Cold Fear

Written by John Scalzo  on February 23, 2005

Final Glimpse: I was afraid, I was petrified (and cold, very cold)

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A lone ship appears in the distance in a storm. You go closer to investigate and find that it is a seemingly abandoned Russian research vessel. It's quiet. You don't see any people. It's too quiet. Something metal clinks to the floor. You turn and look. Still nothing. Then the shadows explode as disfigured monsters race for your position to shuffle you off this mortal coil. You look up and you are now standing in Blockbuster, reading the DVD case of the 1999's Jamie Lee-Curtis starring Virus.

Cold Fear on the other hand is Ubisoft's first foray into the survival horror genre and places you in the shoes of Coast Guardsman Tom Hansen. He has also stumbled upon a derelict Russian research ship. He also boards that ship and finds it eerily quiet until a lone demonic entity comes crashing out of the darkness. Except in Cold Fear the things that go bump in the night are not cyborgs outfitted with nanotechnolgy weaponry and a rotary saw, they are zombified (but not zombie) Russians that want your blood.

Cold Fear drops players into this ship and naturally expects them to survive the horror of the zombies and the game's other main adversary: Mercenaries. Mercenaries have also invaded the ship and are attempting to quell the zombie uprising, so our hero has to fight off both groups if he wants to survive.

However, these aren't your typical zombies. The developer, Darkworks, has created a breed of zombie called ExoMutants for the horrors of Cold Fear. ExoMutants are like the fast zombies of 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead in that when they see fresh meat, they charge. They are also smarter than your average zombie as ExoMutants can carry weapons like a knife, a pipe, a meat hook or even small guns (wherefore art thou Bub?). And obviously from their name, ExoMutants will mutate over the course of the game providing Mr. Hansen with plenty of different zombie pursuers. This is combined with the constant rocking of the boat to create a unique zombie environment. In the game's trailer, the developers have shown how the only way to effectively take out a zombie will be to match the motion of the ocean and steady yourself for the perfect headshot.

Of course, guns won't be the only way to save your soul. Sure there will be the natural compliment of handguns, shotguns, machine guns, Flamethrower and grenades, but there's more. First there's the poison speargun. Poison to the zombies, who follow the trail of dust the speargun leaves right into any traps you may lay. Those traps include a laundry list of interactive environments including using exposed wires for electrical shocks, blowing up steam vents and heating systems, short circuiting a crane to decapitate zombie hordes and everyone's favorite: the exploding barrel.

Cold Fear uses the over the shoulder view that everyone seems to love about Resident Evil 4 and it looks fantastic. The darkened corners. Using the environment of the ship to take down zombies. Even the ExoMutants themselves. They look beautiful and should provide plenty of thrills for graphics hounds. The in-motion footage that we've seen from the trailer also suggests smooth gameplay and a pleasure cruise for fans of survial horror.