Kholat

[snakebit10]

I am intrigued by the story this is based on. If anyone knows anymore please post your thoughts.

 

 

[ShadowGandalf]

Ahh. I watched Markiplier play through this. I don't think I'd wanna play it, but it was interesting to watch.

[LetsTurnJu-On]

I'm getting it based on the story is based upon and wanna see what their take on the matter is. I heard they've gone down the supernatural route, which kinda makes sense considering a lot is unknown. Hope it's good.

[JoniP]

We're going need a good map to find everything.

[BIOHAZARD-R-US]

Please don't get it!!! It's 50% off for the next couple days ($9.99, PS+ only) and it sucks. Technical issues all over, gameplay mechanics and issues, all combined with your standard walking simulator tropes and horror clichés.

 

Technical issues I experienced in the first hour:
---Frame rate drops. Sometimes the frame rate would drop significantly and just hang there. At one point it dropped probably under 20fps and stayed that way for a good 30-40 seconds. Paused the game for a little to see if it was a loading thing, and when I resumed it was still bad. One point the game just stalled completely, hanging on the same image for a few seconds and I thought it froze, cuz even the sound dropped out.

---Sound drops. Audio, environment sounds, music, etc., all seem to clip out near the end of their play.

---Short draw/load distances. A little less than half of the objects in the environment load in almost directly in front of me. I was in a cave and rocks on the ground were suddenly appearing just a few feet ahead. I know this is a psychological game, but I guarantee you these rocks spawning in were not cuz of the game.

---Other issues noted in reviews that I did not encounter in my brief play time are frequent hard crashes and various minor things like issues with the text in the journal not loading when voice overs read what's on the page.

 

Gameplay issues:
---Map is incredibly hard to read, unless you're a cartographer. It does not tell you where you are, and only adds little red notes to where you were when you found something. Every now and then you can see coordinates in the environment on rock walls, but of the couple that I encountered, they couldn't have been telling me where I was because what the map showed in that area was not what I was seeing in front of me.

---Compass doesn't work like a normal compass. It tells you where the last camp you found is, like as in what direction. It doesn't tell you where North is, like a normal compass. Whatever direction it's pointing in is the exact straight-line direction of the last discovered camp. You have to navigate the environment and its hazards to get back to them.

---Save spots don't save. Discovering and returning to camps are supposed to save your game, as well as finding notes around the environment. However, for me at least, returning to camps did not save my game, and I don't think the last note I picked up saved my game (I'd hafta watch the video again to double check).

---Save spots are insanely infrequent. Imagine Dark Souls or a game like it had 1 autosave every hour. How quickly would you put the game down because you couldn't get past that section that you keep dying on and have to redo over and over because the game isn't saving? Thankfully this game is not as hard as Dark Souls, but it makes up for it in cheap deaths.

---Cheap deaths. There's traps in the environment, in the form of pits with wooden spikes inside. The first one you come across is nice and open and right in front of you, saying "Hey, I'm here, which means there are more like me out there!" But the next one is just a few meters ahead, and that one is not visible, because it's covered in snow. I fell in it because, even though I was watching where I was going after seeing the first pit, this one was buried under snow and there was no way I could've known it was there until I was already in it and dead.

---No audio clues to creatures. The audio in this game is fantastic, however it loops so quickly and gets boring immediately, on top of the sound drop issues. But there's these creatures, they look like ghosts or spirits with orange coloring and are able to leave footprints. Well, when they're near, the game gives you no audio clues, no dramatic music crescendo, no creature growls (only ones are wolves in the distance, but that's an ambience track that loops every 25 seconds), nothing. Often the seem to spawn right behind you and I died once because I turned around after going into a little area, and it was right there. You have to constantly turn around and check if something is behind you, which not only wastes time and hinders progress, but can lead to you falling in a spike pit. And the more you turn the camera, the lower the frame rate goes.

 

Aesthetically, this game looks beautiful at first. Stepping out onto the platform in the opening seconds was great. But the environment quickly reveals its poor quality. Trees look like PS2 and early PS3 era games with their flatness and paper thin leaves/branches, reminiscent of enemies from early 90's DOOM or Wolfenstein 3D. Cliffs and ledges are hard to discern what's climbable and where you can actually climb up or down. Some reviews have said that ledges only a couple feet down are instant deaths because you're not supposed to go that way, even though the game says "Small ledges and rocks can be climbed and traversed to find shortcuts and hidden passageways" during one of the loading screens.

 

The other thing is that I hardly ever have to look up online where I need to go. I've done it only a handful of times. With this game, I had to do it immediately. Right from the start, it was so hard to figure out where I needed to go, it took me over 13 minutes to realize that I would never find it on my own, so I looked up a walk through video. I was confused at the game, and speechless at the fact I was looking up a guide on what to do just seconds into the game. No waypoints, no objectives, no hints, no map, no compass, no clues, nothing. Just search for hours and die a few times until you stumble upon where you need to go, then search for hours and die a few times before you stumble on the next place you need to go, and repeat until the game's end. If the game wanted to create a nightmarish experience, it did a great job. If the game wanted to create a good, scary, well-crafted nightmarish experience, it fell flat on its nose, broke it and then ran out into the cold, to either bleed out or freeze to death, never to be heard from again.

 

My advice, watch someone on Youtube play this game. Please don't play it yourself. Save your money, maybe even save your time by not even watching Let's Plays. But just don't spend your money.

 

If you want to see some of these experiences when I did, you can check out my live stream I did this afternoon. Clocks in at just over 61 minutes. At 35:02, the game just stalls, and for the next 38 seconds, the frame rate chills around 20fps. The game supposedly plays at 1080p/40fps.

Edited September 4, 2016 by BIOHAZARD-R-US

[Nidahlee]

BIO's post made me want to buy this game.  

[BIOHAZARD-R-US]

BIO's post made me want to buy this game.  

 

To each their own I guess....

[evilash3680]

There is a movie about this event called Devil's pass.  It is an entertaining movie and just the writer's opinion of what happened of course, since no one survived and they don't know what really happened.  Worth a view if you are into horror.

[BIOHAZARD-R-US]

Lol the game crashes if you choose Continue after seeing the End Credits. 

"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE THAT OPTION. WHY WOULD YOU CHOOSE THAT OPTION IF YOU JUST FINISHED THE GAME. I DON'T UNDERSTAND. WHAT IS HAPPENING??? AAAAAAAAAAH."

[Sillshez15]

On 4.9.2016 at 5:34 AM, BIOHAZARD-R-US said:

Please don't get it!!! It's 50% off for the next couple days ($9.99, PS+ only) and it sucks. Technical issues all over, gameplay mechanics and issues, all combined with your standard walking simulator tropes and horror clichés.

 

Technical issues I experienced in the first hour:
---Frame rate drops. Sometimes the frame rate would drop significantly and just hang there. At one point it dropped probably under 20fps and stayed that way for a good 30-40 seconds. Paused the game for a little to see if it was a loading thing, and when I resumed it was still bad. One point the game just stalled completely, hanging on the same image for a few seconds and I thought it froze, cuz even the sound dropped out.

---Sound drops. Audio, environment sounds, music, etc., all seem to clip out near the end of their play.

---Short draw/load distances. A little less than half of the objects in the environment load in almost directly in front of me. I was in a cave and rocks on the ground were suddenly appearing just a few feet ahead. I know this is a psychological game, but I guarantee you these rocks spawning in were not cuz of the game.

---Other issues noted in reviews that I did not encounter in my brief play time are frequent hard crashes and various minor things like issues with the text in the journal not loading when voice overs read what's on the page.

 

Gameplay issues:
---Map is incredibly hard to read, unless you're a cartographer. It does not tell you where you are, and only adds little red notes to where you were when you found something. Every now and then you can see coordinates in the environment on rock walls, but of the couple that I encountered, they couldn't have been telling me where I was because what the map showed in that area was not what I was seeing in front of me.

---Compass doesn't work like a normal compass. It tells you where the last camp you found is, like as in what direction. It doesn't tell you where North is, like a normal compass. Whatever direction it's pointing in is the exact straight-line direction of the last discovered camp. You have to navigate the environment and its hazards to get back to them.

---Save spots don't save. Discovering and returning to camps are supposed to save your game, as well as finding notes around the environment. However, for me at least, returning to camps did not save my game, and I don't think the last note I picked up saved my game (I'd hafta watch the video again to double check).

---Save spots are insanely infrequent. Imagine Dark Souls or a game like it had 1 autosave every hour. How quickly would you put the game down because you couldn't get past that section that you keep dying on and have to redo over and over because the game isn't saving? Thankfully this game is not as hard as Dark Souls, but it makes up for it in cheap deaths.

---Cheap deaths. There's traps in the environment, in the form of pits with wooden spikes inside. The first one you come across is nice and open and right in front of you, saying "Hey, I'm here, which means there are more like me out there!" But the next one is just a few meters ahead, and that one is not visible, because it's covered in snow. I fell in it because, even though I was watching where I was going after seeing the first pit, this one was buried under snow and there was no way I could've known it was there until I was already in it and dead.

---No audio clues to creatures. The audio in this game is fantastic, however it loops so quickly and gets boring immediately, on top of the sound drop issues. But there's these creatures, they look like ghosts or spirits with orange coloring and are able to leave footprints. Well, when they're near, the game gives you no audio clues, no dramatic music crescendo, no creature growls (only ones are wolves in the distance, but that's an ambience track that loops every 25 seconds), nothing. Often the seem to spawn right behind you and I died once because I turned around after going into a little area, and it was right there. You have to constantly turn around and check if something is behind you, which not only wastes time and hinders progress, but can lead to you falling in a spike pit. And the more you turn the camera, the lower the frame rate goes.

Didn't know about the compass issues... So that's why I got lost all the time

Yeah, the game is pretty disappointing. While navigation via the map is something you can get used to (if it wasn't for the compass), I found the controls pretty lackluster. If the player character goes to explore a mountain area, you'd expect him to at least be able to climb, right? Well, he can't even jump, which makes situations where you have to get to a lower area by running towards and dropping on it really awkward and his stamina makes Sebastian Castellanos look like Usain Bolt (well, there are worse examples like Tom from Uncanny Valley: Three seconds, maybe four if you're lucky, and he's out of breath). Also, if you're not careful, you can get stuck in the trees and bushes. What's even worse is that you can't wiggle yourself out of it if it happens, so the only thing you can do is restart from the last checkpoint (happened to me at least four times).

The deaths feel cheap as well. Sometimes you die even if you thought there was nothing that could harm you (like in the sequence after you get the note in the cave with the "bone god") and then you get through just fine although you didn't change your strategy. At some points the creature patrolled an area in a way that made it impossible for me to get past it without alerting it. I even clipped through the floor once and died!

However, I had no save issues: The game saved everytime I found a note or camp, even though it did crash once. Also, the creature does have an audio clue: It's a low-pitched groan, but it can be hard to hear sometimes because of the other sound effects and background music, so you have to check the ground for footprints to make out its exact location.

 

I really had high hopes for Kholat and enjoyed the first minutes of it, but after finishing the game, I have to agree with those who already posted here. If you plan on buying this game, please don't. Watch your friend play it, watch a let's play, but spend your money on a better game. I wish I could recommend it, but with all the gameplay issues and bugs it's impossible.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Sillshez15

[gercike]

After getting the platinum of this game, I felt I owe to it with being a counterweight in this topic. That's not much, but still...
First of all, I played the game on PS5, haven't played it on PS4.
On PS5 I didn't encounter any technical issues, no crushes, nothing like that, no save issues.
Someone mentioned getting stuck in bushes, trees or else: on my first, blind playthrough* I explored the surroundings with the intention of finding every collectible, so I spent a decent amount of time wandering around, and I didn't get stuck in anything, not even once. There are some tight places, sure, between rocks, trees etc., but I always could move out or free myself in seconds.
*(Not completely blind, since I read the TIPS & STRATEGIES section of its_ArchroniX's guide beforehand.)

Reacting to BIOHAZARD-R-US's points:
- I partly agree with them that the map is hard to read, but that was obviously intentional, and you can get used to it. Of course, you will be disappointed if you expect a detailed map you got used to in a lot of open world games, like in Assassin's Creed games or GTA's, but this isn't one of those games - here no one tells you when to go where and why, unlike in mentioned games, here you need to figure out everything by yourself.
- My compass worked just fine, my only problem was to remember that the red pointer points towards north, the black towards south, I kept forgetting and mixing them up. The location of the camp's didn't have any effect on the compass.
- I don't agree that there aren't enough save spots - of course if you go around in circles, and you're unaware of that, you might feel that you covered a big area before reaching the next save point, but you actually didn't. It happened to me a lot of times, and it just became perfectly clear after finishing my second, deathless run. The whole area of the game is not that big at all, it just feels big at first when you have no clue where you are and where you're going.
- So you don't need to worry about the "cheap deaths" mentioned by BIOHAZARD-R-US, you won't lose much because of those.
- The audio is one big reason why it's worth to play this game, and it gave me more than enough heads up when danger was near, so not hearing sounds you should, could be a technical issue on PS4. Mainly, the audio work is what creates the atmosphere of this game, and it gave me a thrill plenty of times.
I didn't have big expectations for this game, and I was pleasantly disappointed. If you have too high hopes or expect something from this game it doesn't offer, not in any previews or descriptions, you'll surely disappoint, but that's not the game's fault. I bought it when it was on sale (2.39 Euros), and it frequently is, so don't hesitate if you're into this genre!

An article from earlier this year still on uncovering what really happened can be found here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/has-science-solved-history-greatest-adventure-mystery-dyatlov

I also recommend the Renny Harlin movie (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1905040/), I gave it 7/10.

Edited August 29, 2021 by gercike

[esstee11]

On 29/08/2021 at 2:52 PM, gercike said:

I felt I owe to it with being a counterweight in this topic. That's not much, but still... 

 

I totally agree with all of your post, I think the majority of people are being unnecessarily unkind or overly harsh about the game. I, like you, on the other hand, actually enjoyed it ? 

Bugs - I played in 2023 on PS5 and encountered zero issues, all trophies unlocked when they should, in game ran perfectly never crashed never got stuck etc. No problems, all good. Obv all patched up. So nothing for players to worry about now.

Map - To me the map is not 'useless' its just a normal map, that you would get in real life, and I liked that. Not a hand holding traditional gaming map telling you were every item etc is. However the Kholat map has the excellent feature that whenever you find any of the many collectables or tents they are then marked on the map, so as soon as you find one, pull up your map, to be pinpoint shown exactly where you are, so everything's fine!

Compass - Compass works perfectly, have red NORTH arrow pointing in front of you.. to.. head north...if you want to go to the top of the map....  I really don't see what the issue is here with other people? It works. It's good. Maybe people have never held a compass. I don't know. Also like previously mentioned, just always have your compass out as it will spin wildly if an enemy is near, if it spins, then run, simply doing this, I never died. Talking of that...

Cheap deaths - There are no cheap deaths. The enemies in this game are the easiest things in the world to avoid. Just run past them. Keep your compass out so you know if one is near. Don't even need to give them much of a wide berth then run past them and your fine. Talking of running/stamina and people moaning about running out of breath, hold run count to 5, let go of run count to 1, hold run count to 5, etc repeat like that and you can infinitely run. The brief pause resets the breath. No issue.

The only time I died was when I ran off a cliff that I didn't think seemed too high, but then again I wouldn't wildly launch myself off a cliff IRL so I still wouldn't call that a cheap death it is quite reasonable lol, simply in game slowly walk down ledges hugging the sides to get down safely, as you should!

 

Collectables - Yea if you want that trophy you're gonna need to use a video guide to get all the collectable notes here, due to the nature of the game. However See it as a good thing, a run through using a video to grab them could give you a better bearing of the game? Knowing what recognisable locations are around etc. helping you navigate your own future games easier. ?

 

No death run / trophy - Super easy, nothing to worry about. There are very little ways to die in the game anyway, enemies are super easy to avoid, and to make it even easier after every note you come across or story progression or tent when the save icon is you can close out and make a USB or CLOUD save. So you can make a back up save every few minutes if you want too. ezpz.

 

So yea, I liked it, i thought it was a pretty great game, right up my street ?
Ofc make you're own mind up about the game but don't be totally put off by the majority of negative opinions, you just might like it ?

[JohnCenaSong-]

1 hour ago, esstee11 said:

 

I think the majority of people are being unnecessarily unkind or overly harsh about the game. I, like you, on the other hand, actually enjoyed it  

Your post has been pretty helpful. I have this game in my backlog and I have read a few negative comments from time to time over it but they've been fairly vague saying this and that are just 'bad'. You cover and explain some of these negative criticisms which gives me some insight as to why others may potentially see them as negatives whilst being able to reassure me that those aren't likely to be turn-offs for me, sounds fairly neat, I should finally get around to giving it a try sometime.