Kholat Review (PC) 

  Kholat bleeds atmosphere. The gorgeous snow covered landscapes combined with the crunching of your feet in the frozen drifts and stinging winds made me physically shiver and pull the blankets closer to my body. There's a peacefulness found in the isolation of the mountains that affected me in a very real way. I've trudged alone through wintry forests, lost in my own thought before, and Kholat recreates that feeling with near perfection. The supernatural elements may be things of folklore and imagination, but they effectively convey that awe-inspiring sense of mystery and danger that lurks in the untouched, dark wilderness.

  Using the somewhat obscure but true events of a group of hikers meeting their untimely end in the Ural mountains under mysterious circumstances, Kholat charges the player to set out into the frozen Russian nothingness to uncover the truth behind the rampant speculations. You arrive in a small town with almost no guidance, trek up a pathway toward the mountains, and find a small survival tent containing a map, compass, and flashlight. These will be the only tools at your disposal for the entire game. The map has GPS coordinates scribbled in a corner, but there is no indicator to show you where you're located. You have to use landmarks and a rudimentary sense of direction to adventure toward those vague points of interest, and even then the map isn't entirely reliable as what appears to be straight pathways are often blocked or misleading. It may sound more difficult in concept than it is in practice: the environment isn't nearly as vast and open as it first appears. There are clear pathways and walls so basic maze-solving logic applies, but still, the lack of hand holding and gift of player freedom go a long way to sell the play space as untamed.

  This is very much a walking simulator, and it's also a game about picking up notes. Kholat is a very good one of those experiences. It's the perfect length, ending before the wonder of exploration wears thin. It leverages the simplicity of note gathering for gameplay mechanics; you'll hear them fluttering in the wind well before you see them, so you're forced to heighten your senses which makes every wolf howl or cracking branch that much more unnerving. The notes also act as save points, so they're objects of tension relief on top of mere story dumps. There are fail states, and while the game certainly isn't difficult they come frequently and with enough unpredictability that you never let your guard down for long. It's packed with just the right amount of variety that it never becomes formulaic; you have to hide in a closet from a monster... once. There's some very light platforming, and a couple set-piece chase sequences. It's a game about the supernatural and there's a subplot about inhumane experiments, but it's best described as “tense” rather than full of jump scares or gross out blood and gore. It's the rare instance of a game understanding the strengths of the genres (horror and walking experience) and using them correctly rather than making an empty game and passing off laziness for art.

  As I hiked up a narrow mountain pass I thought I caught what looked like a vaguely skull shaped rock in the mountain. Winding further upward my suspicions were confirmed as there were several giant, silent skulls staring at me. I felt uneasy, but also taken aback at the beauty and subtlety of these impossibly titanic symbols of death carved there amidst the softly falling snow. Kholat is more about the experience than traditional gameplay, but it's an experience that moved me deeply and I highly recommend it.