'Cold Winter'
By: Vivendi Universal Games
(PS2 / ASIN: B00011V7ZK / Rated: M / $49.99)
Features: Enter the shadowy world of international espionage in this exciting adventure. Realistic interaction with highly detailed and life-like environments. 30+ real-world weapons depicted in exacting detail enhances action. Original storyline; compelling campaign mode with 6 gritty environments. Online multiplayer and up to 4-player split-screen off-line multiplayer.
Description: You are Andrew Sterling, British MI6 agent and expert in the kind of covert operations the public doesn't believe proper governments engage in. Caught spying in China, you await execution. Your government denies all knowledge of your activities and leaves you to die. However, a friend from your military past arranges your escape and, later, employs your unique talents at his private security agency. Your first mission--eliminating an arms dealer who supplies terrorists--propels you on a course where nothing is as it seems. Duty, honor, and allegiance obscure as you are snared in the machinations of a powerful-but-deluded secret society.
Verdict: To be quite honest, first-person shooter games have been in hiding for the best part of the past few years, but thankfully here is one now that slaps the gun firmly in your hand and says 'Have at it, son'! Many times, it’s the little things that create the ambience of the game, the positive direction in which is heads, and based on having played this one I can solidly state that 'Cold Winter' could well be one of the great FPS’s! The hero of 'Cold Winter,' a British Secret Service agent with the equally very British name of Andrew Sterling, is captured in China while on a recon mission. Luckily, and very fitting to move the story along, a beautiful female Chinese agent frees him from his prison cell. Thus the game, the mystery, and the carnage begin. There are three missions to choose from in the onset of the game which changes the storyline and gameplay as players continue. There’s a complicated storyline to follow, but the conundrums will all be solved as the player progresses through the game. The most amazing parts of Cold Winter are the AI and physics models in the game. The prison guards reacted with incredible intelligence, taking cover behind any object and advancing as a team instead of as individuals. Every single object is modeled under 'Cold Winter’s advanced physics engine, meaning chairs can be knocked over and react accordingly to where the chair is hit. Andrew Sterling must be one rough fellow, because he doesn’t collect health packs or medkits, he just puts on a bandage and some gauze and injects himself with some morphine. Boy those Brits are tough!
Reviewed by Matt Routledge
www.vugames.com
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