I was pretty worried going into this one because I’ve played some pretty bad Resident Evil clones that I gave up on fairly quickly. I was pleased to find that Cold Fear does just enough right to be a somewhat satisfying play-through.

The gameplay mechanics aren’t anything spectacular or new. You get a bit of a weapon variety that you can cycle through, and they’re all scattered for you to find over time; though not in a way that feels like a rewarding scavenger kind of way.

The shooting and hit detection were serviceable, and the music could be pretty fun at times. Though a lack of music would have helped the atmosphere a bit more. Even if they had scored it in a way that felt more akin to a horror game than an action game, I think it would have benefitted.

But speaking of the atmosphere, it’s great. Having the first half of the game take place on a ship that you have to maneuver around was awesome, and the rain/ moving boat effect was such a cool touch. Especially since they factor into the gameplay.

Having the second half of the game take place on the oil rig was cool too. I like how it still felt organic to the story, and it allowed for a change in scenery to keep the play-through interesting.

The problem is that Cold Fear suffers from a selection of detrimental issues that are just too hard to look past in order to call it a “great game”. An obvious issue that many people point out is the old school Resident Evil camera.

When I get caught in a tense situation where I’m taking on multiple enemies, my aim gets knocked away and the camera gets all fucked up, and I have to reface the enemy while I’m getting hit just to fix the aim, then finally start fighting again. What a pain.

It’s also one of those where the fuck do I go types of games. Which is pretty ironic considering the game tells you where to go. But it expects you to know where certain locations are, or to remember ones you’ve already been to despite how far you might be.

This wouldn’t be so bad if there were multiple ways to get to locations… but the game is very linear in it’s level design. So half of the time I was walking around looking for where to go… which was sometimes the most time consuming aspect.

The game also has a horrible way of saving. Instead of being able to pull up a pause menu and hitting save, or auto saving (though that wasn’t as popular at this time), you have to progress a certain amount in order to save the game.

If you die, you have to go back from your last save spot… and you better fucking hope that it wasn’t too far… because this game will punish you towards the end. To clarify, I don’t just mean the enemy types get harder… I mean the save spots feel further and further away. Making it tedious, and challenging to die and restart all over again.

It’s a frustrating, atmospheric, painful, thrilling, hair pulling, exciting game. Okay that was way too many adjectives… but all of them accurately describe the essence of the experience. It’s one I’d recommend to any players looking for a good resident evil experience outside of the actual resident evil games.

If you’re looking for a good story… once again… serviceable. But I can say that for the game itself too; And that isn’t a bad thing if it’s the kind of survival horror experience you’re looking for.

I find this game to be an outstanding product, residing in the top bracket of its genre. It's in the running for best game released in 1999 for me.

I find the game to be a mechanical delight. The way your guns become more accurate based on how long you aim and your proximity to enemies, how the running strafe forces you to commit to 2 steps but can be interrupted by interacting with items or opening doors, how different enemies require different strategies based on their varying behaviors and how it's detailed down to their individual perception of sight and sound for aggro. This all adds up to a game with a decently high skill ceiling, and I've done many 10 star runs as the game always seems to be able to be pushed further. The scoring system itself is very finely tuned, and the time limit for 10 stars is perfect at 90 minutes for the amount of kills and optimization required.

I am absolutely the target audience of this game.