped playing but it offers no closure.

The game is short but it's really just about the right length for what it has to deliver. It offered approximately 5 hours for a normal run going at a casual pace. The only reason to go back would be to hunt the remaining story collectibles, which I am not inclined to do.

Get this only if you enjoy tense, long, slow walks in the snow, with a dash of unexplained paranormal activity.

A Very Beautiful Walking Simulator With Some Slight Survival Horror Aspects
This Game Is Loosely Based On A Real Event Called "The Dyatlov Pass Incident"
Occuring In 1959

-Pros-
-Immersive Walking Simulator With A Nice Soundtrack
-Collectibles That Build Story Depth But Are Not Too Simple To Locate
-The Game Is Open World But You Will Eventually Go Everywhere (Making The Game Less Linear)
-A Creative Way To Reenact A Real Life Event

-Cons-
-A Little Short, I Did 2 Playthroughs - You Can Speed Run The Game In 1 Hour 30 Minutes
-Can Be Confusing At First If You Dont Understand The Map & Compass Layout
-Sometimes You Will Randomly Die Without Noticing Your Killer (Dont Want To Spoil Anything)
-The Game Somewhat Leaves You Wanting More
-Some People Arnt Aware Of The Tent Checkpoint & Teleporation Feature Until To Late Into The Game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7gzaAjf35w
+ First off, visually this game looks fantastic. Incredibly detailed, trees blow in the wind, and the environments are very well crafted.
+ Incredibly atmospheric sounds that are very emersive. These help create tension and often fear as you hear things in the distant or sudden unexplained eerie sounds. Also... the game has some pretty neat wind sounds that really help make you feel like you are in a arctic environment.
+ Horror.... I've seen some say "this is not a horror game", but there is a terrifying unnatural creature that roams about which freaked me out on a number of occasions. (Think of Slenderman) Combine this with being alone in a very desolate place with strange atmospheric sounds and you are surely to be frightened at some point.
+ The scale of the game is HUGE, so large that you will actually feel like you are getting lost as you start to explore too far.
+ Based on a true story, I encourage you to search up the Dyatlov Pass incident it is facinating.
+ The game beckons to be explored. It may just be me, but everywhere I looked I seemed to find a new interesting area with new obstacles, mysterious artifacts, or events that would take place.
+ This is a personal note, but Sean Bean is the narrator...the guy who played Ned Stark in Game of Thrones who happens to be one of my favorite actors.

- The plot is a bit vague concering who you are or what your objective is. You are essentially alone exploring the area where hikers went missing and later found dead in mysterious circumstances. I believe you are sort of reliving the events the took place, but I had trouble understanding if my character was real or just an observer.
- The narrator's dialogue is very vague and confusing. I had trouble understanding who he was or understanding what he was trying to tell me. Perhaps it would have made sense in the end.

Kholat is a walking simulator with supernatural/horror elements thrown in. The environment is gorgeous and lends itself to some good screenshots, I used the game to bolster my wallpaper folder. Unfortunately, the game itself has a lot of problems that make it unenjoyable.

Firstly, you're given very little in the way of direction. This is fine in a more linear game, where you're bound to find your objective by moving forward, but the world in Kholat is fairly sizable and open. There is a map/compass system that isn't user friendly and there are coordinates strewn about the map, hidden on rocks and whatnot, that serve to tell you where you are.

Secondly, the way the monster is implemented is a huge problem to the game. SURPRISE there's a monster (anomoly) in the game. It's this weird gaseous thing that looks like it belongs in the Stalker series. The real issue with the monster is that there isn't a clear purpose for it, sometimes it's for jump scares, sometimes it's for tension, and sometimes it's just an annoyance.

I honestly don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. Am I supposed to find all the pieces of paper, ala Slender, or am I heading to some unknown destination? Too much is left unclear in this game.

Okay, before I begin bashing, I will say: excellent sound and art direction. Before you're exposed to the actual core gameplay, you really are spooked and ready for what's coming up next. The soundscape alone was enough to make me jump a few times, initially. A very cinematic experience just from walking through the snow, and I did like the story exposition that you got through the scattered journals, even if that was a little hamfisted. Now...

The actual threats you deal with in the game really detracts from the atmosphere/subtlety of the game, and feels like a complete afterthought; when you do die, it's always completely unexpected and instant, and then you're spawned in some random place that you don't recognize, lost. I died enough times, and for such ridiculous reasons, that I just stopped caring/being immersed in the game at all. All of the carefully crafted atmospheric events and sound effects just stopped phasing me in any way.

Getting instagibbed by a monster you have no chance of ever outrunning, who can see you through rocks, trees, terrain, and other visual blocks even when crouching, is not fun. Neither is suddenly falling into a random trap and instantly dying. Also, lore-wise, why would there even be traps for you to get caught in? Do the demons in this game just spend all day digging spike pits for me to fall in, when they aren't walking around in circles guarding rocks? It's not like the hikers did it, so what's even the purpose? Very obviously just a tacked on obstacle to stretch the content out. I honestly think this game would've been a lot scarier to me if there weren't any actual, physical monsters, but just the THREAT of one. A few things that can kill a player in a game like this are good, but if it happens too often, or if it's too direct, you just get numb to it, and it annoys you, rather than scares you. I reached that point, and beyond.

I've also never been a big fan of the "realistic" map/compass system. It requires extremely good map design, landmarks, and visual cues to implement such a system so that all players can navigate it well, which almost no dev is willing to put the effort forward to do. It's usually falls flat on its face when used in games, and this one is no exception - you even get the impression that the developers were even aware of this, as there are many points on the map where you'll see glowing sets of coordinates to indicate where you currently are... Almost as if they realized after the fact that they had to implement some blaringly obvious clues like that, because their game world and mapping system is otherwise too confusing and counter-intuitive for normal play. The Russian compass, while "immersive", doesn't help.

Definitely one of the weaker and more frustrating horror games I've played.

There are few things you have to understand first - it's not a survival game and it's not a horror game. It's a walking simulator with a little creepy atmosphere. Still - it's a game that managed to keep me attached to it until the very ending. Mostly because of very nice looking environment. You also get minimalistic but good sfx and music. And Sean Bean's voice!
The game has an open world but don't expect any freedom. You can only decide on which part of the map to go to first. And you only walk. Sometimes run. Sometimes some shadow is chasing you. Nothing more. You can't even jump or climb a waist-high boulder. Oh wait - there are a few scripted events in the whole game. And you can even see them happen all over again if you pass the same point in the map!
Still... So many cons and it managed to give me some fun and pleasure. Buy it, if it's cheap.

I haven't even finished this game, mainly because the anomaly scares the crap outta me, but also of how beautiful this game looks. Oh yeah also that and, I got it off the humble bundle. (A survival game my ♥♥♥!)

The detail in this game is amazing, the sound quality is great on what type of ground you're traversing on weather it be rock, a pavement or deep snow! Trees blow along with the wind, and there are notes scattered around the map for you to find making sure you really get a feel for what the unreal engine can really do.

Story wise there isn't much to say, apart from you knowing what the Dyatlov pass incident is, there is no character development and you don't even know who you're playing as. Are you a spirit? are you one of the hikers? Who knows?

Gameplay isn't much different, its quite bland to be honest, just hold out your compass all the way and you should be out of harms way. Its a simple walking simulator with horror elements thrown into the mix to really get your heart racing weather it be ambient noises or the anomaly this game is sure to get your heart racing one way or another!

Overall I really like this game, huge map, beautiful graphics and horror elements. This game can prove walking simulators can be spiced up a bit!

A short (~3 hrs) first-person adventure telling a creepy story about Dyatlov's group – the tourists who died in the snows of Ural mountains. The game has a few horror elements and the main character can die to monsters, but other than that Kholat is like Dear Esther set in the snowy mountains.

The visuals, sound and overall atmosphere of Kholat is superb. and while I wouldn't call the game scary. it definitely is quite disturbing. A must play if you liked Amnesia, Outlast, and Penumbra.

I played for 84 minutes and got stuck. It only seemed to save at tents and the last one must have been quite a bit ago so that really sucks. Minus the bugs (that happened in two different places but I managed to get out the first time), my first impressions were amazement at the graphics and atmosphere. Not for graphics sake alone, but for engrossment. I have to ask myself if I've ever been so immersed in a game before and it's hard to say I have. Having essentially zero UI and being in a first-person perspective along with the exceptional graphics (must be making use of tessellation I imagine) really pushes this over the immersion threshold for me. It really gives the word 'immersion' meaning which I've often had a hard time defining. If I was able to play this in VR (which I don't have) and not get sick, I imagine I would start to question reality. I definitely noticed myself getting lost in the game occasionally hearing sounds outside of my headphones and being sort of pulled out for those moments and I could imagine easily getting drawn in for hours at a time, which little concept of actual time.


The story is based on true events, but of course with their own explaination (so far) as to what happened to cause this group of nine Russian college students to all die and unexplained ways while camping in the snowy wilderness. I'm not sure what's true and made up (which is probably a compliment), but the journal entries are interesting enough and I'm interested to see more and where the story goes. It would have been nice to see a more grounded explaination of their deaths in this game, rather than the supernatural things I've seen thus far, but it's been done pretty well up to this point, even considering those.

The gameplay itself is actually rather boring, which should speak to how much the atmosphere and engagement. If you've heard the term 'walking-simulator' or the like before, this is a lot like that. There's no action or apparently any threat at all (except I take it this orange cloud thing chasing you would set you back) and you are sort of just walking around picking up pieces of the story (which is in a great, really high-res notebook, which is voice-acted for important parts and can be zoomed in on) as you occasionally run from an orange cloud/smoke thing. It would be great if there was more actual substance to the gameplay like in Penumbra: Overture which I've been reminded of, which has survival aspects. *Somewhat spoilery, but not really* There are parts where a sort of black ethereal monster walks towards you, but again I don't know if he's an actual threat, but him coming toward you with the music is definitely intimating. What I like about this game, compared to Layers of Fear, which I've been playing recently as well, is that there aren't jump scares. It's more of intimidation and immediate sense of threat. I gasped at one point when I fell, not because I was startled, but because I felt like I was falling, being as consumed in the game (hard to call it that for good and bad reasons) as I was. That says a lot for me. As someone else said, it's not really a horror game (so far anyway) as much as something that feels tense like the movie The Grey (Liam Neison) where you don't feel abruptly startled, but rather intimidated by circumstance.

I really love this sort of realistic feeling of threat and would love to see it explored in more 'horror' games, maybe in a murder/mystery type game. Something where you're not being bombarded with pop-scares and magic tricks to scare you (though I like that about Layers of Fear), but rather real-world things to alarm you like a man coming at you with a knife.

According to the site, howlongtobeat.com, this game should take about 5 hours to complete the main story. My rule of thumb is that a game should have at least an hour of game time for each (American) dollar spent on it, so $20 is too much imo. I got it for about $5 in a Humble Bundle with a couple other games, so that was a fair deal to me. I would pick it up on sale or wait for the price to come down, as I doubt it will be worth replaying.

Awesome game, really nails its atmosphere with great music and breathtaking visuals. The voice acting is top notch and the story, whilst not gamechanging, is certainly interesting. There are a handful of bugs, but they don't detract from the experience.