Cold Fear

"Resident Evil on a Boat with a Cheesier Story...but it's Fun and Scary as Hell!"

Alright, so I've beaten the game twice now: once shortly after its debut on PC, and again yesterday. To be honest, the game sounded like Resident Evil...on a boat...with one playable character and a lot less storyline. Well...to be honest, it was. Instead of zombies, you have "creature"-infested humans running amok while trying to "save the girl" and do things for a mysterious CIA guy wearing sunglasses, all while getting some cheesy lines and a boat-load of scares. To be fair, though, the boat is ~40% or so of the game, as you go to an oil rig for the last big chunk of the game, featuring new enemies and what-have-you.

I thought the game was going to be a crappy Resident Evil clone that would be too hard, boring, and for lack of better words, "stupid." Well, I have to say that it most certainly was not any of those things. While, as I said before, a few things were cheesy, they didn't make the game in any way unplayable or detract from my enjoyment of the game itself. Well, enough teasing and the like...let's move on to my review.

"AUDIO" (MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS/VOICES): 12/12

The music of Cold Fear, as with many, many games, is not something most of you would kick back and listen to. It is essentially the kind of music you will only want to be hearing when you play the game. A lot of the music is fairly difficult to remember, but I can recall a couple of melodies throughout the game. They're fairly "nerve-wrecking," in an attempt to make you feel more nervous as you go through rooms that may be devoid of anything harmful at all. The music definitely does its job, as I was nervous most of the time, in part due to the music of the game.

The sound effects were pretty good. Nothing stuck out as "super-cool," but then again, with sound effects, there isn't that much to be amazed by. The *best* thing, sound-wise in the game, which you will likely despise while you're playing, is the sound of your character turning. Most games only play sounds when you actually walk/run around, not when you "pivot" or turn/spin around in place. Thus, when you're looking around for spooky baddies in very dark rooms, and you think you heard something...guess what? It was *you*! I scared myself so many times, turning about, not realizing I was the one making a raucous!

The voice acting in the game was fantastic. Though some lines may have been a tad cheesy, the actual voices themselves were great. The number of characters who speak in-game is quite few, but the voice-acting talent was top-notch...and they didn't even hire Patrick Stewart. =p

VISUAL (GRAPHICS/ART STYLE): 11/12

As far as graphics go, Cold Fear looks quite nice. It's on par with most games, maybe a notch or two below Doom 3 and its ilk. It looks just fine on lower- and upper-end systems, which is exceptional if you don't own an overly expensive PC. The environments look fantastic, as well as the weather effects, including fierce lightning, blurring downpours, and even huge waves splashing across the ship's deck.

The only disappointing aspect of the game's graphics are the faces. For the most part, you're kept from seeing Tom, the main character's face, which isn't that big of a deal, but is unfortunately the most appealing face in the actual gameplay. However, Anna, the (only) female character in the game's face is rather lacking, as well as anyone else's faces, aside from those shown in the in-game movies. Other than the faces, and a *rare* possible graphical glitch involving maybe two or three patches of space in the game world that aren't important during simultaneous raining and lightning effects, the game's graphics are great.

The art style isn't anything terribly mind-blowing, but it's quite a nice blend of using realistic environments (a ship at sea and an oil rig), low-tech sci-fi gadgetry, and some nifty evil critters. Once again, the faces do fall under this category, and as mentioned before, they're a bit lacking. Nonetheless, they're certainly easily forgivable and don't really detract from the game at all, especially when taking into consideration all of the other great graphical and artistic content of the game.

STORY (PLOT/DIALOGUE): 10/26

This is probably Cold Fear's biggest short-coming. As far as dialogue is concerned, as I've been saying, a modest amount is cheesy, but not so over-the-top as to make you roll your eyes more than once or twice. There's a bit of cliche dialogue here and there, but despite the dialogue itself not being fantastic, it does do a decent job of furthering the plot, and avoiding an overly lonely, quiet feeling like the Resident Evil games. Sure, it worked for them, but copying Resident Evil to a T isn't what the developers had in mind, and I'm thankful for that.

You will generally hear someone say something at least once every 10 minutes on average, which is a nice break from the aforementioned title. So, as far as dialogue goes, it's a tad hokey or predictable at times, but it won't make you quit playing or anything (like Seal of Evil's English language version).

As far as the plot itself...initially, I wasn't impressed, and I'm still not...with the plot as a whole. It's like a mix of Resident Evil, the X-Files (a certain episode or two), and a few other sources, but it *isn't* so similar that you just don't care at all to get to the end, like in some games.

But in retrospect, the game packs in a massive amount of plot in a very short amount of actual game-time. I'll get to the length of the game in the gameplay section, but seriously, for how short this game is, the storyline is far larger than I could have imagined. The way in which they do this is by placing little notes, letters, and the like throughout the ship and the rig for you to find in rather easy-to-see places, and you can read them at your leisure. Not only do they provide Resident Evil-like documentation of past events, but many give you big hints about how to kill baddies you'll fight within about 30 seconds or so, which make you be certain to read up and often! Like I said, the story isn't impressive, but it's alright and you should still be able to have a good time.

GAMEPLAY (HOW FUN IS THE DAMN THING?): 41/50

Okay...this is the soul of the game...is it fun? Is it tedious? Is it too long? Is it too short? Does it run? How are the controls? What's it like? Is it just like playing Resident Evil? What can I compare it to? Is it slow-paced or fast-paced? Well, I'll do my best to try to answer some of these common curiosities...

To get the biggest gameplay downside out of the way first...at least to me, anyway...well, there *is* one thing about the game that kinda bites. You can get lost. The game will give you your destination, and yes, the area isn't huge, but there are generally two ways to get into a lot of areas of the game, meaning one way might "conveniently" get sealed or somesuch, meaning you'll need to find a new way of getting there, and it can be a hassle. On the bright side, however, I didn't need to use a walkthrough, meaning if you just check each door/elevator you couldn't pass through/use in the past, you should find your way eventually, and it's certainly worth it to keep going.

Does the game run? Yep. I played it on my lower-end computer, and it both looked and ran quite nicely. Then I upgraded and played it again, and it looked and played very nicely. =)

How are the controls? Well, I have the PC version, meaning you can pretty map whatever the hell controls you want to whatever buttons you wish. However, if you're lazy and you would like to go with the default controls, they're fairly similar to a first person shooter, though the game *is* in third person.

Oddly enough, they have a command to allow you to use the mouse to turn your character, but unless you lower the sensitivity waaaay down, your character is going to be spinning around like a top, not to mention the fact that the aiming is pretty poor when you try this. The best thing to do seems to be to run around in normal third person with the arrow keys, then hold the right mouse button to zoom in and look over Tom's shoulder to aim, generally using a nice laser sight and your mouse to shoot quite accurately. A lot of the game will be played with you looking over Tom's shoulder, but it really is fun once you get the hang of it, even if it doesn't sound too good.

Is it too long or too short? Well, if you don't get lost at all (pretty unlikely), you could probably beat the game in 4-5 hours or less...a time-attacker could probably zoom through it in like ~3 hours or so. It's not a long game at all. Unfortunately, a good chunk of play-time may very well be spent being lost...but hey, the Resident Evil games are still popular, and I'm pretty sure getting stuck/lost isn't something new in those. All in all, though, the shortness of the game makes it one of those you can play through fast enough to enjoy it and move on, then come back to it later without groaning and having to schedule your life around the game, like with many titles.

What's it like? Is it like Resident Evil, and what can I compare it too? Hmm...basically, you wander around on a ship and an oil rig trying to complete objectives given to you by a CIA agent over a radio. Sounds boring... but if you just throw in some freaky, creature-infested communists (they really are Russian, I believe...), then you've got yourself a game. As far as Resident Evil goes...yeah, I'd certainly say there are a few similarities...but it's much faster-paced, has far more health and ammo (thank GOD), and thus, would really fall under the heading of "Action/Horror," rather than "Survival/Horror." To be honest...I thought the original Resident evil was alright...but gimme some damn ammunition for crying out loud! Oh, and printer ribbons so I can save my game!

Speaking of which...while I'm comparing Resident Evil and Cold Fear, I should bring up saving. While a lot of PC games have quick-saving, Cold Fear, unfortunately does not. However, it's not like freaking Far Cry, where you can go 15-20 minutes through *hard* battles without finding another check point. You'll typically come across a checkpoint every 10-15 minutes in this game...perhaps less if you don't get lost, in between objectives.

The best part is that the developers were clever (and kind) enough to give us a save point right before the most challenging battles or events, meaning you'll come across the "worst" the game has to throw at you (difficulty-wise) in under three minutes of leaving a check-point, generally, which rules. I'm an OCD nut-job who goes quick-save crazy, and though I was initially concerned by Cold Fear's lack of a quick-save option, I'm now totally cool with it, and give it my OCD seal of approval.

And as for an actual comparison, other than Resident Evil...I might slightly compare the combat to that of a cross between what I've seen in little mini-movies of Resident Evil 4 (haven't played it, though), and perhaps a touch of Dino Crisis 2 (2, not 1).

I think that mostly answers the previous questions. The only one that really needs any answering is whether the game is fun or not. Well, despite a slightly weak plot and very brief game length, Cold Fear is a visually-appealing title with lots of fun gameplay, giving those of us who wanted to blow everything in Resident Evil to hell (Screw running *around* zombies...kill 'em all!!!) a chance to finally get our wish, but on a boat and an oil rig instead of a creepy mansion.

In conclusion, as I just finished saying, if you like Resident Evil and either wouldn't mind to get oodles of ammo, or you've been dying to tear into enemies with a nice arsenal in a Resident Evil-ish game, then you're going to have a short but fun adventure. If you don't have a PC, or if you have a PC and a bunch of consoles or whatever, try to get the game for a console if you can, as the length of the game would make it much better suited to be a rental rather than a purchase. However, if you only have a PC, I would advise you *not* to get the game if you're short on cash, as it *is* very short. If 20 bucks for a short game isn't a huge loss for you, though, then by all means, snag this game wherever you can and have a good time. I hope this review has been helpful in aiding you in making a decision about Cold Fear, and I thank you for reading it. It's been fun. -Magus

TOTAL SCORE: 74/100=7.4 (round down) = **7**

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/06