To be scared and not to live. Review of the game released from behind the stove. 0_o

In a black-black city, there is a black-black street. On this black-black street, there is a black-black house. In this black-black house, there is a black-black apartment. In this black-black apartment, there is a black-black room. In this black-black room, there is a black-black bed. Under this black-black bed hides a black-black man. This black-black man has black-black thoughts…

GIVE BACK YOUR HEART!!!

The scariest story I have ever heard.

The real American superhero. Written in big letters on his face - "Calm down! We will save the good. We will punish the bad." ... and there are hints of imbecility...

Too long and boring an introduction that can easily be skipped.

How long has it been since you, my friends, got scared playing a computer game? I, for example, can't remember the last time I jumped in my chair from fright, spilling my cup of cold tea and cursing in three stories. I don't remember when such a thing happened, but I remember that it did happen once, and I miss those far-off times, very much.

What caused this sadness? It’s because everything now is not what it was before. You know, trees, sky... damn computer games. It used to be that we hid under poorly pixelated shadows in the terrifying dark, poorly textured things in the chilling gloom, but now the graphics are too polished to darken them. Here you go, gamer, enjoy millions of shades of light green! Right in both eyes from a widescreen monitor. Here you go, sign here. And it’s not trendy anymore to unload a magazine into a slowly limping zombie – the people demand action, a machine gun in each hand, and endless ammo. So, it’s no wonder that games that make you tense up and clench your sphincters are now a rarity.

The game we will focus on today, Cold Fear, despite its relatively young age, pleasantly combines the dark tense atmosphere characteristic of old games with the graphics and special effects of modern titles. I hope this becomes clear from the following review, which it's high time to get into (yes, stop me when I start whining too much).

An ordinary Russian vessel. Just an average one.

The actual review.

What will the Russians do when they discover a previously unknown parasitic organism while drilling for oil on Sakhalin, turning everything alive into zombie-like hostile creatures? They'll do the same thing as the Americans – they will start conducting extremely cruel and insane experiments, and not in some sterile and safe laboratory, but right on the drilling platform. The unfortunate researchers will infect dogs, hamsters, their biped colleagues, monkeys, then humans, and even, just think about it, killer whales! Undoubtedly, the experiment will get out of control, and the infected, armed with heavy objects, will begin to hunt the survivors. A few days will pass, and the drilling platform will become a refuge for deadly creatures, waiting in the dark for fresh meat to arrive.

Oh gods! How can one be such fools? These unfortunate researchers, damn experimenters, they don't just step on rakes, no, they simply walk all over them!

Something seems wrong on the ship...

Yes, a cliché twist, a classic one, a well-worn twist. But let's not be radishes, my dear ones, let's forgive the game this small flaw, especially since such plot moves - "dug up a thing > got infected with what > zombie round dance" are still used today. Just think about the recent, quite successful, "Dead Space," which will soon have an epic sequel. It worked. Even though there’s no originality in the story that is told to us, we both know that there are plenty of elements in the game besides the script, and if this game is an action-horror, then the stakes are really on something else – on a dense, oppressive atmosphere and juicy gameplay.

"So what’s there with the atmosphere?" you might ask, possibly intrigued by the game. Everything is fine with it in Cold Fear. The setting for a good half of the game is a rusty, storm-tossed Russian vessel, filled with a mix of zombie-like infected and terrified Russian soldiers. Agree, a funny ambiance is unfolding.

The sea is restless...

The ship, named "Spirit of the East," is pleasing to the eye both outside and inside. Outside, the storm rages; massive waves rise and crash against the ship's sides, and sometimes it seems as if it will capsize at any moment. If you hesitate, miss a tilt, and the next wave will wash you off the deck overboard. Unfastened metal hooks from the unruly crane sway, screeching on steel cables; approaching them is deadly. Visibility is reduced by the raindrops, which mercilessly pelt your eyes. The wind’s howl sometimes resembles a scream, and the creaking of the masts makes you turn your head in every direction, fearing an attack from behind. In all this watery chaos, it is not easy to spot an approaching infected, and surviving an attack from several zombies is all the more difficult.

The sea is restless II...

The difficulty lies in the fact that enemies only die after destroying their brains, and precise shooting is greatly hindered by the quaking environment. A few hits to the torso will only knock the enemy down, calming him temporarily, but after a few seconds of respite, the creature will be back on its feet. You can and should take advantage of the momentary loss of consciousness of the infected. Our alter-ego swiftly crushes the soft skulls of zombies underfoot, sending the risen back to the ancestors for good. But the foot in this case is not a panacea – such tactics can waste too many precious bullets, which at higher difficulty levels are as valuable as heroin.

The sea is restless III...

Inside the ship, the picture is quite different, but to say that it’s calmer in the cabins than on the deck would be misleading. The ship is packed like a can of sprats with corpses of varying degrees of dismemberment, as well as soldiers that you will have to turn into corpses yourself. The dead shamelessly lie on the floor, artfully spreading their arms, and sometimes scattering brains across the dirty floor. Some sit propped against walls, glumly dropping their heads, swaying in time with the moving ship. Parts of the deceased are indeed truly dead and completely harmless, but identifying them by sight from the infected freaks that will pounce as soon as you turn your back is nearly impossible. Mutilating corpses, manifested through preemptively shooting their heads, is undoubtedly an effective method, but it again comes down to limited ammunition. Therefore, each corpse has to be circumvented, casting a sidelong glance at it.

The soldiers we will encounter in large numbers aboard the ship are not yet infected, but have gone insane and fire at everything alive and dead indiscriminately. Armed to the teeth, they desperately try to survive, but are failing miserably.

...the sea figure, freeze in place!

Even though the "Spirit of the East" is far from a liner, but a medium-sized vessel with three decks, you won't be able to run around it completely in five minutes. Closed doors, flooded compartments, and burning corridors hinder speedy passage. All of this needs to be opened, drained, and extinguished in order to move on. The architecture of the ship is simple and straightforward; however, it is not uncommon to get lost among three eels just by " zoning out". After running fruitlessly from point "A" to point "B" five times and trying ten times to unlock every closed door in your path, you will laugh at yourself when realizing how simple your actions should have been. Such hiccups are facilitated by the absence of a map. But is it even needed? By the middle of the sea journey, you will know every nook and cranny of the small ship like your own apartment, and you will be able to navigate it with your eyes nearly closed.

Just stay dead, and you will be safe.

Yes, the setting of the game, unlike the primitive plot, is its strong point. New, fresh, interesting; it would be a sin not to use such an ambiance. So, did they take advantage of it? Well, to the best of their abilities, they did. They really succeeded in the beginning of the game, so to speak, its setup. The first hours spent on the ship go under the motto "Clench your sphincters and go forward!" From the very first minutes aboard the cursed ship, you simply feel with your nose that evil is lurking somewhere nearby, that it is watching you, waiting for the right moment to attack, but is in no hurry to meet face to face. Of course, it's obvious that to understand that "not everything is right on the ship," it's not necessary to be a telepath; dismembered corpses and the copious blood spilled in the corridors subtly hint at the hostility of your environment.

"It will happen now," you say to yourself, opening another door, but no attack will follow. "Then now!" you slowly walk down the dark corridor, holding your breath, trying to prepare for an attack that won’t happen. "Motherf**ker!" you jump in your chair, unloading a magazine into an innocent corpse that fell on you from the closet or is lying on the floor, suddenly starting to twitch. The long-awaited first encounter with the infected is executed brilliantly, and even though my fingers itch to describe it in all its colors, I won’t do it, because such a spoiler would be barbaric toward someone who chooses to play the game.

Bloody diarrhea? There’s cholera on the ship! That explains everything!

The tragic, Dostoevsky-esque story of the infected drilling platform is presented using an old tried-and-true method. Here and there, in secluded corners of the ship, you will find pages ripped from diaries meticulously kept by the main culprits of the drama, as if they were trying to leave a testimony of their extraordinary idiocy for future generations.

The dismemberment in the game is limited to the dramatic explosion of the infected from a direct hit from a firearm or from the crushing of him under the hero's boot. Blood splatters cover the screen, droplets slowly run down it, leaving trails - streams, it looks beautiful. Fragmented bodies are present as a general background; to tear apart enemies with your own hands, alas, is not permitted to my sincere regret.

Nothing wakes you up like a cold bath... with a couple of dismembered corpses.

The game does not save at the player's command - the world of "Cold Fear" is ruled by checkpoints. Save points are encountered rarely, sometimes even extremely rarely. They are placed in rather peculiar spots. In any other game, a checkpoint means that a bloody battle awaits us in the next room – a horde of hungry zombies or another calamity just as bad. Cold Fear, often, saves after such a fray. At higher difficulty levels, you will have to die more than once or twice before reaching the next save. Sometimes it's incredibly annoying, but again, it serves as a supplier of shivers.

Separate paragraphs deserve the description of the game's multiplatform controls. The fixed camera poorly matches the controls using the keyboard, compensated for by the aiming mode, which instantly transports us to the correct "over-the-shoulder" view. The laser sight is a blessing; a bright red dot on the enemy’s forehead is a signal to act. Due to these very features, fighting in Cold Fear, while convenient, is fussy. And it would be appropriate to complain, saying – "They ruined the game, cursed consoles!" but no. This fussiness is another cube of adrenaline in the gamer's vein – you have to notice the enemy, switch to aiming mode, and shoot in time...

From all the above, an unprepared gamer may feel dizzy. "This is the game of dreams" – he will decide, rushing to the nearest store for the coveted box, forgetting to put on his valenki. I still recommend reading to the end – Cold Fear is far from perfect; on the contrary, it has so many drawbacks that fingers on one hand wouldn’t suffice to count them.

That half-person just crawled. Probably looking for lost body parts.

The main downside is that as you progress through the game, its atmosphere does not thicken, and, regrettably, it becomes diluted and squandered. It seems that there are more dark corridors, and the evil dead, howling in agony, constantly jump from the shadows, using the effect of "Here I am, did you not expect me?!" but in the second half of the game, you even get used to this.

On the tenth replay of the same corridor, you involuntarily begin to tire of it. The monster respawn, it seems, should diversify the suffering, but it must be admitted, it’s poorly executed. For the most part, the infected reappear in the same spot. "Ah, a zombie will jump at me from that corner" - you say to yourself, aiming in the required direction.

The meager assortment of poorly designed weapons, the ammunition for which needs to be quickly looted from the corpses of your shot enemies before they dissolve into a black haze in the air, will disappoint weapon-making maniacs. The standard and dreary set of monsters will frustrate: a regular zombie with a machete – a quick wall-running zombie – a large zombie, whose weak point you need to shoot directly... Only the invisible ones, which are no rarity in games now, look outstanding against the overall drab background.

Unnaturally arch-shaped blood splatters on the wall. Dexter Morgan is outraged.

A categorical lack of intelligent life in the game is yet another big downside. Living people who do not attempt to shoot "everything that moves" will be encountered very rarely on our path, but all of them, except for the lady with a lovely appearance and a foul disposition, have an extremely short lifespan in the game. Usually, the poor souls picture you have to witness their agony as they die on screen, barely delivering the main character the needed information, and sometimes not even that.

-Hansen, – the doctor who, for some reason, has popped out of a cozy and safe refuge says, – You must… AAAAAAH!!! – a sharp yank up to the ceiling... convulsive hand movements desperately clawing at the edge of the ventilation shaft... a piercing scream... a fountain of blood... a mangled body of the newly minted colleague thumps down on the floor...

-I could have been in his place... – Hansen observes the act of sodomy, without even trying to intervene. –Although no, I couldn’t, I’m the main character...

The problem also lies in the fact that around the middle of the game, the actions will move to the drilling platform, the place where the infection started. At this moment, the game will lose a significant part of its charm, descending into a series of dark corridors and rooms. There will be significantly fewer scary moments, and the reanimating dead will develop a thorough immunity to the point of yawning. Stretching the game to a happy ending will only be helped by curiosity – "How will it all end?" and the lustful energy remaining after strolling across the wet decks of the "Spirit of the East."

The local KOs in all their glory... Don't shoot the red valves, don't fire at extinguishers... How could such cautious people make such a blunder?

I still want to end this for health rather than in mourning. The game has its charm, atmosphere, and a number of very successful moments for which it is worth playing through it. Those moments when you are running low on ammo, and ahead is another dark corridor. When you haven’t been "saved" for a good half an hour, and you just feel in your spine that that corpse sitting against the wall is dead right up until you turn your back on it. When the ship sways from side to side, and you have a dangerous walk on the deck ahead, past clanging cables and creaking masts, risking being swept overboard by an incoming wave, while somewhere ahead, in the dark, beyond the rain flooding your eyes, a dangerous something is wheezing.

Especially for you, Exstas, that is me. Thank you all.