Cold Zero is one of those games that have such a cool premise; you really want to pull for it. Alas, I tried to make myself like this game I tried really hard. Unfortunately, the hideously bad control and clunky interface severely offset any good points this title has.
Cold Zero is the story of a disgraced cop who finds himself in deep trouble with the mob after taking on a client's request to rescue a man from their clutches. So much for the private detective route; our hero John now becomes the Mafia's own personal errand boy for 16 levels.
Upon analyzing Cold Zero's graphics, we run into its first problem it takes place in an overhead isometric perspective, similar to that of Starcraft or numerous other RTS games. While this is all well and good Freedom Force pulled the 3/4ths view off without a hitch the graphics aren't much better than those found in "The Sims." Even worse is the game's sound Cold Zero has some of the worst voiceovers I've heard in a while. Just listen to the tutorial.
And though there is quite a bit of environment interaction to be had in Cold Zero, this level of depth is offset by the game's next major flaw the interface is clunky. Really, really clunky. I understand this is a strategy game at its core, and I don't expect everything to be intuitive. However, I can expect the game to not require me to memorize new controls for almost every situation for almost every key on the keyboard. Cold Zero simply tries to do too much, and ends up excelling at nothing as a result. Even when you transfer between a container and your inventory, there is no "take all" command that I could see. Maybe I missed it, but the fact that the "take all" command is obscured is pretty much representative of the game's design on a whole sloppy.
For what is supposed to be a "strategy/action" game, too many things in Cold Zero are left up to chance the targeting, while supposedly range-based, seems entirely too random. Likewise with your "technology" skill, which is required for even the most menial of tasks like opening lockers.
If you really love the genre, I suppose you won't mind Cold Zero's awful presentation or clunky interface. Most gamers won't be able to look past the sloppy design, however, and quite frankly, I don't blame them. Cold Zero's not going to be a hot title it's downright freezing.
-George
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