9 Video Game Plotlines You Didn't Realise Were Based On True Stories
8. Kholat
The game: The premise for IMGN.Pro's chilling walking simulator is simple. You, the nameless protagonist, take it upon yourself to hike out into the Ural region of Russia in search of a troupe of missing teenagers that upped and vanished from Kholat Syakhl, a remote mountain pass, prior to your arrival.
Ethereal orange spirits, eerie sounds reverberating through thick forestry and long-abandoned camps littered with scribbled thoughts from the AWOL teens you're on the hunt for mesh together to form an admirable first attempt at the genre by Polish dev IMGN, and while narrative and pacing flaws present themselves often, the mystery at Kholat's core is as riveting as the real deal.
The inspiration: The Dyatlov Pass Incident, which occurred in 1959 on the same mountain range, details the disappearance and subsequent recovery of nine bodies from a missing group of hikers.
Hypothermia was attributed as the cause of death for six of the nine deceased, though severe skull and chest fractures were found on the remaining bodies, including one corpse whose eyes and tongue were missing.
Naturally, the bizarre circumstances of the incident led to the rise of nutty conspiracy theories, including everything from military involvement, radiation exposure, extraterrestrial involvement and even the mythical Yeti.