Cold Fear

"A game to avoid!"

Cold Fear- perhaps one of the most anticipated games of 2005. Being a big fan of survivor horror titles like the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series, I expected this game to be great. But it disappoints - severely.

Plot - 2/10
You are Tom Hansen, a US Coast Guard, investigating a distress call from a large Russian whaler in the middle of the Bering Sea. A ferocious storm descends and a watery gateway to hell opens, as the horror lurking beneath the ship's bloodstained decks rises.

Yawn. How original. Somethings wrong somewhere so you're sent to investigate. Naturally, this 'somewhere' is filled with monsters who want to kill you. Y'know, I've never heard THAT before!

Controls - 5/10
GRRRRR! HOW ANNOYING!! I don't know about you, but I like my controls to be nice and simple. The controls for Cold Fear, however, are absolutely horrible! Sure, press the control stick and and you'll go in whatever direction you press. Simple enough right? No problems with that. But it's the AIMING that spoils it. Instead of the old-fashioned 'right trigger to aim and another button to fire', Cold Fear uses the newer 'press the left trigger and go into some weird FPS style aiming, then aim and press the right trigger to fire'. I didn't like it one bit.

Sound - 7/10
The sound is simple enough, just your standard 'scary' survival horror music. I didn't have any kind of problem with the sound, but it did get annoying after a while. Especially the voice acting, but that's expected in a game of this genre.

Graphics - 7-10
The graphics in this game are great, much like REmake on the Gamecube. So why not give them 10/10. Because they're nothing I haven't seen before. The characters are very well detailed, as is the scenery, but like I said, I've seen it before.

Overall - 4/10
As said above, I normally like the survival horror, but this one is going straight back to the shop.

Rent or buy?
Rent. But only if you like this sort of game.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/07/05