Short, fun at times, but doesn't offer a lot to do.
Usually I spend many months on a game, but Cold Fear took a long time for me to get into. I played for 20 minutes, quit, deleted the game from my memory card. 2 months later I start it again and I got addicted. The biggest problem is that it took me four hours and 12 deaths to beat the game( aka 2 days for me).
The Bad: Gameplay never changes, go into a room and kill the exocels or what ever they are called and proceed until you complete the objective. There is a lot of running back and forth through out the ship/rig. The levels really aren't that interesting and get old. I could not find a map and I doubt there was one. Some times I would get frustrated with the speed of the enemies and then I would die, go back to the last save point and do all the frustrating work over again.
The Good: Terrific lighting effects, great variety of guns, enough ammo, save points were not too far spread apart, and there was an armory and a sick bay on both the boat and oil rig, but was out of the way. YOU CAN MOVE WHEN YOU SHOOT!
Plot: I watched every cut scene and all I could find was you are some blond guy in the USCG investigating a Russian waling vessel when you discover mutated creatures, and so you have to stop them.
At this juncture, if you have Resident Evil 4 and you are looking for a similar shooter, I would actually not recommend this game because it isn't that fun once you beat it. If you want RE5 and already have RE4 but don't want to pay 60 USD, then I recommend this game because it is addicting and you will want to finish it. While not as fun as RE4 and RE5, you can still walk and shoot simultaneously.