Cold Winter
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Cold Winter<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
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| Developer(s) | Swordfish Studios
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)</th><td>Vivendi Universal Games</td></tr> |
| Release date(s) | May 11, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)</th><td>ESRB: Mature (M)</td></tr> |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, Xbox(cancelled) |
Cold Winter is a first-person shooter (FPS) video game developed by Swordfish Studios and published by Vivendi Universal Games.
Contents |
[edit] Story
In Cold Winter, you play as an ex-Special Air Service (SAS) operative who has been captured and jailed in a political prison in China. Before you are executed, one of your old friends saves you, because he needs you for a job only you can handle.
Throughout the game, several cut scenes show information on a mysterious man. This becomes extremely important later in the story.
Andrew Stering, the games protagonist, begins his mission in a gritty Chinese prison known as Chang. After days of brutal torture, an old friend of his, Kim; brakes Sterling out of the facility and takes him to a villa owned by Danny Parish, one of his fellow soldiers in the SAS. Parish recruits him for a private agency and sends him after a corrupt businessman name Amenkoht Ali Salah. After he and Kim infiltrate Salah's company in Egypt, they come across a secret biological weapon manufacturing facility located in a drained lake converted into a mine. Andrew shoots Salah and destroys the facility's pumps, flooding it and returning it to its original form. However, Parish informs Andrew that Slalah was only a subordinate for Mamoud Al Fariq, a powerful arms dealer. Andrew infiltrates Fariq's arms fair and discovers that Fariq is planning to sell Octopus, a device that can take control of the computer system of any type of nuclear missile. Fariq plans to demonstrate it before selling it to various rogue states, but Andrew sabotages the missiles and destroys Octopus. Fariq then captures Kim and executes her in an attempt to lure Andrew into a trap. Andrew kills Fariq and his special forces and escapes. A cut scene than shows the mysterious man explaining Project: Cold Winter, a plot to return the world to a peaceful state by using his organization’s (Grey Wings) weapons system Octopus to destroy a series of nuclear weapons around the globe in a pattern creating a nuclear winter, to hi infant grand daughter.
The story features H.G. Wells’ book “The Shape of Things to Come”, it gave inspiration to villain John Grey, who isn't fundamentally bad. Andrew is then shown on a bench in Prague, where this mysterious man explains him that he needs his help. John Grey tells Andrew that he is head of the secret society Grey Wings and about Cold Winter. He also explains that he was the man funding Parish's organization. During Andrew's briefing it is revealed that there were several Octopus systems in circulation, and that Fariq stole one of them. It is also revealed that Octopus is actually controlled by Grey Wings, not buy whoever comes possesses it. Andrew is then sent to a Grey Wing's headquarters in the Himalayan mountains, a massive facility called WInterlong. Andrew sabotages winterlongs nuclear reactor, then escapes in Parish's helicopter.
The final cut scene in the game shows John Grey on a bench in Prague, where he is brutally gunned down by several undercover Grey Wings agents
[edit] Gameplay
The gameplay is standard for an FPS and has a host of multiplayer options. It somewhat resembles the Soldier of Fortune series with realistic gore and violence. The game also uses the Havok physics engine, allowing for interactivity with items in the game world and for rag-doll effects on fallen enemies. Cover can also be improvised by using objects in the environment. For example, you can flip a table to provide cover or grab a table and block a door. Over 30 weapons are available, most closely based on real life small arms used by military and police agencies throughout the world. Handguns include the suppressed PSU 9 mm (based on the H&K USP) with which Sterling begins each mission and the 288 9 mm (possibly based on the SIG-Sauer P228). Larger weapons include submachine guns such as the M-320 (Based on the Micro-Uzi), and the K53 (based on the HK53) and assault rifles like the Chinese Type 56 Assault Rifle (an AK-47 clone). The game also includes shotguns, machine guns, various sniper rifles and a large collection of grenades.
Using a small inventory menu, some weapons and tools have to be assembled first: Molotov cocktails are made by mixing oil rags with bottles of alcohol, and so forth. Lock picks, that can only be used once, are made by cutting wire with pliers. The player picks up a lot of objects (wire, timers, plastic explosives, bottles...) throughout the levels and is spoilt for choice, because not only one single combination is possible: A fuel canistre e.g. can be used to make multiple molotov cocktails or, combined with other ingredients, a timed fuel bomb. The currently available combinations are shown in this inventory.
[edit] Reaction
“Cold Winter” was released with some moderate success with most reviews averaging to 75%. The game allowed an interesting interactivity concerning objects. The possibility to pull and push tables, market trolleys, to cant over tables, to carry and throw explosive gas bottles etc. allowed some tactical moves.
The story (scripted by Warren Ellis) was found relatively deep going for a FPS. The voice-acting is rare for a FPS, too. Negative were: The relatively slow speed of the game as well as the weak graphics that have been considered to be "outdated".
[edit] Multiplayer
It also offers a pretty solid multiplayer component, that supports 4 player splitscreen offline and up to 8 players online. You can use bots to fill out the offline limit if there aren’t four people playing. There are a dozen maps and 6 different game modes to choose from. The game modes include Deathmatch and King of the Hill, which are pretty common in shooters.
