Cold Fear Comments by Kristan Reed

Such a shame, I really liked the look of this from previews

Surprised at the score, given the words. Sounds like a 4 at best.

This line:
chock full of opportunities to do battle with said respawning creatures of death

... is what really kills it for me. I could possibly forgive all the other stuff but loads of respawning baddies to shoot? Bugger that. I shall pass.


Incidentally, if you're looking for a great Western survival horror title then you should check out Obscure. Very well done (if a little short), and probably dirt cheap by now.

Better than Halo then?

Err... no. Survival Horror, as a concept, started in Japan in 1989 with the greatly unknown Sweet Home - an RPG/Horror concoction focused on surviving with as many of the characters as was possible, because they could die. Even now, you look back and there are very VISABLE Resident Evil elements - spooky house, the door animations between areas... the game, for its day, was deemed "too scary" for the west I believe... heh heh. Sorry, I do find that kinda funny. Sweet Home, for those who might be interested, was actually made by Capcom.

I think that Survival Horror was REFINED in the early 90's with Alone in the Dark, Clock Tower and (obviously) Resident Evil, but by no means born in the early 90's. The RPG elements were removed, up until Squaresoft (at the time) decided to put them back IN for Parasite Eve - another game we didn't get in Europe because the censors didn't like it.

It's really quite funny to look at how horror games have come along, from Sweet Home to Resident Evil 4. Especially the censorship of things, even Resident Evil was censored for the West. In the first release, Chris' profile after the intro showed him lighting up a cigarette - you guessed it, had to be different for the health-concious western market. It is little things like that which really surprise you - they censor that, yet not the at the time impressive popping of zombie heads with a shotgun, showering red chunks and red spritey blood everywhere... seems so minor compared to the actual in-game violence.

... err, not that I'm obsessed with my Horror games... oh no. Not at all. Just.... I... err... oh crap. LOOK BEHIND YOU! A three-headed monkey!

/runs away. VERY fast.

I had this a good while ago. and it is pants, you can have TOO DARK graphics some times, a shame. With the latest Resi we should start getting better horror titles. My fav style of game when done well. Nothing to do with this game but does anyone have any info on the Family Guy game ? if you haven't watched the prog it is brilliant,excellent and more.
Cheers
G

*well done LFC, basta*d Chelsea nicked our title!!! .AFC 2005/6

Obscure fails in its American teen cast, that and the partner AI is terrible. Cold Fear is also cheap aswell now, I think I've seen it for Ģ15 already.

I want Kuon and I would like it now.

Also anyone think were going to get Michigan?

I mostly agree with the review, except that I don't think it has respawning enemies - at least not in the sense I understand the word. Most of the enemies will rise again unless you crush their head, but once dead they stay dead.

Since you do a lot of backtracking some areas are occasionally repopulated with a new set of enemies (triggered by one of the save points), but the alternative would have been to let the player wander around an empty ship for most of the game. Still, the number of enemies is fixed.

That apart, I actually found the first half of the game quite fun. There are plenty of minor flaws, but the graphics are well done (especially when outdoors). Unfortunately, after you move to the oil rig, it's like playing a lost level from Doom 3, except with poorer graphics.

Obscure fails in its American teen cast, that and the partner AI is terrible.

The teen cast is obviously intended to appeal to the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" generation and isn't all that irritating as far as American Teens go. The partner AI isn't great, granted, but equally it doesn't really ruin the game because it's perfectly possible to complete the whole thing using a single character. The extra computer-controlled player is just a handy 'extra fist' in a fight. Plus the whole thing takes on an entirely new light when you play co-op with another human player.

Alright, now I'm confused. ses's description make the 'respawning' sound exactly like an old-style Resident Evil game. So it's not "fight baddies, leave room, come back to face same baddies again"?

Hmm... OPS2 gave this a 7/10 and the review actually made it sound quite good. I realise that they're an official mag, and as such have the whole stigma that they rate everything too high, but I find their reviews to be quite good.

I really enjoyed Carrier on the Dreamcast, and that got some pretty poor reviews... this seems like a very similar concept. Might check it out despite this review.

To clarify: I said the respawing was "inconsistent". Effectively there are two types of enemies. The ones that stay dead and never return to a room, and the ones that return when you come back to a room a bit later. The enemies don't respawn in terms of contining to appear in the game room over and over. They do, however, repopulate areas that you will have already cleared multiple times, and that - as I've said over and over again - is just lazy game design to make the game world feel alive.

If you killed all the enemies in a room - and finished them off - that room will be empty until you trigger a checkpoint repopulating it. At least that's how it worked for me (playing on normal difficulty).

The "creaking Russian ship in violent storm"-thing is done very well, but the rest of the game is indeed mediocre. I'm sorta hoping they do a sequel, since it has potential.

Hmm, I bow to Kami's in depth knowledge of survival horror, but I sense more than a little pedantry good sir! Fair enough, there are many elements in Sweet Home by the sound of it, but the survival horror game "as we know it" did very much kick off with AITD, and Resi Evil borrowed from it wholesale in terms of its use of 3D graphics, static camera, *all* of its game mechanics/inventory management/health system/boss fights etc.

I'm not sure what Sweet Home looked like, or what platform it was on, but it sounds like a very different beast to me! Thanks for filling us in though, sounds interesting.

Looks positively frightening to me.

Sweet Home.

Looks more RPG than Survival Horror tbh, Kami. Shall track it down and have a go, though! :-)

;_; I really wanted this to be good.

Err... no. Survival Horror, as a concept, started in Japan in 1989 with the greatly unknown Sweet Home - an RPG/Horror concoction focused on surviving with as many of the characters as was possible, because they could die.
What about The Evil Dead game for the speccy?
The forbidden forest on the C64?

Shall track it down and have a go, though!

Didn't take long. Hey, it looks really good! \o/

Edit: Er... remember - illegal ROM downloads are bad, kids!

Sweet Home was an NES game released in 1989 in Japan, so you have to appreciate that it does look slightly different and yes, it is 2D and yes, it does have an RPG-esque battle system, but there are noticable elements of Resident Evil in there - it's almost the spiritual predecessor of the game. Arguable whether it is the actual start of "survival horror as we know it", but without it maybe we'd never have seen Resident Evil - who knows?

I don't know if you can find the game any more... well, obviously there are less legal means of obtaining it but the actual Japanese original... I am not sure. It's certainly a bit of a history lesson, is all, and I think considering it's focus on keeping the characters alive, i.e. survive, it should be classed as Survival Horror.

As for Cold Fear, I have to say, I saw preview screenshots of this and I thought it might actually be a good game. It's a crying shame that it's only, at best, average... it sounded like a cross between Resident Evil and VIRUS (Admittedly, not a good game but the film was alright). It's a real shame it doesn't pull it off... once again, the potential of a game is wasted. Is it me, or does that seem to be happening a lot now?

edit: Never played Evil Dead on the Speccy, so can't really say much about it, or Forbidden Forest on the C64. I was an Amstrad person... oh damn, that isn't good. Back in that era, I was more into Dizzy... see, why did they stop making Dizzy games? Oh wait, that's a whole 'nother discussion and would be going seriously off topic... err, yes. Any more early horror games anyone knows of? Fills up the "bank of useless knowledge"...

edit #2: Blerks message: Do as I say, not as I do...

Never played Evil Dead on the Speccy

Tip: DON'T!

It's god-awful shite.

Never played Evil Dead on the Speccy

Tip: DON'T!

True, I still haven't a clue what you were supposed to do.

The forbidden forest and it's sequels were very good for the time. The graphics are very dodgy though.

Thanks for the heads-up Blerk, although I must say I'm not overly surprised to hear it isn't too good...

Forbidden Forest sounds interesting though. Dodgy visuals aside (We're talking about a C64 game here, dodgy visuals come as standard), it sounds rather intriguing... hmm...

The first survival horror game I remember playing was Friday the 13th on the C64 way back in 1985.

I don't know if you have played it, but you choose one of the youngsters from the first or second movie, and then you run around some spooky locations (a graveyard, inside a gothic church, a dark forest) while some scary organ music plays. You collect weapons (like an axe, a pitchfork, a machete...). Your friends run around too, but eventually one by one they end up dead, and every so often you run into Jason himself. When that happens, the game totally shocks you with a blood curling (digitised) scream and a gory picture, typically of a severed head.

I remember falling off my chair the first time I heard that scream... Amazing atmosphere. Me and my friends were scared to death but we couldn't stop playing it. I was more scared then, than I've been while playing any Resident Evils, Project Zeros, or Silent Hills!

I thought the first survival horror game was Arkanoid.

Ah yes, Friday the 13th....the game Crash memorably rated 13%...

See, we're actually having a discussion on the earliest forms of horror games! Who said we're not educational and informative in these comments sections...

I'm sure there's still time for some emotional Cold Fear fan to pop up and tell me how stupid I am...

Sounds and looks as if they tried their utmost to be RE4.

Aha! I found something older than 1989! ph3ar!

Damn, I had my hopes up on this one. :(

Re- Old Survival Horror.

Anyone play ALIEN by Argus Press Software. Man was that creepy.
Lousy graphics but turn the lights out and play alone for maximum effect.

Forbidden Forest had a damn cool soundtrack if memory serves right.
Lots of heavy bass and ghostly white noise...

I remember playing Alien 3 on the Sega Mega Drive... that was an awesome experience! Really creepy, but more a platformer than a horror title. Still, lights off and played at night, it was a satisfyingly creepy experience.

... what Cold Fear reminds me of is Virus: It Is Aware. A god awful game of an average horror film. Seems it falls into the same traps too... but hey, at least Cold Fear looks OK and is playable. Unlike Virus...

What a rip off of Resident Evil 4!

i really canīt agree with anyone. I have played this game several times and it is a fantastic game with great ambience and controls. Enemies never respawn, you just have to shoot their heads off, thatīs it.
The game is not as good as Resident Evil 4 but then, which game is? i canīt believe the reviewer gives it a 5 out of 10, UNFAIR. do yourselves a favour and play the game, its really worth it, believe me.

Don't know if anyone will see this comment so far after the release, but for all you fellow bargain bin surfers:

Review is very harsh IMHO, while it doesn't bring anything hugely original to the table, the setting is unique, and everything appears to have been done with a degree of care - fantastic graphics (not just on the ship deck), and great sound throughout. The enemies do not respawn, even newly repopulated areas are different creatures and positions, but they will get back up until the brain is destroyed. There's the old keys/codes/doors thing, but actually the game has been designed so that you take different routes between the areas, theres no proper backtracking so to speak. Holding down the left trigger to aim all the time isn't necessary, you can hold it, or tap to toggle. Having no autoaim is a HUGE benefit - you can grab the railings to steady your aim if needed, it's just not scary if you can aim vaguely near somethings head to kill it. The one big gripe I have is grabbing the rails makes you initially face away from the grabbed object - annoying as the thing you want to kill is then to your side and you have to turn to face again.

I would have given it a strong 7 at RRP, but now that it's cheap and littering the shelves of Sainsburies (yes really), it's a worthwhile purchase.