Kholat Review
Shadowy conspiracies, supernatural voices, and fearsome blizzards. Mass murder, wandering spirits, and glimpses of a world beyond our own. These are Kholat's ingredients--ingredients that could have comprised an enthralling story, and one that Kholat itself doesn't tell. This exploration adventure squanders its foreboding icy atmosphere on a nonsensical tale that mixes age-old cliches like secret experiments and government cover-ups into narrative mud. Trudging through this mud proves exhausting; every story morsel is another bog to traverse, and the impenetrable ending is pure quicksand, sucking you and the hours you spent to reach it into a vortex of nothingness.
Story and atmosphere are all Kholat has, making its poor storytelling all the more egregious. The "based on a true story" setup is promising, at least: in 1959, nine hikers exploring the chilly Ural mountains died in bizarre circumstances, inspiring years of speculation, along with numerous novels, films, and television inquiries. Kholat has you retracing those real-life hikers' steps from a first-person view, taking its cues primarily from games like Dear Esther in which your primary way of interacting with the world is to wander through it and read the diary entries inexplicably littered throughout.
I say "inexplicably," though I presume there is a reasonable explanation for why these pages haven't become sodden by the falling snow or blown away by the howling winds of Dyatlov pass. Kholat's final moments have the air of a grand reveal; the cryptic narrator makes a resounding declaration, as if he is providing an answer to the game's mounting questions. This is to be the "a ha!" that ties it all together, but after two entire playthroughs, I'm not sure I can tell you what all the questions are, let alone make sense of the narrator’s answer. The clues are found in the pass itself, where metaphysical sights appear before you in eerie shrines and dark caves. They are also found in the diary entries left in the snow and tacked to trees, of course, which divulge confessions and weird science experiments in far more words than is necessary. In mystical stories like this, not everything requires easy explanation, but there's nothing to invest in when you can't make out a basic shape amidst the static.
You're left with snow, and lots of it. You cover a lot of uninterrupted space as you make your way around the pass, seeking the nine landmarks earmarked on your map. This map is Kholat's most promising aspect. The game does not feature a traditional interface; there are no waypoints leading you to your destinations, the map doesn't show you your current location, and you are given no standard quest objectives. Instead, you have a layout of the area, markers that show you the camps (that is, save points) and notes you have already found, and a sequence of geographic coordinates that indicate where you can find the vital landmarks. You journey forward based only on your reading of the map, and the occasional map coordinates that someone has scrawled across the rocks and walls throughout the region.
Navigation thus requires patience, thoughtfulness, and an appreciation for a measured pace. These aren't unreasonable things for a game to ask of you. However, Kholat doesn't progress at a pleasant adagio, but at an excruciating largo. The success of a slow pace rests on the impact of the moments that break it, yet such key moments are too rare, too broken, and too annoying to make exploration worthwhile. A few central revelations bring some percussion to the minimalist droning, including an event in which you flee danger amid a mass of glowing figures. The rest, however, prove problematic.
There are the ghostly silhouettes that roam a few of Kholat's areas, for instance, which kill you should you make contact with them. Sometimes, you collide with a spirit you couldn't have been expected to see; Kholat springs the entire mechanic on you without warning, and doesn't provide proper audiovisual cues to communicate when there is immediate peril. A couple of traps you couldn't have seen--or even suspected would exist--can have you falling onto wooden spikes and cursing at the 30 minutes you lost due to the infrequent save points. (You may also lose progress to the game's occasional hard crashes, an equally curse-worthy event.) Some ledges you are meant to drop down onto; other ledges of similar distance are off limits, and send you sliding into oblivion. "Gotcha" deaths are difficult to get away with in games, because they often feel unfair, but they can serve a purpose if used as a learning tool. In Kholat's case, there's nothing to learn from some of these deaths, because it isn't clear enough what you did wrong in the first place.
In many stories, blizzards and the frigid cold provide a specific kind of terror, and Kholat's moaning winds cry out tales of lost souls that the game ignores in favor of shapeless nonsense. Its ideas reveal the game Kholat wanted to be, but its aspirations soar far higher than the game it became. What good is a mystery if you don't care about what it might tell you?
Infrared Boba Fett, Slimed Peter Venkman Funko Figures Coming
Funko has announced wave 1 of its limited San Diego Comic Con exclusives, available only to those brave enough to hit the floor at SDCC 2015.
From its Hikari collection comes an Infrared Boba Fett. The super-deformed figure is a deep, shiny red and is a tribute to everyone's favorite/least favorite Star Wars bounty hunter. The Infrared Boba Fett is numbered and limited to a run of 1000 figures.
The Vinyl Idols Funko SDCC exclusive is a slimed Dr. Peter Venkman and Funko told us it will be limited to only 500 figures. Funko's Pop! line will be represented with a Gold Bender from Futurama, a Sparkle Hair Sadness from Disney/Pixar's upcoming movie Inside Out, a Dr. Who 12th Doctor figure in a spacesuit limited to 1008 figures, along with a Pop! Rides X-Force Deadpool Chimichanga truck.
Who’s Who in Marvel’s Relaunch Teasers
Last week Marvel Comics revealed two teasers images that hint at what to expect from their comics line this Fall after Secret Wars ends. We know that we'll be getting a relaunch (not a reboot) with ~60 brand new #1s and that they will feature many changes while also respecting Marvel's long history -- although that remains to be seen, of course.
We've taken both of those images and turned them into infographics that point out who each character is and what they can do. Here's the first one:
Ben 10 Reboot Coming to Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is rebooting Ben 10 in the form of an all-new television series.
The new animated series, based on the franchise about an alien-powered kid hero, is being produced by Cartoon Network Studios and will premiere on Cartoon Network international channels in the fall of 2016 and in North America in 2017.
Cartoon Network’s new Ben 10 will re-introduce the energetic, fun-loving, 10-year-old Ben Tennyson. Featuring many new and fan-favorite aliens, the series kicks off with the adventures of Ben, his cousin Gwen, and Grandpa Max as they travel the country during summer vacation. When Ben finds the mysterious Omnitrix, a world of alien superpowers opens up to him.
Ant-Man IMAX Extended Preview in Select Theaters
A six-minute preview of Ant-Man will be shown in select IMAX theaters starting June 12, Marvel announced today.
The extended look at Marvel's final Phase 2 film will play ahead of IMAX 3D showings of Jurassic World. You can watch the teaser for the new preview below.
Ant-Man stars Paul Rudd as Scott Lang (Ant-Man), Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, and Corey Stoll as Darren Cross (Yellowjacket). The film will hit theaters on July 17.
In the meantime, check out the latest poster for the film, featuring Ant-Man riding one of his pets through a wave of oncoming bullets.
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Getting Physical Release in North America
A disc version of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC will be available July 21, Bethesda Game Studios announced today.
The standalone prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order received a physical release last month in Europe; however, The Old Blood has only been available digitally in North America.
Image via Bethesda.
SPECTRE: New Details About Waltz’s Bond Villain
James Bond just got the Suicide Squad set photo leak treatment.
The Daily Mail caught a glimpse of the SPECTRE production filming a sequence near Vauxhall Bridge in London this weekend. While the sequence itself included a helicopter as well as lead actors Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux, it's what the set photos revealed about Christoph Waltz's bad guy Franz Oberhauser that is especially newsworthy ... and rather SPOILERISH.
Now before we get to that, we must remind you that we didn't get a good look at Waltz's character in the SPECTRE trailer. The character was appropriately left in the shadows. And although Waltz denies that he's playing him, every rumor mill on Earth pegs him as really playing SPECTRE overlord (and 007's greatest enemy) Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Out This Week: June 8, 2015
With so many new games and movies coming out, it can be hard to keep up. Lucky for you, IGN is here to help with a weekly round-up of the biggest releases each and every week. Check out the latest releases for this week, and be sure to come back next Monday for a new update.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
Legends of Tomorrow: What Are Villains Doing on the Team?
When the lineup was revealed for the new DC team-up TV series, Legends of Tomorrow, beyond the “Wait, how is Sara Lance alive?!” of it all, the biggest question was what the villains Captain Cold and Heat Wave were doing on the team.
Having appeared in a recurring basis throughout Season 1 of The Flash, Cold (Wentworth Miller) and Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell) have been ongoing thorns in the side of Barry Allen. And just when it seemed an uneasy alliance was forming between Flash and Cold, Leonard Snart showed his true nature once again and betrayed him.
Which begs the question, how will these guys function on a team with a bunch of heroes?
“I am not sure, entirely,” said Wentworth Miller, when I asked him this question at the Upfronts in New York last month. “My hope is that Captain Cold gets to keep his edge, his humor. But it’s not a total surprise to me that he is working with these good guys, or is prepared to work with these good guys. He does have a heart, and I think we see that in the relationship with his sister. So it’s not out of the question that he might do something good for a change.” Miller added, “I think it is a shades of grey character and I’d like to see him straddle the line as much as possible because that’s a lot of fun for me.”
Star Wars Books to Put New Spin on Original Trilogy
Ever wondered exactly what happened while Yoda was training Luke to be a Jedi? Or exactly how Leia grew up on Alderaan?
A new series of Star Wars books coming in September will re-tell the original film trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) from completely new perspectives.
A New Hope will be subtitled The Princess, The Scoundrel, and The Farm Boy and presented from the perspective of Princess Leia Organa, providing readers with additional information between the scenes of the original 1977 film. It will be written by author Alexandra Bracken.