Kholat

About Kholat

Kholat is a horror exploration game made by the Polish studio IMGN.PRO. It came out on PC in June 2015, on PlayStation 4 in March 2016, on Xbox One in June 2017 and on Nintendo Switch in May 2020. It takes its name from Kholat Syakhl, the mountain where nine experienced hikers died in the winter of 1959 in what became known as the Dyatlov Pass incident. The Russian investigators closed the case saying "a compelling unknown force" caused the deaths, and the game builds its own story out of that gap. Sean Bean narrates in English.

You play in first person in a wide, non-linear valley of snowy forests, mountain gorges, caves and abandoned wooden buildings. There are no markers on screen: you find your way with a paper map and a compass, picking out landmarks such as an abandoned church, a cosmodrome and old campsites. Notes scattered through the valley give coordinates that lead to further clues, and piece by piece they tell you more about the hikers and those who came after them.

The horror is mostly in being lost. Much of the game takes place at night, the forest is nearly black and fog swallows the landmarks you were steering by. Glowing, shadow-like creatures move through parts of the valley, and if one finds you, you have to run, because there is nothing to fight with.

Compared with other horror walks such as The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Kholat gives you far less help: the map does not show where you are, so reading the land is part of the challenge. It won the Best Story and Best Desktop/Downloadable awards at GameConnection Europe 2015, as its Xbox store page notes.

Kholat suits players who like slow, atmospheric walks with a real mystery behind them, and who do not mind getting lost on purpose. Players are split on it: it sits at Mixed on Steam and 64 on Metacritic. If you want a guided story or combat, look elsewhere.

How to play Kholat

1. Open your map and match it against the landmarks around you to work out where you are.
2. Use the compass to keep a heading toward the next coordinates or place marked on the map.
3. Pick up the notes you find; their coordinates point you to the next clues.
4. Head for the next set of coordinates and keep exploring new parts of the valley.
5. When a glowing shadow creature comes after you, run and break its line of sight; you cannot fight it.

Tips

• Walk slowly in fog and at night and stop to check the compass often; it is easy to walk in circles.
• Note big landmarks like the cosmodrome, the church and the campsites on the map so you can find your way back.
• Play with headphones; sound warns you when something is near.
• Turn the brightness up a little if you need to: much of the valley is very dark.
• Expect to get lost: the game is built around finding your own way.

Questions