
	Platform Xbox Genre Action Publisher Dreamcatcher Developer Mindware Studios ESRB T (Teen) Released September 2005

- Weapon creation system - Decent storyline - Quick load and save times

- Mediocre voice acting - Weak Presentation - Little replay value

Review: Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (XB) Review: Aeon Flux (XB) Review: Metal Arms: Glitch in the System (GC)
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Cold War

Score: 7.0 / 10

Since the release of Splinter Cell, not many developers have tried to create their own replicas of Ubi Soft’s successful series. The only notable game modeled after Splinter Cell was Stolen, which was a rather lackluster effort. Cold War is deeply influenced by the Splinter Cell series, but adds some interesting elements to make for a rather enjoyable, if somewhat average, experience.

Cold War is a stealth-based action game that takes place during the end of the Cold War in the late 80’s. You play a journalist Matt Carter who is in the Soviet Union to break a major news story regarding a secret meeting of two high-level American

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and Russian government officials. While covering the news story, Carter is framed for attempted murder and thrown in a Russian prison.

Much like Splinter Cell, Cold War is played from a third person perspective. CW sees you do many of the same things in Splinter Cell such as eliminating and interrogating enemies, and obtaining vital documents. One area where Cold War branches off from Splinter Cell is the

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weapons. The weapons in CW are really quite unique and innovative. Throughout each of the game’s environments there are a number of items, whether they are rags, bottles, or alarm clocks that can be picked up by your character. Once a certain number of items have been picked up, you can create your own weapons. Everything from rubber bullets to "luring" devices can be created.

Matt relies heavily on being stealthy and engaging enemies quickly and quietly. Whenever you incapacitate an enemy, you’re advised to hide the bodies, but the game doesn’t seem to penalize you for leaving enemy bodies out in the open. You will come across some levels where lethal force is not advised, so you must rely heavily on using non-lethal weapons such as rubber bullets or sneaking behind enemies and taking them out. One of the coolest weapons in the game is the x-ray camera. Using the x-ray camera you can look through walls to monitor enemy strength and you can also attack enemies using the camera.

The enemy AI is quite good, even if the enemies don’t vary much. During firefights enemies fire from behind cover and are fairly precise when it comes to aiming. Throughout part of the game you’ll work alongside a fellow prisoner. While you won’t work directly with each other, you’ll usually go do your own objective while the prisoner carries out his own objective. Throughout each of the game’s levels you’ll face some common environmental hazards such as security cameras and fences.

The visuals are solid for the most part. Matt looks quite good, while the enemies are rather bland and don’t seem to vary much. The game’s environments are very dark and black and there is a decent mix of in-door and out-door environments.

The voice acting is quite bad in Cold War. The voices don’t seem believable and are at time over-dramatized. The cut-scenes are done quite differently from a lot of other games. Almost the entire story is told through black and white still images. Personally, I didn’t care too much for the cut-scenes. Splinter Cell spoiled players with lush and beautiful cut-scenes and Cold War doesn’t succeed at doing the same thing.

Cold War copies a lot of what Splinter Cell has done, but adds some unique elements. There are a lot of better stealth-action games out there, but die-hard stealth-action fans should give Cold War a try.

- Siddharth Masand
(January 19, 2006)