The White Vault: Enter A Ruthless Blizzard Where Mystery And Horror Collide

The White Vault starts your audio journey with a very simple setup. A repair team with members from around the world are sent to a remote frozen outpost in Svalbard to fix a device, when suddenly a relentless storm stops them from leaving. While exploring the area, the team soon discovers an incredible site full of mysterious elements that make no sense at all, from location to size. Unfortunately, they also discover they are not alone, and that’s when everything starts to go wrong.

What follows is a slow burn that unravels the mysteries of its universe, pulling you in with its cold grasp and expanding the lore into a more complex and unsettling reality for those involved. Season one leans into psychological horror, with members of the team only getting small hints that something isn’t quite right, culminating in one of them being dragged away and presumably killed by an unknown entity. During the whole season, as the listener, you get to peek into what is truly happening while the characters are still piecing things together, making you feel a sense of hopelessness when things start to turn from bad to worse very quickly.

By the start of Season Two, the gloves are off, and it is painfully clear that the team is not supposed to be there, and they are being stalked by something smart and incredibly dangerous, making it even more terrifying. With one member down and the safety of their home base compromised, the team has no option but to take action. They can either face the ruthless power of nature and try to hike through the snowstorm, or fight back and confront the thing stalking their every move, neither being an enviable solution. Season two is much more visceral and doesn’t pull any punches as it takes your favorite characters one by one and without mercy.

This show mixes fantastic storytelling with top-notch VA performances that pull you deep into the horror and mystery of The White Vault’s world. The story spans several seasons, with a spin-off taking place further in the future, making it a great audio drama for beginners and experienced listeners. After several re-listens, I have only one, and I truly mean only one thing that bothers me about this series.

For context, one of the charms of this show is that they bring people from all around the world to voice the characters using their native language. For example, a character will first start narrating in Swedish and its voice will fade out and be replaced by their own voice but translated into English, making you feel as if you are listening to the character in their native language, a very creative and effective tool. However, it backfires when we meet Dr. Rosa De La Torre, a medic who joins the repair team in Svalbard. She is supposed to be Mexican, but as someone from this country, it is very clear she is not, and it can pull you out of the immersion. This small detail baffles me, as there are thousands of Mexican voice actors that could have done an amazing job voicing this character. However, it is a small detail of the top-notch production behind this show.

Created by K.A. Statz and Travis Vengroff, The White Vault is the epitome of what an audio drama is. It has not only become a staple in the expanding universe of mystery and horror in audio format, but it has also set the standard for other series and raised the bar for quality across all aspects of the making of a show.

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Kevin Capon Goldszmidt is a passionate gamer, enjoying games on a variety of devices, from mobile to PC, Steam Deck, and even Mac. When he’s not working, you can find him listening to audio dramas. The two often overlap. You can find him at @KevinGoldszmidt.