Cold Fear Review | Sailor Evil

Cold Fear is one of those games that got lost upon its release, overshadowed by other titles in the same genre that have achieved greater success.

Having never played it, I decided to give it a chance and see if there is anything of value.

Aesthetics

The atmosphere manages to creep

The graphics are standard for a sixth generation video game that aims for a realistic style, except for the lighting system, which I consider noteworthy.

Particle details are well done, especially those devoted to mutilating the enemies when hit in weak spots, like the head.

The animations aren't the smoothest, they seem a little forced at times, but I've seen worse.

The dubbing is decent, I found the performance of the actors sufficient.

The soundtrack is ignorable, I have no memory of any tracks and it didn't take me at all.

On the other hand, the sounds are ok, they manage to give some tension during the exploration sessions.

The game doesn't support a 16:9 resolution, to have it you need to download a fan-made patch here.

In summary, not the best, but not even the worst of the worst that can be admired.

Game Mechanics

Human enemies tend to take cover from where they can safely shoot

Theoretically, the game is a survival horror with elements of a third-person shooter, in practice it is more like a shooter with strong horror elements. Unlike other typical horror titles, you don't solve puzzles and you don't have to manage a space for the inventory, the protagonist is able to carry every weapon (with a limit to ammunition) and key without problems, not medical kits though, since any cure is used instantly.

The controls are weird, as if the game is trying to find a compromise between a semi-fixed camera system and a third-person one, like when walking in an area the camera will position itself in a certain way, to increase tension, but you can just press the right mouse button to go in third person and mess everything up.

The saving system is also weird, you can only save in certain pre-set transitions between rooms, but there is no way to know when exactly they happen.

Anyway, except for these eccentricities, the controls are quite responsive and work correctly.

You do pretty much the same thing in the game: you get to a point, you find a key to open a door that will lead you to the next point of continuation until the end, even if sometimes everything is broken up with boss fights or a series of clashes in a confined space.

There are 3 difficulty levels available, plus another one unlocked after beating the game at least once.

By winning the game on higher difficulty, you will unlock sketches and behind-the-scenes footage, nice to see in case you're interested.

The AI is functional, human enemies do their best in the fighting to hide and shoot.

For the creatures, it depends on which monster you face: most just come at you, while others actively try to avoid bullets.

There is no currency in the game and no shops, the only new thing that is gained is weapons and ammo, with this last one collected from dead enemies or depots.

Playing on normal difficulty, I finished the game in 5 and a half hours.

In short, if you want a shooter with strong horror elements, the title is functional and also decent, but if you want a survival horror of substance, you'd better look elsewhere.

Narrative

The documents provide information and journal notes

In the Baring Strait, a drifting Russian whaler does not respond to any contact attempts, so the US Coast Guard sends a team to investigate, but it gets slaughtered by unidentified entities. A second team is sent, and with it the protagonist, former army special forces Tom Hansen, on a search and recovery mission.

From here,  the adventure begins and it will lead us to explore the ship and towards the middle of the game also an oil platform.

Even if the opening incipit works, the title fails to develop it in full, ending up not letting the general story remain etched in the mind.

It's made worse by the fact that there are no side stories available, only the main one.

Characters are superficially characterized, they don't get much exposure about themselves.

Instead of myths and legends, there are scientific explanations on the functioning of the aliens and the method of possessions, which have managed to interest me a little.

They are fine and convincing in context, although I think the note explaining the zombies was put too early in the adventure.

In conclusion, the proposed narrative is not the worst I've ever seen, but it could have been more developed.

Recommendation:

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Cold Fear is simply a smaller and rougher version of Resident Evil 4 with fewer mechanics. If you are fine with all of that, it is an acceptable experience.

Available on Steam.

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