Cold Fear (PC, PS2, Xbox) (2005)
Developer: Darkworks

Review by Faididi and Co.

You Navy rejects are all right

Story: Average

Tom Hansen is a US Coast Guard who's seen better days. At least his military training will help him stay alive when he makes what begins as a routine inspection of a Russian whaler that fails to respond to his team's radio calls during a stormy night. As things turn out, this ship is involved in a secret mutant research project, and when our hero's teammates are all slain after boarding the vessel, Tom is the only guy left who can save any remaining survivors and unravel the mystery. The plot may not be wildly original, but it works fine.

Gameplay: Above Average

Darkworks' Cold Fear is a combat-heavy action adventure, as Tom gets to waste plenty of mutants on the whaler and then, in the second half of the game, on an oil rig. That passing semblance to Konami's Metal Gear Solid 2 aside, this setup initially makes the game look like Jaleco's Carrier (which is also about a guy running around in a ship filled with killer monsters), but Cold Fear is far more linear. Although Tom will need to backtrack now and then, there are almost no puzzles to get in the way.

Luckily, the gunplay is lenient yet frequent enough to keep things interesting. Tom always carries his .45 handgun equipped with both a flashlight and a laser sight, but he'll also play with assault rifles, submachineguns, shotguns, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, and other weaponry. The ammunition is abundant, so Tom seldom has to worry about running dry as he mows down every bad guy in his path.

The zombies and other common enemies are generic, and there's only one real boss in the game, but the level design is more impressive. Compared to the ship in Carrier, the one here is constructed realistically. Even though there's no in-game mapping feature, knowing where to go isn't a problem, given the ship's sensible, down-to-earth design. That, and Tom can read the Russian signs on the boat (translated into English via subtitles), so Players not familiar with that language can always identify the different parts of the vessel. Cooler still, the ship actually rolls up and down with the waves in the stormy weather, and the characters can be thrown overboard if they aren't careful. Few other games go to such lengths to render seaborne environments of this quality.

Controls: Excellent

The controls are responsive and smartly designed. Tom moves around and uses his weapons with ease. Whenever he aims, the camera normally goes behind his shoulder, and he can keep walking while shooting or reloading.

Graphics: Excellent

The characters are rendered with high amounts of detail, and the environments are richly textured. The game looks best during the scenes when Tom is standing on the outer decks of the ship, being pummeled by heavy rain and by waves that splash aboard. Too bad the really scary visual effects occur only at the beginning (when Tom can catch fleeting glimpses of monsters spying on him through the windows), because afterward the bad guys just emerge in full-frontal assaults.

Audio: Above Average

The gunfire and the explosions are loud, but the ambience effects are what really shine here. As Tom moves across the different areas, you can hear the fierce weather outside or the humming and hissing machinery of the dank corridors inside. A fine job is done with the voice acting. (It would've been cooler if the characters had continued to speak in Russian past the introductory scenes.) While the music doesn't inspire any real sense of horror, it still fits the action-oriented nature of the game, especially the catchy tunes that bring out a hardcore industrial feel in certain sections of the oil rig.

Overall: Above Average

Cold Fear is a great-looking action adventure with highly intuitive controls and awesome environmental detail. Anyone looking for lots of lead-slinging, mutant-blasting fun should get a kick out of playing this.