A surprising find among a competitve genre...
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that an Iron Curtain was draped over Eastern Europe, that Berlin was split in two, and that the world’s two superpowers could have destroyed the planet 50 times over. Seventeen years after the collapse of the wall the memories are beginning to fade but every now and then we get little reminders of the world that once was. Cold War is one of those reminders, and while it doesn’t reinvent the stealth-action genre, it adds enough to separate it from the Splinter Cells we’ve all come to know and love.
But while Sam Fischer is a trained assassin who can kill a man twenty-seven times with his thumbs, you play as a less foreboding figure. Matthew Carter is just a run-of-the-mill reporter chasing down a story in the heart of old Soviet Russia. Little does he know that he’s a pawn in a massive conspiracy that wants to shake up the motherland’s reformist government and he soon finds himself sitting behind bars in a not-so-friendly Soviet prison. It’s a typical tale of a dubious plot that must be stopped at all costs and only Carter and the allies he makes along the way can save the day. The plot isn’t a standout but it’s enough to move the action along from scene to scene.
That action borrows heavily from stealth games we’ve all played before. Carter will spend lots of times maneuvering in the shadows, distracting guards, and positioning himself for the takedown. The stealth-meter lets you know how visible you are and will change depending on the amount of light, whether you’re standing or crouching, and if you’re running or walking. A quick scroll of the wheel changes your walking speed and while jogging across metal walkways will draw the ire of nearby guards, tiptoeing around every corner will ensure no shots come your way.
Carter’s ace-in-the-hole though is his ability to construct useful and deadly objects out of just about anything. As he moves from room to room and level to level he finds cans, bottles, screws, and other household items that he can build mines, non-lethal bullets, luring devices, gun upgrades, and generally act as a way for Carter to become a more effective hunter. To build a certain object he needs tech points, which are acquired by searching civilians and finding folders, briefcases, and document tubes spread around the various levels. Aside from what he can build and scavenge from guards, Carter is also armed with a unique camera.
Possessing an x-ray ability, it adds a unique perspective, literally, into the game. With his camera he can see through walls, up floors, around corners, and just about everywhere else to find out where enemies are. Objects like fire extinguishers, fuel cans, and bottles of vodka are also highlighted and can be destroyed with a shot of radioactive waves from said camera which explode and disable any nearby enemies. It’s a novel concept but makes levels boil down to their most basic of difficulty. Any suspense about entering an unfamiliar room is destroyed since you can immediately tell if anyone is in it or not. You’ll also find yourself not using the special ability of the camera once guns come in to play.
You’re not pressured to use your special weapons and gadgets save a few specific areas where you’re timed or when any alarm will trigger failure. The majority of the game you can simply shoot up the place with no penalty. Why waste your time setting up elaborate traps if unloading a single clip from your AK-47 will work just as well? It’s during the firefights that Cold War suffers as a stealth-action game and seems more suited for standard 3rd-person shooting. The game doesn’t exactly dissuade you from taking this course of action either, as knocking out an enemy only leaves them out cold for a few minutes.
Due to the nature of the game and it’s repetitive levels, it’s likely you’ll come across the same guard two or even three times, meaning you’ll want the first time you eliminate a patrol be the last, lest you are harassed again in later objectives. And you will come across the same room many times. While Cold War does take place in a number of locations including a mausoleum deep inside Moscow, a KGB prison complex, and the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, missions are spread three-to-four per map. You’ll pass the same paintings, the same crawl spaces, and the same maintenance ladders many times before you move on to a new locale. Don’t worry about newly-spawned guards raising the alarm since they don’t seem to care that their comrades lie dead.
When mission locations overlap, the inadequacies of the AI stand out. Bodies left out in the open in one mission will remain there for the next. One would think that when enemy guards find a dead body it would be a cause for concern—well one would be wrong. The AI will stroll past any number of previously deceased corpses like nothing is happening but will go into alert mode if they find anyone dead from the current mission. It’s also too easy to fool an enemy that feels pre-scripted. Walking near an enemy fast enough will make some noise and anyone nearby will immediately perk up and audibly indicate that they hear you. They don’t look around in the direction of the noise, they just stare straight ahead. Yet activate a luring device, basically an alarm clock, and the same guard will walk around, looking in every direction trying to figure out what the sound was. This selective investigation makes it too easy to manipulate the enemy and makes the AI a pushover at times, even more in the dark.
And thanks to a great graphics engine that darkness is pulled off quite nicely. There aren’t the pitch-black shadows of Splinter Cell but rather a gentle dark-blue hue to the unlit areas. It makes maneuvering easier and objects and enemies better to see. This was likely the most practical way to get a sense of darkness without including night vision. It also has to be said that Cold War is an impressive-looking game with all character models looking well-defined and adequately textured. Every location shares this distinction from the plush carpet floors of KBG offices to the dank, concrete walls of Chernobyl. Perhaps the best of the game is the visual style of the cut scenes, which are done in a cell-shaded narrated slideshow and offers players a new way of looking at the game. It won’t win any awards for its technical prowess but in this case the “cool” factor is enough to win brownie points.
The audio work doesn’t fare as well, featuring a bland soundtrack that goes up tempo at the appropriate time to signal an increase in the action. Eventually you’ll just get tired of the same old songs playing over and over cueing you in to the action. On the other hand the voice work seems professionally done with the actors being able to communicate emotions in a variety of situations. When playing as Carter there are times when he’ll shout out frustrating obscenities and you can completely understand why. Sound effects are great from the reloading of the AK-47 to the muffled shots of a silenced pistol.
Once you’ve completed the game and have seen everything there is you have the option of going back into several different play modes. These vary from timed missions to completing a stage without raising any alarms but each one of these modes is forgettable. After the first completion you’ll find there’s very little reason to go back.
When it’s all said and done, Cold War doesn’t try to be anything except a solid stealth-action game with a likeable main character. At this it succeeds, but when it tries to distinguish itself from similar titles it sometimes stumbles into other genres. Brushing these issues aside, however, gamers who enjoy sneaking around and going bump in the night should get some enjoyment out of Cold War.