14 DAY TRIAL // 
Having played Resident Evil 4 a couple of weeks ago, I'm still looking for a scare that would make me feel the same as Capcom's title did. Although nothing compares to Silent Hill, when it comes to nightmarish universes coupled with fierce zombies, I decided to give Cold Fear a shot. The title of the game might sound like an action movie, but we're dealing with a pretty decent horror survival game that smells like fish and zombies. It all happens on the sea and we've seen tons of movies recently that feature zombie-infested ships. A trend? It certainly is and Cold Fear welcomes you to a spine-chilling world, that's soon to be transformed into a movie.
Story Tom Hansen's the name, but don't expect any fame, as our main character is only a sailor and a member of the US Coast Guard. Well, he'll be guarding more than the Coast in Cold Fear, as he's sent to investigate a Russian frigate that was sailing near his boat. It appears that some rather freakish incidents have been happening on-board and a couple of soldiers were wasted while fighting strange creatures. The plot and the whole atmosphere reminds me of a combination between the movies "The Thing" and "The Perfect Storm" and keep in mind that "The Thing" was also a great horror game. The huge Russian ship is infested with zombies and some pretty angry Russian soldiers and they're not happy with Tom's presence, while they're cruising the Bering Sea. As Tom ventures on the seemingly deserted ship, he'll discover dozens of bloody carcasses, the ex-crew of the ship and all sorts of clues that will help him solve the frigate's mystery. It's not much of a plot and it would really make an interesting Saturday evening horror movie, but don't expect spectacular twists while playing Cold Fear.
Concept Cold Fear is the classical 3D third person shooter, with some modifications being made to the camera angle. The whole gaming industry has had something to learn from Capcom's experiment with Resident Evil 4 and I'm talking about that cool over-the-shoulder view that allowed a good use of the targeting system. Could the eternal camera problems be over for the bad angle-plagued consoles? Cold Fear confirms that the answer is still "no", having most of the control and camera issues that tormented gamers, especially in the Silent Hill titles. Apart from that, we'll be playing a very mobile game unlike anything we've seen so far. If you thought that Clive Barker's Undying had shifting backgrounds, wait till you see Cold Fear!
Each room you cross will be moving, as will the whole ship, because you're in the middle of a storm and there's not one square inch of still environment to put your foot on. Tom will be slipping to the left or to the right according to the ship's movement in the fierce storm. Also, you'll have to beware the waves that can deal pretty much damage to you, but they can also become useful by killing the foes that are hit at the same time you are. The visual effects generated by the frigate's movement were so realistic that I was becoming sea-sick at some point and leaning from one side to the other, as I got used to the camera movement.
Tom has to face zombies and Russian soldiers, but he won't rely only on the killer waves and he'll use a .45 handgun, the famous AK47, a shotgun, a spear gun, a grenade launcher and a flamethrower. There are also intelligent ways to dispose of the zombies or soldiers and there are many traps to trigger while you're exploring the ship. You can roast foes by shooting gasoline tanks or electrocute them by shooting some electric panels in a room filled with water. The only issue with those panels is that you'll get electrocuted as well, but it's a small price to pay if you want to see the creatures dead. In such games, there are two clear sides: the zombie army and 2 or 3 human characters that battle them.
In Cold Fear, everybody's fighting everybody, zombies try to kill the Russian soldiers, or each other, the Russians try to kill you, and you'll have to kill them all. An alternative is making those mutants fight each other or remain behind cover, while the soldiers are battling the zombies. It would be boring if the whole action was set on the vast frigate and at some point of the game, the action will move to a deserted oil rig. That will be as deserted as the original ship... You'll interact with the surroundings a lot and you can get electrocuted, set on fire or hit by waves, just by taking a walk on the ship's many decks.
Gameplay
Tom seems to know a bit of Russian as translations will appear on-screen once you set the aim on a wall or door to find out what's written there. Usually it's the name of the room and it's pretty useful to know if you're entering the armory or the dormitory, because one's full of zombies and the other's filled with ammo for your AK47. You should get a good grip of that analog stick, especially when it starts vibrating badly because of the wave that just hit you or the fierce wind that's pushing you on the main deck. In games pertaining to the horror survival genre, every producer seems to have forgotten the AI, since the scare factor is enough to make the gamer so terrified that he won't notice the dumb opponent behavior. In Cold Fear, the AI is reasonably good, to the point of having me complaining about unfair fights on the normal difficulty level.
Shoot the wrong barrel and get bitten once and you're dead, but if you're a sharp shooter, the game will be a walk in the park. Shooting any zombie in the head will make it die instantly with a pretty cool head-exploding animation. This head-shot hunt reminds me of Resident Evil games, especially because the way the zombies lose their heads is very similar to Capcom's games. Sometimes, running out of bullets is not a certain game over, because you can hit the enemies with the gun in the face, till they fall to the floor and then step on their heads. That will surely leave a mark...If you're still unarmed, just wait for a killer wave, an explosion, or a huge hook swinging around the main deck. Usually, the opponents are dumb enough so they won't see what's coming and they'll get wasted in one hit of the wave or hook. Collect ammo from their bodies and proceed, having reloaded your deadly arsenal.
We've seen and played this before, but Cold Fear manages to bring that little extra bit of horror thanks to its heart beat sounds, heard at the max when you enter a room and felt through the joystick's vibration. Speaking of entering rooms, there's no door opening animation like in the old Resident Evil games, but there are a couple of annoying loading times that have the tendency of spoiling the fun. There will be moments while playing the game when you'll be walking in the dark after entering a room, which has just had its source of light shot by a criminal hand. The tension grows and you'll have to use the flashlight to uncover items or a way out. It will be more difficult to open doors when the ship's rocking a lot and objects fall if the frigate's just changing position.
Even Tom will assume a different position if the ship's leaning to the left or right. There will be many corpses to be seen while walking through the crew's cabins, but don't be fooled. Some of those guys can still attack you and those damn beasts hate you so much that they'll keep stabbing you, even after they've received the deserved head-shot. Headless, footless, lacking an arm, or half of their head, losing blood on the floor, those are the type of zombies that you'll encounter and there's no wonder that this game is forbidden for those that aren't 18 yet.
Video
Everything moves in Cold Fear, camera included and the visual effects will please even those that played the Xbox or PC version of the game. The Playstation 2 may not be much in wide open spaces, but the water splashing effects on the screen and those blood drops that will fill the screen are great. You'll just have to shoot a zombie's head off and you'll see your screen bathed in blood. It's a pretty gruesome game and the producers sure love offering us eye candy and gore. It wouldn't be a horror game without lightning strikes and violent ocean waves sweeping the ship's decks. You'll even see an eviscerated whale moving, while it's being torn apart... how's that for gross lunch? Apart from the nausea caused by the gore and the camera movement, you'll be seeing some neat effects like the bullets' trajectory when the enemies fire towards you. One of the most important features of the view angle chosen for Cold Fear is that you can walk while taking aim, something impossible for the Resident Evil titles.
Sound Don't expect much of a soundtrack while playing Cold Fear, because it's rather repetitive, but it's still frightening enough to ruin one's sleep. The atmosphere is kept tense by all sorts of noises, objects falling around you, glasses breaking, thunders and the eternal sound of waves that are present throughout the game. You'll get some action music while fighting or being ambushed, but it's the kind of tunes you hear in big budget movies, created to fill the gaps between silly lines and shooting. Speaking of which, Tom's weapons sound more like squirt guns, than AK47 or riffles. A neat feature is that you can spot those Russians, by hearing their curses and they'll start swearing as soon as you enter their range. Zombies scream while they're charging towards you and the agonizing sound they make when they die has become music to my ears, having in mind the tough battles with the AI.
Conclusion Cold Fear may be a good game, that's fun to play and offers the daily spine chills that gamers need, but it's far from being a masterpiece. When you take a look at what Capcom achieved with its latest Resident Evil title and what Konami prepares for us with the next Silent Hill, Cold Fear turns pale and fades into mediocrity.
