Deathstroke
02-03-2005, 09:16 AM
Survival Horror isn't a genre on X-box that has had much support. All of the best games in this genre seems to come to GC and PS2 first and may one day find their way to X-box. However, there are two promising games coming to the X-box in 2005 that showcase this genre very well. The first is Midways, Suffering 2 and the second is the more ambitious, Cold Fear.
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/27621.jpg
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/27620.jpg
December 2, 2004 - Ubisoft is taking the guns and shooting thing in a completely different direction than the Tom Clancy juggernaut. With their Cold Fear that's coming out in March of 2005 the company is entering into the genre of "action horror" and puts the trusty weapons to use against zombies and other monsters instead of the plain old terrorists. To see just what they meant by this action horror stuff we went to a nightclub that was gearing up for a special bondage party and got some hands-on time with the upcoming title. We'll save the review of the party for later.
Our first impression of Cold Fear was that being on a boat in the middle of a huge storm sucks big time. The main character is Tom Hansen who's a Coast Guardsman that goes out to a large Russian whaling ship to check out a distress call. The seas are getting rough and the waves are getting to be some 20 feet tall with the huge boat bobbing side to side, but the man has conviction and gets on the boat to do his job.
This boat is a pretty dramatic setpiece with rain coming down and waves crashing over the side, flooding the deck. As the boat goes to each side Tom slides along with it unless he grabs onto a rail. Ropes dangle around with the boat as well. Some of these are just for effect, but with others having hooks or big bells on the end they can smash into Tom's noggin and send him flying as well.
After getting over the whole boat thing we had to find something to do since Cold Fear is a game after all. By exploring we found out what the whole action horror thing was all about as the entire whaler is populated by moaning zombies who are mostly armed with handguns. The big difference from other survival horror titles is that the camera system actually works and follows Tom around from a third-person perspective. This way, when Tom enters a room and there are zombies in there it's possible to switch to an over the shoulder view and take them all out. It's much nicer than the "God, I hope I'm facing the right direction" tactic taken by other titles to enhance the fear.
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/27619.jpg
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/26467.jpg
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/26465.jpg
The regular controls here are in third-person where Tom moves around with the left analog and the right analog is used for which direction he faces (ie. down is towards the screen), but it was the OTS view that really makes the game easier to get through. Once in the OTS view, it's possible to keep on walking with the gun out and the laser sight leading the way. There's also a flashlight that gets turned on here for some extra dramatic effect. This is absolutely necessary since some of the rooms are practically pitch black.
The level that we saw was fairly straightforward with the boat slowly revealing more rooms and platforms as we found more keys for the doors or turned on sprinklers to put out fires that were blocking hallways. It's all pretty standard stuff so far for the horror genre, but it's still a very early level of the game that we saw and so it's to be expected that the action will ramp up as it progresses.
What's working out so far in this early build is that the atmosphere is in place with the rusty old ship being tossed about at sea while the humans on board fight it out between the living and the recently living. There are a few dramatic flourishes as well like when Tom enters a room and a zombie appears outside the window with one lightning flash and disappears by the second. Other scenarios are a little more typical like the sudden bursting from doors or behind boxes when Tom enters other rooms deeper inside the ship.
From what we've seen it's difficult to say whether the game will really strike out on its own in the horror genre since many of the scenes are similar to what's been done before. The settings are in place, but it's all about what happens next that will determine the scariness of the rest of Cold Fear. What we've seen is an encouraging glimpse and in December we'll have much more information when we see even more of the game.
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/26464.jpg
This game is still in the early stages of development but talk is that like other SH titles that have come before, it won't restrict itself to just the whaler and later on will explore other locations such as an Oil Rig. Furthermore, the people behind this title are the same guys that worked on Alone in the Dark so they know how to make a SH game. Now, it is just a matter of time before we see whether their efforts paid off. Personally, I'm looking forward to this title as it shows the future of the SH genre perhaps even better then Resident Evil 4.
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/27621.jpg
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/27620.jpg
December 2, 2004 - Ubisoft is taking the guns and shooting thing in a completely different direction than the Tom Clancy juggernaut. With their Cold Fear that's coming out in March of 2005 the company is entering into the genre of "action horror" and puts the trusty weapons to use against zombies and other monsters instead of the plain old terrorists. To see just what they meant by this action horror stuff we went to a nightclub that was gearing up for a special bondage party and got some hands-on time with the upcoming title. We'll save the review of the party for later.
Our first impression of Cold Fear was that being on a boat in the middle of a huge storm sucks big time. The main character is Tom Hansen who's a Coast Guardsman that goes out to a large Russian whaling ship to check out a distress call. The seas are getting rough and the waves are getting to be some 20 feet tall with the huge boat bobbing side to side, but the man has conviction and gets on the boat to do his job.
This boat is a pretty dramatic setpiece with rain coming down and waves crashing over the side, flooding the deck. As the boat goes to each side Tom slides along with it unless he grabs onto a rail. Ropes dangle around with the boat as well. Some of these are just for effect, but with others having hooks or big bells on the end they can smash into Tom's noggin and send him flying as well.
After getting over the whole boat thing we had to find something to do since Cold Fear is a game after all. By exploring we found out what the whole action horror thing was all about as the entire whaler is populated by moaning zombies who are mostly armed with handguns. The big difference from other survival horror titles is that the camera system actually works and follows Tom around from a third-person perspective. This way, when Tom enters a room and there are zombies in there it's possible to switch to an over the shoulder view and take them all out. It's much nicer than the "God, I hope I'm facing the right direction" tactic taken by other titles to enhance the fear.
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/27619.jpg
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/26467.jpg
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/26465.jpg
The regular controls here are in third-person where Tom moves around with the left analog and the right analog is used for which direction he faces (ie. down is towards the screen), but it was the OTS view that really makes the game easier to get through. Once in the OTS view, it's possible to keep on walking with the gun out and the laser sight leading the way. There's also a flashlight that gets turned on here for some extra dramatic effect. This is absolutely necessary since some of the rooms are practically pitch black.
The level that we saw was fairly straightforward with the boat slowly revealing more rooms and platforms as we found more keys for the doors or turned on sprinklers to put out fires that were blocking hallways. It's all pretty standard stuff so far for the horror genre, but it's still a very early level of the game that we saw and so it's to be expected that the action will ramp up as it progresses.
What's working out so far in this early build is that the atmosphere is in place with the rusty old ship being tossed about at sea while the humans on board fight it out between the living and the recently living. There are a few dramatic flourishes as well like when Tom enters a room and a zombie appears outside the window with one lightning flash and disappears by the second. Other scenarios are a little more typical like the sudden bursting from doors or behind boxes when Tom enters other rooms deeper inside the ship.
From what we've seen it's difficult to say whether the game will really strike out on its own in the horror genre since many of the scenes are similar to what's been done before. The settings are in place, but it's all about what happens next that will determine the scariness of the rest of Cold Fear. What we've seen is an encouraging glimpse and in December we'll have much more information when we see even more of the game.
http://www.xboxworld.nl/images/content/26464.jpg
This game is still in the early stages of development but talk is that like other SH titles that have come before, it won't restrict itself to just the whaler and later on will explore other locations such as an Oil Rig. Furthermore, the people behind this title are the same guys that worked on Alone in the Dark so they know how to make a SH game. Now, it is just a matter of time before we see whether their efforts paid off. Personally, I'm looking forward to this title as it shows the future of the SH genre perhaps even better then Resident Evil 4.