A simulator of longing and hopeless loneliness – that’s what awaits a player who decides to download SHHD: WINTER / IT’S WINTER from a torrent. Here you will not find fun parties or spectacular fights with a bunch of special effects. No half-naked girls, combo counters and magic spells. But what this strange and ambiguous project is certainly not without is an amazing atmosphere.

Story line

You appear all alone in a dark, unremarkable apartment. Outside the window, it is night, it is snowing, and the painfully familiar layout of standard housing from the times of the USSR immediately catches your eye. The radio mumbles incomprehensible and strange phrases, catching up with horror, the howling of the wind and the TV hissing with interference. The game can not be called horror. It is rather a walking simulator, a kind of quest, saturated with existential sadness and hopelessness. We are not given any hints. Notes with fragments of phrases, interaction with objects, keys. At first, it is completely incomprehensible – but what, in fact, is to be done here? Not a single living soul around, no training. Only you, winter evening and loneliness.

Game process

After downloading SHHD: WINTER / IT’S WINTER from a torrent, we get such a completely canonical and standard walking simulator. The project, assembled on the Unity engine by two enthusiasts, lacks stars from the sky and is unlikely to get a standing ovation and awards. But its atmosphere and recognizable landscapes of the Russian hinterland evoke some sweet feeling of pleasant longing. Having studied the decoration of a one-room apartment, you can get out. A dim light is on in the entrance and, in principle, there is nothing to do either. Well, except to rummage through the garbage chute and find another uninformative note. It is dark in the yard, it is night, snow is falling in flakes. You can’t get far off the map. The landscape begins to become blurry, the snow is falling in slow motion, a female unnatural voice reads incomprehensible verses. And only a lonely tractor, like a ray of hope and light in the dark realm of loneliness, keeps you company. The game does not try to lead you by the hand and indicate specific paths. Rather, its meaning is to wander around the cold and snow-covered courtyard, to try to find some clues and clues to what is happening. Well, you can fry scrambled eggs at home, after all. Maybe somewhere in the depths of this ambiguous game project there is a deep meaning and plot, but you will have to look for it yourself.

Features WHD: WINTER / IT’S WINTER

• Musical and visual component. The game is really boring. It touches the most delicate strings of the soul, causes nostalgia and pleasant sadness. Everyone who played this project noted some of their personal experiences, found parallels and familiar things;
• Meditative gameplay. Wandering alone, listening to the howling of the wind and feeling the bone-chilling cold of the Russian winter – this is the task that SHHD: ZIMA / IT’S WINTER copes with perfectly well. It is interesting to look at the details and trifles, to walk measuredly from entrance to entrance. Allows you to relax and just relax after a hard day;
• Uniqueness. Made by two people, the project is more of a personal artistic vision. Maybe this is the initial part of some large and interconnected project in the future. It’s impossible to say for sure. This game turned out to be very personal and deep, from the point of view of the author’s experiences.

Is it worth it to download SHHD: WINTER / IT’S WINTER from our torrent – you decide. This is not a game in the truest sense of the word, and is unlikely to suit those who are looking for a way to have fun. It is rather a visual story in which everyone will find something of their own. It is definitely worth getting acquainted with the project, if only because it is amazing in its dreary atmosphere.

System requirements

• OS: Windows 7 / 8 / 10
• Processor: Intel Celeron G3900 or AMD A6-9500
• RAM: 512 MB RAM
• Video card: GeForce GT 430 or ATI Radeon HD 4670
• DirectX: Version 9.0
• Disk space: 300 MB
• Sound card: Compatible with DirectX 9