Cold Winter First Look
We get an exclusive look at Vivendi Universal and Swordfish Studios' upcoming first-person shooter.
Cold Winter is the upcoming first-person shooter from UK-based developer Swordfish Studios and publisher Vivendi Universal. When we saw the game at this year's E3 in August, it was slated for release on the Xbox and PlayStation 2. However, the ensuing months have seen development on the title change focus, as Swordfish and Vivendi have now opted to make the game a PlayStation 2 exclusive and will focus their efforts on crafting a polished first-person shooter. We recently had the opportunity to pick up a work-in-progress demo version of the game and even got to try our hand at an early incarnation of it to see how Swordfish Studios is faring with the ambitious game.
For those who are unfamiliar with its backstory, Cold Winter is set in the late '50s and focuses on Andrew Sterling, a British MI-6 operative in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, while Ian Fleming's tales of James Bond's glamorous spy adventures would lead you to believe that Andrew is a lady-killing stud who enjoys a rich life of casual encounters and spying, the spy lifestyle isn't quite what it's cracked up to be. While we're fairly certain Andrew would be living a hedonistic lifestyle, that balanced work and play, if he could, when the game opens, work has clearly dominated old Andy's life. It appears he's been captured by the Chinese and is being sent to prison--with nary a lady or four-star accommodations in sight--to await execution. Fortunately, before Andy's "big day," he's rescued by a mysterious--but deadly--woman named Kim. The catch is that you don't know much more than what the game's opening sequence shows you. The rest of the story unfolds as you progress through the game. The structure is a bit unconventional in that it splinters off into three seemingly distinct arcs that are spread over 15 levels. However, they all paint a complete picture as to what's happened to Andrew and why the world will never be the same if he fails in his mission.
The game's structure is pretty straightforward. You work your way through levels, dispatching of enemies as you go. You have a core group of objectives to complete in every level, in addition to bonus objectives. While getting through to the end of a level is obviously your main goal, the game rewards you for being nosy by offering you some useful items that are outside of the core path. Some levels also require you to work with NPCs (nonplayer characters), and you may even have to make your way through a level while keeping Kim relatively unharmed.
The gameplay in Cold Winter is a mix of the conventional first-person shooter elements you'd expect, along with some stealth elements and some MacGyver-like elements thrown in for good measure. You go through the game in a first-person perspective, and you're able to jump and crouch to get through obstacles. The X button serves as an all-purpose action button that lets you open doors and searches the corpses of downed enemies, which often hold weapons or keys that let you progress deeper into a level. The game's first level, which picks up just after Kim rescues you, is a Halo-style intro level that incorporates a tutorial into the action. Here you're able to set some of your options, as Kim makes a few quick health checks on Andrew. Once you're done, the pair of you make your way out of the jail. The game handles pretty well right now, despite its early state. The controls are responsive, and the layout seems pretty intuitive, especially if you play a lot of first-person shooters on the PS2.
Cold Winter Quick Links
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- VU Games
- Swordfish Studios
- Modern First-Person...
- Release: May 11, 2005
- ESRB: Mature
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