Kholat (PS4) Review

 Kholat (PS4) Review

Release Date: March 8, 2016

Date Played: October 11, 2021

Up next on Horror Month 2021 is Kholat. Developed by Polish Developer IMGN.PRO. I added this one to my wish list after I saw Radical Reggie recommend it on a pickups video he did.  It sat on my wishlist for a good long while until it finally went on sale in the UK for $16.49 with free shipping.  I imported it and it sat on the shelf for a couple of years before being randomly selected to play.

You play as an investigator who is following the steps of the 10 Russian hikers that went missing during the Dyatlov Pass Incident in 1959.  It's a true story where their camp was destroyed and they cut their way out of their tent only to be discovered dead in their underwear many yards away.  They had cuts on their bodies and appeared to have the daylights scared out of them.  Many mysteries surround the case and a lot of them are still unanswered to this day.  There are plenty of supernatural and Earthly explanations theorized over the last decades and the story continues to fascinate a lot of people. Just reading the Wikipedia article of this strange event is fascinating and seems like the perfect setting for a horror game. I would consider myself to have a mild interest about the situation and was excited to try the game.  

From the title screen you're welcomed by magnificent music in the form of sparse piano accompanied by swelling strings and wistful female singling. It really evokes a sense of melancholy and uneasiness. It's truly spectacular and couldn't fit the game any better. The rest of the music in the game is also great and is used very well.  It is often playing and is the real star of the show.  On top of this is narration by none other than Sean Bean.  He of course performs wonderfully as do the other voice actors that were used to narrate the game.  

As for the game itself, it's a horror based exploration game.  It's kind of in that walking simulator genre, but is actually based more on an orienteering mechanic.  You're given a map, compass, and several sets of coordinates and are supposed to go investigate the 10 locations the hikers visited before that great tragedy befell them.  You can't see your location on the map and have to orient yourself from the clues you find and your surroundings.  Now, I'm just going to come right out and say it, I absolutely hate navigating around in this game.  I know how to use a map and a compass, but you normally don't have to use those in mountain passes that act more like mazes than open areas.  The vast majority of the time you'll be lost with no way to discover where you are until you randomly stumble onto one of the 10 locations or find a clue that will put a new marker on your map. The new pinpoints on your map are there to serve as markers to help you locate where you actually are, but often times they didn't seem to appear on the map in a location that resembled my surroundings.  For example, there was one clue on the right side of a long road.  When it appeared on the map, the icon was to the left of the road and set back a distance. This made me feel like I was going the wrong direction, so I turned around to retrace my steps.  It was only after 5 or so minuets of going back the way I came before I realized that I needed to turn back around and heat the other way.  These clues not only "help" with locating yourself on the map, but they also help fill in the story and are quite often voice narrated. Like I said, these performances are often really good.  The clues range from spiritual philosophy, supernatural explanations, and journal entries that help flesh out the whole situation. It does help build an atmosphere that is somewhat intriguing.  Adding to that intrigue is the gigantic world of Kholat.  It's snowy, mountainous, and forested. It can be quite beautiful, but it's so full of valleys and jagged peaks that it impedes your view of your surroundings and gives the game a very claustrophobic feel that isn't very welcome.  This works against the game in terms of immersion and the stupid orienteering mechanic.  There are also really short draw distances in the game.  So, even if you go up to a vantage point to try to plan your next move, you can't see anything in the distance.  

There are orange supernatural spirits in various locations on the map, and if you run into one of them you're done for.  You die and go back to the last new clue or location you discovered.  Sometimes this will set you back 30 seconds, other times it can set you back 30 minutes.  Often times, you'll just come around a corner and run smack into one of the orange spirits and have no time to react.  Or, an orange fog will come spilling down the side of the mountain and you have to outrun it.  It's all frustrating and feels cheap. When you die, you're greeted with a load screen that lasts about a minute before you can jump back in.  This makes these accidental deaths all the more irritating and rage inducing. I know these orange spirits (and the other supernatural events in the game) are supposed to add to the scariness, but it never really gets there.  They just feel like more of a hinderance to your progression rather than being the main mechanic of the game itself. I feel like the game should be about you escaping from the monsters that killed those hikers rather than it being about waiting for the monsters to get out of your way so you can go read more journal entries.

Speaking of running, it's mapped to the the R3 button in this game; which is idiotic.  Not only that, you have to continually hold it down to keep running.  This is such a terrible gameplay flaw that I can't overstate it.  After about 20 seconds of this, you'll have a hand cramp.  Hell, an hour after I stopped playing (as I'm currently writing this review) my hand is STILL sore from it.  This HUGE oversite is made even more grievous by the fact that there are unused L1 and R1 buttons on the controller.  Why couldn't the developers map it to one of the unused buttons, or at least give us a chance to rebind what the buttons do in the game? I know this doesn't seem like such a big deal, but trust me, when you play this game it's all you can think about.   You want to run so badly because you walk so slowly and everything is so damn boring that you just need to get a move on.  This button mapping gets directly in the way of you eking out what little enjoyment there is to be had in this game.

On the technical side, the sound design and score are outstanding (as mentioned earlier).  The graphics aren't great and have an early Xbox 360 feel to them.  I also encountered a fair amount of framerate drops that really took me out of the game.  These would often occur when you were near one of the 10 locations you're trying to discover.  These are usually accompanied by some sort of set piece to ratchet up the tension.  Unfortunately, when this happens and the framerate drops it basically gives you a heads up that something big is happening and spoils the surprise.  You can tell that the developers are pretty new to the game.  It's not uncommon for your first game to be a little rough around the edges, and this one certainly fits that description.  But, I can't fathom why they thought the orienteering mechanic would be something people would enjoy doing.  Walking simulators have a bad enough reputation as it is.  I'm guessing they didn't know how to tell the story they wanted to and relied on the walking simulator format as a vehicle to make it into a game.  Then, they added the navigation aspect to try to add some more "gameplay" to spice up the experience.  Sadly, this backfired, in my opinion and it ended up being a hindrance rather than a strength.

My final thoughts on the game are obviously very negative.  Other than the music and sound design I didn't enjoy this game at all.  The orienteering game mechanic isn't fun and makes playing the game a chore.  Piled on top of that is the fact that it's literally painful in your hand to run in this game.  It just makes the time you spent wondering aimlessly around the map all that more frustrating.  The setting is really cool, but they don't do enough with the awesome material they've selected and instead just focus on random bits of lore to add to the generally creepy vibe rather than construct a real story.  As I've mentioned before, I have a gaming sin called, "Esoteric Bullshit" where you have to wander around trying to figure out what you're supposed to do.  It's probably my biggest pet peeve in gaming and Kholat is a game built around that pet peeve.  You're always lost and can't even find your location most of the time and it just makes your time in their world feel like there's no urgency or direction.  I hated it.  I know the game got mixed reviews (mostly leaning negative), but I never though it would be this bad.  

I couldn't bring myself to finish the game and after 3 or so hours...  and with an aching hand I threw in the towel and decided to move onto something more worth my time. 

Final Status: Played for several hours... and quit.

Final Score: 3/10 (Bad)