Cold Winter
The game starts off with Sterling being brutally tortured and he’s beaten so much his face looks like a rotten tomato, not to mention each of his fingers are broken repeatedly. He spends the better part of a year in a Chinese prison before his fellow MI6 agent Kim comes along to rescue him. Soon Sterling is swept up in events beyond his control and it’s up to him to save the world and put an end to Project Octopus.
I won’t reveal what Octopus is since you don’t find out until later in the game, but I will say that it looks like the most menacing port-a-potty ever conceived. While Cold Winter may seem a bag of beaten to death clichés, the personality of the characters and the attitude of the game keep it from being mediocre. There are enough of surprises in both the plot and gameplay that keep this game fresh and intriguing.
Gameplay:
Much of the gameplay in Cold Winter is industry standard FPS fare with dual analog control, exploding barrels and switches to hit. Just like the plot though there are plenty of surprises here that keep this game above the rest of the pack even if there are a few flaws in its design.
One of the first things you’ll notice is that you can interact with several objects in the environment. Crates can be picked up or shoved, chairs can be thrown and tables can even be flipped over to provide makeshift cover in a gun fight. As long as you are aware of your surroundings there is always something nearby that can provide cover from terrorist gunfire. Keep in mind though that your enemies can do the same tricks you can so don’t be too surprised if your see someone flip a cart over and duck behind it. I thought this was pretty cool and added an element of strategy to fights that isn’t available in other FPS with static environments.
Oh, and for goodness sake, why are there so many exploding barrels everywhere? It takes a lot of fun out of the game when guards use combustible canisters as cover or are positioned just far enough away from it so they will die in an explosion. At one point there is even a flammable barrel in the middle of a bridge and two guards are standing next to it side by side. I understand there is some humor involved with blowing it up, but in my opinion it’s just lazy designing.
I do have to admit though that there are some great uses for the barrels most of the time if you use your head. At one point in a stage I pushed a barrel down a flight of stairs into an unsuspecting group of guards and once it rolled near them two quick bullets took them all out. You see it’s not that the exploding canister isn’t useful it’s just that there are too many lying around and it takes a lot of fun out of the game when someone ducks behind it for cover.
Another thing that separates Cold Winter from other shooters is the fact that you can combined components that you pick up to form new items. While you pick up grenades from dead enemies, you can also pick up empty bottles, fuel and strips of cloth to make Molotov cocktails. It’s also possible to make timed bombs, fire bombs and even create lock picks to open special areas or crates. This was a pretty cool addition and was a nice change of pace instead of just picking up ammo, guns and grenades.
It would have been nice if this feature was used more to its fullest potential. You can beat the game without ever having to use it, but it could have been neat if you needed to go all MacGyver in order to get past a stage. Some of the objects look very out of place at points though, like a pile of alarm clocks or empty bottles just littering a room. It’s still a nice inclusion, but it could have been so much better.
In terms of the action the AI provides some random surprises from time to time, but at other points don’t be shocked if they just run straight at you. Thankfully the AI is better than it is worse and you’ll see them throw smoke grenades to block your vision and move into position to flank you or create cover to reload their weapon. Given that the story and premise of the game are rather commonplace, seeing enemies that react like this help liven things up a bit.
While Sterling controls fine I did find it odd that the aiming controls felt a little sluggish as a whole. Unlike in other shooters where you can zip your targeting reticule from side to side, it takes a little longer to do so in Cold Winter. While it may be a little obnoxious, the slower aiming can actually reward you at times if you line up a headshot.
You see, Sterling’s health meter is an interesting one and if you take some damage you can replenish it with the limitless health kit you carry. Those headshots I just mentioned also aid in the amount of body armor you can pick off the dead. Since you have the ability to search corpses, the amount of damage that you inflicted directly correlates to the amount of armor you can retrieve. So if you blow their head off with one shot the armor is intact, but if you hit them point blank in the chest with a shotgun, that armor isn’t going to do you much good. Searching guards is also a great way to find more combine items and grenades as well, so be sure to do it.
While Cold Winter features some brainteasers to solve, don’t expect anything on the level of an RPG. Everything here boils down to having to find your way around a locked door or locate a key. Sure it helps keeps things moving, but something more involved would have been appreciated and may have helped keep the game from being as linear as it is. There are also some multiplayer modes tossed in for good measure, but truthfully they don’t hold a candle to other games. The real focus of this game was spent on the single player experience and it shows.
Graphics:
One of the first visual impressions you’ll have of Cold Winter is that it’s extremely bland looking with its blocky textures and repetitive enemies and surroundings. Some nice effects are used in this game and involve some great rag doll physics, natural lighting, fire and smoke. If you are a fan of Kill Bill you’ll appreciate the fact that heads get blown off and blood sprays gratuitously everywhere when someone is hit.
Unfortunately the graphics also have a lot of glitches that can’t be ignored. You’ll often see enemies partially walking through doors, randomly falling from high perches as if nothing fazed them and dropped guns will occasionally bounce and vibrate until you pick them up. Interacting with the environment is also ugly at times and using the crowbar, picking locks or a swiping a security card look horribly unrealistic.
Sadly as if all of those glitches weren’t troublesome enough there are even some framerate issues that mar things. Cold Winter is an example of a game that needed more graphical polish before it was released. There is a great sense of action and with the amount of bullets, explosions and unpredictable enemies this game could have been so much more visually.
Audio:
Much like its graphical counterpart, the audio department is a true mixed bag with almost as many good points as negative. There are a lot of wonderful voiceovers in this game, but there are also an equal amount of bad performances. The main characters do most all of the voice work and it shows when the in game enemies only have a few lines that are repeated over and over again, often with the same voice. There is also an excessive amount of swearing in this game, often times unnecessary, random and just for the hell of it.
The music is good and fits the mood well and the sound effects are great too with some realistic sounding gunplay and explosions. The sound of taking a bullet is also sickeningly painful sounding with an immense thud followed by flying blood and flesh. The only real issue with the audio (aside from some of the voice work) is the overall quality, or lack thereof.
I lost count of the amount of times the audio just seemed to stop or become choppy for no apparent reason. Going through a stage the music will randomly stop and start again and if Sterling is saying something all other sound will cease no matter what’s going on. Not to mention at several points the quality drops to the point that it sounds as if it’s coming from a tin can.
Conclusion:
For all of my complaints about it, I really enjoyed Cold Winter and if it had received more polish this would have been a title to compete with. The sense of action is fantastic with the amount of activity on the screen and often surprisingly realistic AI. The ability to create cover from random objects in the environment, piece together items from base components and recover body armor are very creative additions to the gameplay.
Unfortunately the game is too linear and the graphics and sound departments did as much wrong as they did right. The multiplayer isn’t much to speak of when compared to other games on the market, but the single player experience offers an intriguing story. If you’re waiting for the next Bond game or are looking for a fresh take on the FPS genre you should check out Cold Winter. Recommended.