Saving Private Ryan's Game: the Struggles of an Average Man in a World of Haphazard Memory
User Rating: 6.8 | Cold Fear XBOX
I'll keep this brief, because a review describing every who's-this and what's-that would inevitably sound like I was reviewing a number of games that have been made in the past. Let me start out by saying that Cold Fear is not a bad game; I may have traded it in for God of War, but that wasn't because the very core of Cold Fear was stagnant and without hope. I'm a survival horror junkie, and this game seemed like it had Resident-Evil-meets-The-Suffering potential. Actionwise, it delivered. Atmospherically, it did what I thought it was going to - and trying to - do. However, there was one thing that, for me, made the game unplayable: the save system, or lack thereof. Not since Double Dragon 3's legendary let's-give-you-three-lives-and-no-continues strategy have I been even one-tenth as irritated by the very core of a game's user-friendliness. Checkpoints? Nahhh. Autosaves of any kind? Of course not. Save stations located throught the game? I guess nobody needs them anymore, either. The option to save the game at any point you see fit? Noper. So, how about a totally haphazard, totally jmysterious and illogical save system that gives the player no way of knowing where save points are, and no ability to go back to any places where the game had previously been saved, and save again? Ohhhhh yes. Yes, Cold Fear's got that one nailed. You might be able to save in two minutes, or you might be able to save in half an hour; you have no idea, and according to Ubisoft, that's not something you need to know. While it indeed keeps a game ever-so-slightly more true to life.... bah, who wants that? You will be prompted to save your game when you enter certain doors that normally precede cutscenes. Again, you don't know when cutscenes are going to happen, except by the fact that you are being asked to save your game; and, seeing as how you don't know when you're going to be able to save your game, that doesn't help at all. I gave up on the game when I hit a save point, watched a small cutscene and realized that I didn't have enough firepower to take down the enemies that were shooting at me. So, I ran back through the door, in search of more ammo, and maybe some new guns. After a good 10-15 minutes of running around, I managed to solve a little puzzle and enter a room that had a new weapon for me resting on the ground. Great! I grabbed it, ran back to the door where I last saved, went into the room with the enemies, and was killed shortly thereafter. However, I did a much better job with that new gun, so it was clear that I needed it. Remember when I said you can't go back through a door and save again. This is still true. Thus, when I restarted, I had to run all the way back to where that other gun was, solve that little puzzle to get it, run all the way back to the door, go through it, and fight all these enemies..... and die again. After the fourth or fifth time of doing this, I realized I was stuck in one of the most ridiculous video game situations I've ever come to experience. Even they could've learned from Double Dragon 3. Such frustration should not be boxed with a video game. It's ludicrous that in a game with an obviously high budget and a reputable company backing it, such a simple concept can go so haywire. I must say that despite the game's many positive aspects, I don't miss it a bit. That's just me, though; people who don't mind that kind of frustration - or just think they're very lucky - will enjoy the game greatly. 
