Cold Fear

by UBI Soft

Product Features

• Brave dangerous waters - Rocked by huge breakers, you must steady your nerves - and aim - to evade a watery grave
• Keep your bearings - Battle against increasingly mutated enemies in treacherous, unstable environments
• Unleash a torrent of weapons - Create fatal traps and use shotguns, flamethrowers, or any object you can find to survive
• For XBox
• Rated M (mature)

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00069FK0A
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: March 16, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,633 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: Xbox

In the throes of a ferocious arctic storm distress signals are sent from a seemingly abandoned russian whaler. As coast guard veteran tom hansen. You board to investigate - and discover unthinkable horrors lurking beneath the ship's bloodstained decks.UNLEASH A TORRENT OF WEAPONSCreate fatal traps and use shotguns flame throwers or any object you can find to survive.KEEP YOUR BEARINGSBattle against increasingly mutated enemies in treacherous unstable environments.BRAVE DANGEROUS WATERSRocked by huge breakers you must steady your nerves - and aim - to evade a watery grave.Format: XBOX Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: M - Mature UPC: 008888512219 Manufacturer No: 51221

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mature Title - Great Fun for Horror Fans, April 3, 2005

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Cold Fear (Video Game)

If you like an action adventure shooting that is full of suspense, give Cold Fear a try. Be warned, this is rated mature, and can get quite scary!

The game is set on a Russian whaling ship in the middle of the ocean, being tossed by really heavy waves. You have heavy rain falling all around you, obscuring your vision and even dripping down your monitor screen. The entire ship lurches from side to side, throwing you off your feet. There are swinging wires and cargo, making it hard to know if a quick movement is a threat or an inanimate object. Faces peer through windows and around corners.

You're a coast guard rescue person sent in on your own to figure out what has happened on the whaler. You quickly discover that the ship is overrun with zombies and your task now is to get through doors, shoot zombies, and save the innocents. Something I have an issue with is that you end up blasting away all the innocent Russian shipworkers. They are afraid of the zombies, and you can read Russian fluently - but instead of calling out "friend!" or something, or trying to show you are a nice guy, you end up in a shooting match and kill them all. Some Coast Guard rescue.

The graphics in general are rather nice, with a very gritty, constantly-in-motion feeling to them. You try to peer through darkness, see in flashing red light situation, get a glimpse of something through the storm of rain and wave.

The sound is immersive as well. You hear hints of movement noise amongst the crashing waves and blaring alarms. It really tests all of your senses, to stay on your toes and stay alive.

On one hand the overall map is small - you're on one ship, with three levels and various rooms. On the other hand, this is in fact a rather large ship, and a lot of the puzzles involve you traversing from one end to the other in a series of 'fetch the handle' or 'find the code key' sorts of missions.

Highly recommended for fans of the horror genre, for some zombie-blasting fun!

Rating: 4.5/5

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Scary, March 23, 2005

By 

Steve Kinney "Steve Kinney" (los angeles, california United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Cold Fear (Video Game)

This game is much scarier then anything I have played well of course until Doom 3 comes out. The noises and the atmosphere it creates is very intense. The zombies and creatures move extremely fast so you have to be on your toes. I have never seen water look as amazing as it did on this game with it dripping across the tv screen. The boat rocking back and fourth on the raging sea made you feel like you were at the seas mercy. When you fall you slide to the edge of the boat and you can pull yourself right back up! While shooting at zombies you can hold onto a rail and shoot so you can get a good shot. The controls are a little crazy at first but once you figure it out it is very addicting! I wish the boss fight at the end lasted longer it was very intense! I just hope this title is not kicked to the side by all these other games coming out it is a great game.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Fear" Is Fun, May 22, 2005

By 

-- "--" (Gondor, IN) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Cold Fear (Video Game)

"Cold Fear" plays like a gem, and contains all the essential elements to make a great action-horror game - everything, that is, except a storyline devoid of clichés. In other words, the game itself, while certainly less than original, is a class act, but the broken wings of the derivative plot keep it from soaring to utter greatness.

Like last year's "The Suffering," the setting is one of the strengths of "Cold Fear" (at least for the first half of the game). As Tom Hansen, a United States Coast Guard officer dispatched to investigate a Russian ship tossed about on a stormy sea, you quickly discover that you're alone, far from any possible help due to circumstances beyond your control (naturally), and that there is more to this distress call than you bargained for. It seems the ship's crew have become infected with parasitical creatures ("Alien" style) and they're rapidly mutating into zombies... and worse ("Resident Evil," anyone?).

Yes, the storyline is boilerplate for a game of this genre, but the gameplay itself, while perhaps not taking full advantage of the setting, is exceedingly well done. The action is responsive and satisfying, and not overly frequent - "Cold Fear" is a game of tension punctuated by sporadic blasts of combat, as it should be. Each of the game's weapons packs a punch, although, realistically, they can be hard to aim with pinpoint accuracy do to the choppiness of the high seas. Unfortunately a zombie can only be permanently dispatched by a blow to the brain, which is a difficult shot to pull off - so, instead, most of the time you'll shoot a zombie to the ground, stroll casually up to it, and stomp on its skull with your boot. Though this practice becomes repetitive after a while, it's good gory fun at first.

As previously mentioned, the atmosphere and the nautical setting of "Cold Fear" go a long distance toward making the game work. Despite the rampant clichés and the gruff, wise-cracking protagonist (who seems literally lifted from "Far Cry," alongside his female sidekick), the leaky, dank environments are unlike anything seen before in a game of this type. The graphics, which are crisp and very attractive, bring this to splendid life, with the moving shadows threatening to contain some creature about to pounce. The raging seas are equally impressive, but more so the rain spatter effect that strikes the camera - or the occasional spurt of blood from a fractured skull that splats across it instead.

Alas, the second half of the game, in an attempt to mix things up, foregoes the ship and places the remainder of the action on an oil platform that feels like your Mars base in "Doom 3" or your Arctic research lab in "The Thing." In other words, it's not quite as striking or as interesting, but still being soaked in atmosphere it more than gets the job done. Surprisingly, it's this late in the game before "Cold Fear" introduces its bigger, badder mutants, where before zombies were the catch of the day. The timing is excellent, actually, because these new threats force a different style of attack (or running for one's life) that shakes up the whole experience, keeping it fresh and addictive. And addictive is perhaps one of the best words to use in describing the "Cold Fear" experience.

The game's biggest problems arise in the form of its weak, derivative story and characters. It's never fully explained why Hansen is supposedly disgraced as a US Coast Guard officer, though this is a point that's driven home on several occasions - more confusing still, there's a reference to him somehow getting his former girlfriend shot and killed, but no further explanation of this (at least not that I could find). This is but one example in a game filled with loose ends. Bigger still, what are all these mutants running around? They're not aliens per se, and they're not genetic constructs. The game's ads implied they were hellspawn "Doom" style, but there's no in-game evidence of this except for the fact that they emerge from the depths where the Russians are drilling. I suppose it's safe to say they are a terrestrial form of unknown life, but there simply needs to be more. Fortunately, the story isn't a deal-breaker in a game this good, but it certainly shoots itself in the foot.

All in all, "Cold Fear" is a game that demands to be played by fans of the genre. The nautical setting makes it this year's "The Suffering," if not quite as creative in terms of its premise and characterizations. Still, when it's all said and done, you can feel it missing the mark of the game it could have been had its story elements come together properly, and had its developers gone that extra mile to incorporate the setting more fully into the game. For example, in mid-development a system was mentioned where Hansen would have to grab onto objects (such as poles, banisters, etc.) to steady himself, and his aim, on the choppy waters, but the mechanic, which could have been truly original, got axed at the last minute. This is emblematic of the game's adherence to the standard, but that is by no means a condemnation. While not quite a classic, "Cold Fear" is a solid, enjoyable effort well worth the price of admission.

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