Imagine being trapped in the wilderness. The callous, cold wind batters against the sensitive flesh on your face. You are equipped with nothing more than a basic map, a journal and a torch with a surprisingly suitable longevity so far as battery life is concerned. With no clear objective, you wander aimlessly through the seemingly endless expanse of snowy mountains and dark trees. Now imagine that this is no night-time dream of which you can awake from at any moment. Instead, it is a waking nightmare of which you must play through until a conclusion has been reached. This is an immersive survival horror game which lacks the thrills, variety and fun of its predecessors. This… is Kholat.
Stay Frosty
As I touched on prior, the entirety of Kholat is set against the backdrop of a desert of snow. Throughout the game, there is little variation to this, aside from the occasional discovery of a cave or specific location designed to progress the narrative, which pierces through the established white and grey colour scheme with a striking orange glow.
Consequently, it can become difficult, frustrating and cumbersome to differentiate one location from the next, robbing any one locale of character and preventing players from reaching each objective in a manner devoid of frustration or monotony.
Furthermore, though this is a title constructed under current generation hardware, it visually represents the prior generation with flat textures, jagged geometry and a lack of apparent sheen or polish. The independent nature of the title does nothing to excuse this as many independent developers have designed eye-pleasing spectacles simply by establishing a unique visual style for their title.
Diary of the Dead
If the bland visual design that your sense of sight was forced to consume was not sufficient fuel to fire up your boredom, then perhaps the narrative design will serve as the final nail in the coffin.
Kholat is loosely based on the unsettling but easily explained Dyatlov Pass incident. Spooked by an avalanche, a group of hikers frantically cut themselves from their tent and disperse to their ultimate demise. Some froze to death in their underclothes, others were crushed.
Thanks to some grisly and oft-misinterpreted details, a legend has grown in the 60 years since. That the incident took place on Kholat Syakhl or Mountain of Death has only helped that growth.
The only fragments of narrative players can experience in Kholat are found in diary entries. Some of which come packaged in amateur audio book format, while others must be read traditionally.
I usually enjoy finding diary entries in survival-horror games as they flesh out the game-world, adding depth or lore. However, the diary extracts found in Kholat are mind-numbingly long-winded.
The excerpts are written in an Arial font that requires players to zoom in to the page to actually read them. Furthermore, what is documented in these tiny texts are completely devoid of scares, mystery or intrigue.
I found myself struggling to care enough to follow what narrative effort was made. I would feel some remorse if the developers had put more effort into establishing a frightening mystery that did not end so insultingly abruptly.
The Distant Sounds of Silence
Lamentably, there is not much to discuss so far as the audio aspects of this game are concerned. Though the atrocious voice-acting did little to impress me, the remainder of the sound design did for a while.
Music is kept sparse, only ever used to bolster dramatic high points in the narrative, or to indicate when the player has stumbled – usually in the most literal sense – on something of immense importance.
Instead, it is the harsh whistle of the winter wind and the distant sound of footsteps, without a physical body to accompany them, that carry the game sonically. The latter of which filled me with genuine sense of paranoia and dread. However, I quickly got used to it until it gradually transitioned to white noise, and then finally to an annoyance.
Road Map to Recovery
If trudging through locations which look similar to each other at a reduced speed, equipped only with a map that omits displaying your current location, searching for notes which blend into the environments while being pursued on occasion by translucent spectres sounds like an enjoyable experience to you, then there is little for you to fear in Kholat. However, I must politely request that you socially distance yourself from me for the foreseeable future.
Of course, I jest, but Kholat’s irritatingly repetitive gameplay is no laughing matter. Nor is its failure to adequately reward a player’s unending labour.
I could only bring myself to play in short bursts. Not because that is how it is best played, but because it bored me so thoroughly that I did not feel compelled to play further.
Perhaps I am just failing to recognise its true genius of being able to accurately represent the sensation of being stranded in the wilderness with few provisions. Regardless, this is not a sensation I personally take pleasure in and, therefore, will be directing my attention elsewhere.
Open and Shut Case
There is no denying that Kholat is an immersive survival horror game that leans into its immersive elements without apology. Kholat has its niche but many tempted to take the plunge will be disappointed due to the game’s frustratingly repetitive and hollow gameplay experience. One which bears no fruit during its closing moments.
