Bias is something we game reviewers (well, some of us) strive to avoid. It’s an ugly, fickle little thing that can thwart even the best-written of articles and undermine the level of trust and competence most game reviewers strive to accomplish. Even so, it’s utterly impossible to completely eliminate the notion of "bias" from every article, as each and every person will gain his own minute perspective and expectations on a potential title long before he even shoves the disc into his platform of choice. As for me, my own miniscule level of bias regarding Cold Winter stemmed from one major factor: the contributing development team also created Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising. Those who know me will be sickeningly aware of my mad obsession with decorating that title as one of the greatest games of all-time, and this in turn contributed quite heavily to my interest in Cold Winter - an interest the development team seemed keen to capitalize upon, as they’ve once again recruited the efforts of Warren Ellis and Tom Baker to handle certain storyline and narration elements throughout the game. But at the same time, a skeptical approach is called forth: Hostile Waters worked because it had a totally unique (if generally unrecognized) impact on the industry and brought forth numerous revolutionary technologies many other games were still struggling to implement at the time. Could the same magic really be brought to play in an FPS title for the Playstation 2, in today’s industry no less? Here’s my look at the secretive action-oriented explode-fest that is Cold Winter.

Here’s the plot: You play "Andrew Sterling", a British MI6 agent who specializes in all the agent-like stuff any James Bond fan would expect the average British person directly employed by the local spy agency to be capable of – namely infiltration, destruction, and a surprising degree of death and carnage. Okay, so Mr. Sterling is more of a mix between James Bond and MacGyver thanks to an underlying gameplay element I’ll go into in a bit, but he seems perfectly capable of pulling in the ladies and downing classy drinks (shaken, not stirred) with the best of them. Moving back to the intro, the game opens up after Andrew gets caught up in a botched job in China, and is promptly captured by the local garrison and tossed into an interrogation cell. While horrific attempts to extract the information in his mind are carried out, Andrew’s MI6 buddies naturally deny all knowledge of his existence and promptly erase any records of his existence, proclaiming him a lot cause. It’s not until several months later that an old friend of Sterling’s arranges for him to be broken out in the name of a very special assignment – one that only a man officially declared "dead" could effectively pull off.

This all segues nicely into the game itself, which is rife with cutscenes and dramatic storytelling – so much more than I was expecting, in fact. Looking over some initial footage from the game before I played it, I was partially thinking Code Winter would turn out to be one of those "generic" FPS titles that basically throws the player right into the fray with barely a half-assed attempt to explain his role in the larger side of things, but instead was immediately presented with a bunch of cutscenes and crafty scripted events which settled me right into the game, something I consider quite significant. But as for the game itself, Cold Winter is something I would classify as a physics-oriented first-person shooter, meaning it has all the same general markings most other FPS titles do these days, but focuses on today’s gimmicky physics technology to give it some extra flair.

This of course extends far beyond simple things like knocking over boxes or abusing the ragdoll corpses – the game actually encourages the player to use the interactive environment to his full advantage during a combat situation by limiting his hitpoints and putting a strong focus on finding and exploiting cover wherever possible. Walking up to a table will yield a couple of menu options such as "Create Cover" or "Tip Over", which will quickly manipulate an object into a position suitable for the player to use as a bullet-shield. Larger objects (like beds or shelves) can also be dragged around or shoved, giving observant players the opportunity to set up his own barricades. The really cool part to all of this is that the AI is set up to do the same, so they’ll also be seen overturning tables or pushing debris out of their way as needed, creating a really dynamic and fluid environment which requires the player to be aware of his surroundings at all time.

As much as I hate to say it though, I feel this entire approach to gameplay works so well only because of the cutbacks done to accommodate the console-oriented controls. New players might instantly note that the first-person motion feels quite a bit more awkward and slower than typical FPS titles, and that the aiming feels more than a little bit clumsy (particularly when trying to acquire fast-moving targets). I think this is because the gameplay is more oriented towards getting players to find and take advantage of a static base of cover, rather than undertaking a typical run-and-gun approach. This is further evidenced by the AI, which seemed overly smart one moment, and then stood in place allowing several seconds for me to line up the perfect head-shot the next. This whole thing came as something of a disappointment for me given Cold Winter’s focus on being something of a "realistic shooter", and the consistent gaps in AI behavior became really noticeable over time. I wasn’t really impressed with my inability to ambush enemies effectively either, as they generally had eyes in the back of their heads and were blessed with near-instant reaction times when barging through a door or coming around a corner.

And yet despite these errant issues, I still found Cold Winter to be a particularly engaging and interesting title. Not exceptional, but something I’d confidently declare "better than most". One example of how the game tries to set itself apart a little is through a nifty inventory system. Okay, so the idea that the player can only carry two weapons at once isn’t exactly "new", but Cold Winter’s "combine" system certainly isn’t something one sees in every game. By actively searching the environments (and believe me, there’s quite a bit to explore – the game almost feels like No One Lives Forever thanks to all the little side-passages, hidden areas and "Intelligence Items" that can be found) players will inevitably find any number of innocuous items (like wire-cutters, or an alarm clock) which can be eventually combined to form new objects, including motion-triggered fire bombs, lockpicks, hacking tools, and other nifty stuff – something which certainly lends a cool little twist to the whole gameplay experience.

The length of the campaign also makes for a pretty satisfying experience, and I’d predict the average player will take upwards of 10-12 hours to beat the game thanks to its fairly slow pacing and numerous levels. Yes, the game could have ended up a bit longer, but given how the development team actually took the time to wrap up the story properly and maintain a decent plot all the way to the end (again, unlike many other titles which don’t bother with any kind of proper storytelling presentation and just roll the credits once the final level is over) I was quite happy overall with my experience. And yet despite the incredibly solid storytelling and interesting gameplay, Cold Winter just ultimately lacked the underlying punch needed to force it to the upper echelons of the gaming ladder. Despite all of its physics-based nuances, the game still ultimately turns into a "killing grind" where I just felt like I was killing the same waves of enemies over and over again – of course, it could be argued that this is what most FPS games eventually end up turning into, but stand-out titles like Half-Life 2 augment this with a constant wave of amazing scripted sequences and some incredibly addictive gameplay that just adds new layers of fun around every corner, something Cold Winter sadly just doesn’t pull off.

Single player aside, the game also promotes a venerable multiplayer feature that can be taken online to play against a maximum of 8 players in a variety of competitive and team-based modes (sorry, no co-op play). The game types are pretty much the standard stock of King of the Hill, Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag modes, but there’s also several maps to choose from, the ability to add bots into a match (I’m not sure if this carries to online play, what with me lacking a network adapter and all), and options to customize the available weapons configuration. Multiplayer is always a nice touch for a game, but this feels like it was thrown in as something of an after-thought thanks to the limited content, somewhat cramped maps, and lack of any unique or innovative gameplay modes that truly take advantage of some of the game’s better features. How enjoyable multiplayer will be depends on how much you enjoy playing FPS titles competitively in general, but I personally consider it to be something of an average implementation.

At the least, one thing Cold Winter does particularly well is the graphics engine. By this point I’ve really gotten used to the fact that console titles (with a few exceptions) tend to have really small and cramped levels with loading points around every other corner, so it surprised me quite a bit when I noticed that Cold Winter’s map layout was incredibly expansive, with a sense of scale and complexity one would expect from a game running off the Unreal engine. Sadly the maps are still fairly linear (‘fairly" being in reference to my earlier comment about numerous little side-paths and hidden areas being available to observant players) and have a constricted feel to them, but it was nice being able to freely play through a map and retrace my steps as necessary without having to cross dozens of loading points. The overall level of artistic quality and special effects are also up to par, although it was all-too-soon before I noticed that the same-old requirement that corpses in all console games are cleaned up in a ridiculously quick amount of time also applied to Cold Winter. Curiously this didn’t seem to apply to blood splats or dropped weapons, and it was really weird walking back through an area and noticing pools of blood and items strewn all over the ground, but no bodies. I really can’t wait until game developers break past this stupendous limitation and I can get the permanently-standing graveyard I desire.

So sadly, despite the beauty instantly awarded to the game through Tom Baker’s wondrous narration and Warren Ellis’ creative storytelling, Cold Winter just doesn’t have the mojo to propel itself to gaming stardom, something which I’m less-than-happy to say given the development team’s history. Is it a fun title that the casual FPS fan will enjoy? Absolutely, and as previously stated I’d easily declare this game "better than most", but the jaded hardcore gamers of today’s online audience (as in, the kind of people actually bothering to read this review) looking for an extraordinary title to sink their cash into will find themselves searching elsewhere. So, Swordfish… how about that Hostile Waters 2?