Cold Fear

"A Decent Horror Experience"

Story- You play as Tom Hansen, an officer of the Coast Guard who boards a mysteriously abandoned Russian whaling ship to find out what happened. Your fellow officers are quickly killed, leaving you alone to face the horrors lurking in wait...

Gameplay- You play in 3rd person mode, and switch to 1st person to fire your weapons. The controls work well, they're not the best but they work just fine. A handy laser sight is helpful for aiming, although being on board a storm tossed ship adds a unique, and sometimes frustrating, element to aiming, as you will rock back and forth. Later on, when you go from the ship to a sturdy oil rig, this element is eliminated. Gameplay is totally linear and can get annoying, as you don't have a map and you will find yourself backtracking a fair deal. However, this does not pose too big a problem, and the checkpoints are spaced so that you won't have too much to replay if you die. There is a good selection of weapons, ranging from a handgun to a flamethrower, so there should be something to suit everyone's tastes. On board the ship, ammo is limited, so it's important not to go wasting bullets and to search all the bodies. However, once you're on the oil rig, there is an armory that will allow you to completely replenish your ammo whenever you run low. There is also, on both the ship and the oil rig, a nice array of explosive barrels, fire extinguishers, and pipes that blast out scalding steam to shoot, which serve as excellent death traps for your enemies and also help you conserve ammo. I won't say anything about the enemies you will face, as I don't want to spoil anything, except this- do not, I repeat do not, let them get close, as that is a sure recipe for your death. You will need to calm your nerves, and carefully take aim, in order to survive. There is always an element of suspense, as you never know what could be waiting around the next corner. As long as you're careful, health will not be a problem(except on the Extreme mode, more on that soon), since there's enough health kits around, not too many, but also not too few. There are four difficulty levels-Easy, Normal, Hard, and Extreme. I personally found the Hard difficulty doable, but in Extreme, one little mistake will get you killed. I only recommend Extreme for the best of gamers who are looking for a real challenge. Don't get me wrong, though, Hard provides a great challenge too.

Graphics- Simply superb. From the waves crashing over the ship's sides to the character models, and everything in between, the graphics are a sight to behold.

Sound- The music is the perfect complement to the creepy ambiance, the storm sounds are all excellent as are the enemy noises and much, much more. An auditory treat.

Replay Value- Not very high, although the harder difficulty levels will give you an incentive to come back for more. I recommend playing it first on the Normal difficulty to get the hang of it. While it's a great game, there are only so many times that you will want to embrace the same horror.

In Summary- Cold Fear is an excellent horror title that is worthy of at least one playthrough, even if you're not a big horror fan. For horror fans, this is a must buy. Everyone else might want to either rent it or borrow it from someone.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/07

Game Release: Cold Fear (US, 03/15/05)