I am somewhat familiar with the event that inspired this game, so I got pretty into it during the opening dialogue explaining what happened.

And then I got out of it the second the gameplay started.

You're dropped into a snowy train station with no indication of who you are, what to do, or where to go. What's even more unfortunate is you're playing as an extremely out of shape fellow, for if he runs more than 5 seconds, he literally starts to pass out.

Super.

I get it; it's cold out, he's probably wearing heavy clothes, but f is it slow going.

So I stumbled around and found my way to the next part of the game. Now you can start exploring a large mountainous area. I walk around aimlessly, occasionally finding a journal entry, which unless you want to sit around and read a lot of text for 5 minutes, you're not going to know what it says.

Every now and then, I ran into some monster made of light who'd kill me if I let him touch me. For some reason I didn't get the achievement that says I encountered him until my third encounter. I don't know if that meant for that specific place or whatever, but there you have it.

By now the slow walk is driving me insane. I think the forced slow walk is it trying to fit in the attempted spooky atmosphere along with the music. But the games not scary at all. It's boring and slow and everything looks the same. And the light monster isn't scary in the slightest.

Being lost all the time while slowly exploring, man...what great fun...(it's not). It's nothing but rocks, snow and occasionally trees. So good luck finding your way through that.

Eventually I checked to see if I have a map, and I did, but it's useless. It's like looking at a map in real life. You've got to figure out where you are on your own, and to keep track of yourself you're gonna wanna check that map every time your character gets winded. But I didn't know where I was so I didn't bother. Plus that's not fun at all.

Every now and then I'd find coordinates written on a rock. Whatever that means... Later I realized if you hold the right mouse button on the map, it shows you the coordinates. Ok, that's cool, but are the coordinates on the rock telling me where I am, or where to go?

Anyway, I gave up after becoming so frustrated with the slow walking and being lost. There's nothing like walking for 5 minutes only to realize you ended up back somewhere you were trying to leave.

It actually would have been a decent game if they showed you where you were on the map, and increased the bloke's endurance. As the way it is, it's nothing but boring and frustrating.

I hate when games try to make things too realistic. I get enough of that in the suckage of life as it is. I play games to get away from real life...

Итак, не так давно всё же решил достать этот проект из закромов моей библиотеки и пройти. В целом, проект достоин своего существования. Конечно, с небольшими огрехами (но об этом позже)
Плюсы:
-Игра безумно красива, как для той, что была выпущена 10 лет назад. Просторы Уральских гор и хребтов очень завораживают. Проходил игру летом, но даже так чувствовал холод в руках и ногах. П - погружение!
-Локации и ключевые точки очень хороши: в каждой из них чувствуешь себя по своему. В пещере - замкнуто и опасливо. В горелом лесу - не понимаешь и теряешь от того куда бежать.
Минусы:
-Сюжет. Его тут ложка чайная в час. А прошёл игру за 3. Если говорить вообще проще: он есть только в начале и конце, в заставках. Остальное - простой геймплей. Когда до выхода игры разработчики заявляли что "раскроют тайну перевала", то я надеялся на полноценную теорию, что они вплетут сюда. Вышло вообще странно: от каждой теории тут понемногу, начиная от "военные виноваты" и заканчивая "♥♥*чая паранормальщина". Я рассчитывая на более глубокое раскрытие темы, но увы и ах.
-Геймплей. Сам по себе он средний. Хотя и некоторые его отдельные механики вызывают бомбёж. Самая главная - карта. Это не механика, это военное ориентирование в условиях игры. Так часто я путался и так часто терялся, просто потому что в ней нет маркера где ты есть. Понимаешь только по запискам и небольшим ориентирам. Фантомы. Бесячий вид врагов, в отличие от тумана. Нет ощущения что они обыскивыют терреторию. Они просто идут в твою сторону, а ты вынужден от них убегать. Это очень тупые враги из всех которые я видел.

Очень рекомендую.
Игра, казалось бы, про трагедию, произошедшую несколько десятилетий назад, но на деле я бы не сказал, что это так.
В игре найдется место для ходьбы по заснеженным горам Урала, ловушкам, скримерам (их в игре почти нету) а самое главное - атмосфере. Атмосфера просто дичайшая, до мурашек. Можно вдоволь ощутить всю беду, которая преподносит нам зима.
А самое, как по мне интересное в игре - это философия. Её тут больше и я, если честно, рад, ведь философия в этой игре достаточно жуткая, но и одновременно приятная...
В общем и целом лайк🙂

I have always been interested in what happened at the Dyatlov pass. (A sideline to my review. An explanation is popular that it was the hard top layer of the snow that shifted and collapsed the tent, thus the injured inhabitants had to escape quickly without clothes. The criminal attack seemed unlikely. However, I listened to the discussion of the anatomical pathologist who said that from his extensive experience, the character of the damage to the bodies was unlikely to be caused by nature, but by humans. Probably it was rogue criminals or aborigines.)

Anyway, I saw the small railway station deep in the Ural mountains, and it reminded me the railway station in a town where my grandmother lived to whom my parents brought me to. It was long, long time ago, and now I live in a different country. It had a good, sharp nostalgy value.

Other than that, the game is unremarkable. I played maybe 1/4 of it, found it to be too difficult and boring for a casual gameplay, and abandoned it. If you like it, I am glad for you.