IMGN.PRO, the team behind the highly successful indie-horror game Kholat, has announced that the game will be available for PlayStation 4 starting March 8th.
Kholat was released on Steam in June of last year, and quickly gained popularity thanks to the heavily atmospheric setting and story; the beautifully designed environment, and the unique, unsettling first-person experience.
This announcement also marks the 57th anniversary of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, which served as the inspiration for the game. And in honor of the incident, on Steam right now, Kholat is 57% off should you care to give it a go.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident has long been surrounded in speculation and mystery. Nine experienced hikers set off for the mountain Otorten, and all nine perished. But the details surrounding their deaths are…odd, to say the very least.
Through diaries and cameras found at the group’s last campsite, some details can be put together as to what happened in the days preceding in the incident. The group evidently met with worsening conditions from snowstorms while traveling through the pass, and lost their sense of direction. They deviated up the mountain Kholat Syakhl, and, not wanting to sacrifice their gained altitude, set up camp on the western slope.
That’s where things get strange.
On the 26th of February a rescue group discovered the abandoned and badly damaged tent of the group along with all the hiker’s belongings, including their shoes. The tent had been ripped open from the inside, and the campsite had obviously been abandoned in a hurry, as though they’d been frightened or startled off by something.
Fortunately there was still a set of eight or nine tracks of footprints which led down to the forest’s edge, and there was a discovery of the first two bodies under a tree around the remains of a small campfire. There was also evidence of one of the hikers having climbed one of the trees, apparently to look for something, or someone.
Not far from the tree, three more bodies were found. The last four hikers took two more months to find, and the last four is what made the investigation differ from the initial conclusion that all had died of hypothermia.
While the first five hikers more than likely did die of hypothermia (though why they abandoned their camp was still a mystery), three of the last four all had fatal injuries of some sort. Two of the hikers had sustained major chest fractures, but with no outward sign of physical force relating to the amount of force necessary for such extensive damage (it would have taken the equivalent of a car crash). It was as though they’d been subjected to an enormous amount of internal pressure.
The verdict then changed to the group having succumbed to a ‘compelling natural force’, but that ruling has satisfied few, especially since the night of the incident, another group of hikers to the south – of where the nine had pitched camp – reported seeing strange, orange spheres to the north. These reports and similar sightings were repeated from both military and meteorological services during February and March of that year.
There were also reports of scrap metal being found in the area, which has since led to speculation that the military had been secretly using the area for reasons unknown.
So, using this great mystery, the team at IMGN.PRO have done a stellar job of bringing that unsettling atmosphere of intrigue and the unknown into Kholat, and that experience is sure to be just as dark and gripping on the PlayStation 4.
For more information on the game, feel free to visit the website, or check Kholat out on Steam.
Source: IMGN.PRO Press Release
Trailer via IMGN.PRO, YouTube