PlayStation 2

Cold Fear

Horror... it is in my blood. Ever since when I was a young kid growing up in the 80's, I loved horror. From George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead to Lucio Fulci's Zombie, Gates of Hell and The Beyond, I loved Horror and gore. Actually Lucio Fulci's Zombie (Fulci is my favorite horror Director of all time) is the movie that pulled me into having a love for zombies. Sure, I love George Romero's zombies, the Fulci's are by far the coolest and best looking zombies every to hit a movie screen. They walk slow with their eyes closed, and are all messed up (unlike Tom Savini's “green and blue” zombies from Dawn of the Dead).

Yep, as you'll no doubt have gathered by now, Cold Fear is Resident Evil, but... ON A BOAT! And (whisper it) in many ways it's better than any Resi on PS2. At least until Resi 4 arrives, anyway. And it looks... well, though this is resorting to superlatives, graphically Cold Fear is magnificent. Screenshots don't convey the half of it - waves tear over the side of the ship, drenching Hansen and splattering the camera, leaving watery trails dripping down your screen. You can practically taste the haddock. The ship rolls on the ocean, tilting left and right at alarming angles forcing you to compensate with the controls or else slide over the side. Clouds billow past and lightning flashes across the sky. It's like being in Captain Birdseye's worst nightmare. It makes you look at your five year-old PS2 with new-found respect.

The attention to detail in this heaving blood soaked world is very impressive. Wet floors shine, cupboards seem to have depth rather than the badly rendered facade that perhaps you are used to and the lighting is rich and really adds to the uneasiness of this game. And one last thing before you go. I want you to promise that after you have played Cold Fear and it has satisfied your appetite for intense, in your face game play - keep looking for other titles. Keep renting, keep buying and keep hoping because sooner or later they are bound to get it as right as they have with Cold Fear.

F.E.A.R. is Vivendi's upcoming PC shooter. And Cold Winter just arrived on the PS2. Now we have Cold Fear. Do these game publishers conspire in order to create game name confusion, or what?

Cold Fear is a great title with a couple of problems which hold it back from reaching its full potential. The load times between each level this late in the PS2's life is criminal and detracts from the gameplay while the game should have had a slightly longer running time. Still, if you like survival horror games, and who doesn't, then this is worth checking out.

Now that Resident Evil 4 will pass on PS2 and Xbox, Sony & Microsoft adepts have to settle for other (lesser?) horror games. One of these is Cold Fear, the latest creation from Darkworks, who previously made themselves known with the Alone in the Dark series. Let's see whather they can continue the line of this excellent series to this new game.

Cold Fear turns out to be an all-around moderate suspense filled horror title. If you like to be scared and are looking for a new game in the genre, then this one will definitely do the trick. It seems a bit convoluted and rather forced, yet if you play it in the dark late at night, it will still spook the bejeezus out of you. Thanks to the moderate to short duration, it's also a decent rental if you just are looking for something to beat for the sake of beating. For best effect, play it in the dark, or else the unsettling spookiness just won't be there.

La talentueuse équipe de Darkworks revisite le survival horror d'une bien belle façon avec Cold Fear. Le jeu n'est certes pas particulièrement original dans son déroulement ni dans son contexte, mais il profite d'une ambiance excellente qui assure une angoisse permanente pour le joueur. Le titre offre d'ailleurs un challenge à la hauteur même s'il demeure un peu court.

Imagine you’re a member of the Coast Guard and you receive a distress call from a nearby whaling vessel. The caller is vague but you feel something disturbing has happened and thusly you and a group of your fellow mates are sent to the ship that looks abandoned. To make matters worse there’s a storm and the ship is being battered by massive waves. That’s not the worse part, though. As you venture deeper into the ship you feel like something not right dwells in the ship ... something not quite right. It isn’t until you see the thing, that was once human, race after you that you know your life is in danger. Welcome to Cold Fear, a survival horror game with a familiar feel.

Those lucky bastards with the GameCubes have their precious Resident Evil 4, but the other systems haven't been completely left out of the survival horror loop. The Xbox and PS2 (and later the PC) are all getting life aquatic with the creepy stylings of Cold Fear. While the budget and depth of this title aren't as big as Capcom's behemoth it still has plenty of scares and zombies to decapitate on the quest to finding out what those wacky scientists have been up to this time. You want your B-movie thrills? Step right on in.

Overall I enjoyed playing through the game. However, control does feel sluggish at times, and has a few niggles like collision detection when finishing off enemies, and its also way too short. Its worth picking up if you don’t have a GAMECUBE, or if you fancy a new adventure after the latest Resident Evil, but I have to say Capcom raised the bar to such a height with RE4, the competition really does have to go back to the drawing board to see what they can do, and that includes Cold Fear too.

Game progression unlocks up to 13 different art galleries, which show some of the more impressive visuals in the game. You're also able to unlock a fourth difficulty mode, if you can muster up the interest to play through the game again. It's likely, however, that the approximately eight hours it takes you to play through the game the first time will be enough, if not too much. Although Cold Fear is a tidy action game, with some interesting gameplay elements, it suffers from being generic, evidenced even by the generic action title. It's definitely entertaining for a few hours, especially if you're amused by the rampant clichés, but if you're looking for a truly freakish survival horror game, you'll be better off getting your fear somewhere else.

Despite some great potential and impressive graphical effects, the fun of Cold Fear gets washed out amidst a storm of other problems. Survival horror junkies should give it a look just to experience something a little different, but don't expect Tom Hansen to deliver a Leon-caliber punch. Unless he's doing some serious interdicting, he just doesn't have the skills.

Sometimes, the sweetest things in life are brief. Watching a sunset, giving a goodbye kiss, shooting a zombie in the head with a 12-gauge - these fleeting joys come and go like a flickering flame in an autumn breeze. Oh, wait...you paid fifty dollars for that flickering flame? And it lasted how long?

Add in some wonky control issues and a main character who probably made it through high school without a single date and Cold Fear lands itself solidly in the "mediocre" category.

A Darkworks herdou o legado de "Alone in the Dark", produzindo a boa quarta versão do clássico. "Cold Fear", apesar de sua construção competente, peca em pequenos, porém, numerosos defeitinhos que vão limando a qualidade geral. O título vale um aluguel pelo enredo e alguns momentos inspirados, mas nada além disso. Mesmo porque não há quase nenhum extra.

As survivor horror games go, Cold Fear is lukewarm. The graphics attempt to mask a mediocre plot and flawed action, but it does succeed in making your skin crawl--in a good way. The little details included almost counteract the annoyances, but the title is still relegated to rental status. If you have access to a GameCube, play Resident Evil 4. If you already have, then play it again. That game is so much better than Cold Fear, it's almost scary.

While Cold Fear never manages to reach the giddy heights of the games it tries to emulate, it is still an enjoyable and solid survival horror title. If you are looking for something to help tide you over before the release of Resident Evil 5, you could do much worse than pick this title up. It's a little too comparable to other survival horror titles at times and although it's not exactly pushing the boundaries of the genre, it is still a worthwhile entry.

The overwhelming feeling when playing Cold Fear is one of disappointment. Not because it's a very bad game, but because it had the potential to be something truly special. The production values are high and it's well put together - though it never gels as well as it should. However, it's certainly worth a rental - at the very least - and will undoubtedly provide some gamers with many hours of fun. Indeed, it's worth playing the game for some of the earlier sections on the boat alone. A solid title then, marred by a few too many irritating aspects, but certainly worth a go for anyone who enjoys a pulpy B-Movie blast.

So far, it looks like 2005 is shaping up to be the year that survival horror made a comeback. The first week of the year saw the release of the stellar Resident Evil 4, a title that nearly everyone agreed would have been a strong contender for 2004 Game of the Year had it been released just a few weeks earlier. Later this year, we'll be seeing more Resident Evil goodness, as well as a creepy new thriller called Haunting Ground. While we won't be seeing either of them for at least a few months, Ubisoft has just the thing to satisfy your cravings for ghoulish action: an atmospheric horror game called Cold Fear.