Planetfurry BBS

[Tygon]

My brother was lucky enough to get his hands on a preview copy of the PC version of Cold Fear, the new horror adventure by Ubisoft. I just gave it a try and I have to say it's a mighty impressive game.

The premise of the game is sorta similar to Resident Evil, ergo one is dealing with Zombie-like creatures and stuff that will keep getting up after you shot them down unless you damage their brain enough (read: headshot). What sets it apart from Resident Evil is that it takes place on an old Russian whaleing ship and in the middle of a storm to boot. The whole time the entire evironment is swaying from side to side and especially outside you have to watch your step or you slip on the wet ground and go overboard.

You play a member of the coast guard who is sent to invenstigate this drifting ship. Similar to other games of this kind you find notes and diary entries that slowly tell you what they heck happened and what these zombie things are. It is not exactly the newest of idea but interesting enough and a good reason to sneak around dimly lit corridors and shoot anything that moves

My machine isn't the newest and lacks RAM but with the resolution turned down to 800x600 it runs just fine. Graphics are sweet and the sound fitting to the scary premise of the game. Controls take a bit to get used to. Normally you walk around using the WASD keys until you press the right mouse button. Then the game switiches to an 'over the shoulder' view that allows you to aim at stuff using the mouse but still move around, like one does in your typical FPS. A lot of interaction with the environment is promised but I have not yet played enough to find out how true that is. So far shooting at barrels to make them explode and get rid of annoying enemies was the only thing I found (which should be done moderately BTW since that will burn any useful equipment the opponents might have).

I only just started playing but I plan to write a more detailed review once I got through the game. Assuming that I WILL get through it that is.