Cold War

Cold War is set during the mid 1980’s with you playing the role of a freelance journalist who has been detained by the KGB.  Your mission is to find any way possible to escape from Russia and get back to the United States.  During your escape you can use some top secret KGB weapons and gadgets.  With the opened ended gameplay your escape really depends on your imagination. 

The first thing you will notice about Cold War is the similarities with Splinter Cell.  In fact this probably could be another Splinter Cell game if it had Sam Fisher as the main character.  Just like Splinter Cell the big drawing point to the game is the open ended gameplay and innovative weapons.  One of the weapons the developers showed off was an X-Ray vision device.  When you use the device you can see through the walls to see the enemy.  But the X-Ray vision device doesn’t just allow you to see through walls, it’s also a weapon.  When you activate the X-Ray vision weapon you can send radioactive signals to a person's brain.  After a few seconds the enemy will pass out from the pain of the weapon.  This is a very cool trick that can allow you to take out enemies without even going into the same room. 

The other big draw is of course the open ended gameplay.  If you want to play a stealth role to escape Russia, then you can.  If you want  towalk in with guns blazing in every area, then you can.  It’s all up to you.  The developers actually had the game running on two machines to show off the different choices you can make.  On one machine the developer would only use the X-Ray device or set traps to take out the enemy.  While the other machine had the developer taking a completely different route to avoid all of the enemies. 

The gameplay depends completely on the choices you make. 

The graphics were very well done and highly detailed.  The game is played in a 3^rd person perspective unless you change to one of the special weapons in the game. The frame-rate was very smooth and there wasn’t any noticeable stuttering while moving through the different stages.  The game is currently scheduled for release in late 2004 for both PC and Xbox.  For gamers looking for another Splinter Cell, this might be the game for you.

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