Burton's Bytes: Horror on the high seas

Ubisoft couldn't have picked a worse time to release a survival horror game when the kings of the genre (Doom 3 and Resident Evil 4) are both rampaging through our living rooms in new guises.

But before you consign Cold Fear to languish on the shelves of your local game store, you may wish to consider what it has to offer.

It certainly has a strong pedigree. Developer DarkWorks previously worked on the fourth instalment of the grand-daddy of the survival horror genre: Alone In The Dark - A New Nightmare. That game garnered critical, if not commercial, success and inspired a Hollywood movie (which is, by all accounts, truly awful).

Cold Fear also throws in an unusual addition to the usual "run around with big guns blowing the heck out of zombies/monsters" formula.

It's set on a ship and the weather plays an important part in your adventure. Trying to pin down the shambling creatures while the deck pitches around and the rain blurs your vision does bring a whole new challenge to the game. At certain times, your character faces a threat on deck and the real threat of being pitched off the ship and into the seas. This goes for your enemies too.

Mind you, all this is so realistic that on two occasions, I had to turn the PS2 off because I was starting to suffer motion sickness (ironic when you think that Resident Evil was created because the lead developer couldn't play first person shooters - they made him sick). So it's more than just a well-crafted blend of lateral thinking and gratuitous violence, then.

Players take on the role of Tom Hansen, a US coastguard who is sent to board a drifting Russian whaling ship in the middle of a howling storm on the Bering Sea. The ship is a modern-day Marie Celeste. Where are all the crewmen and what killed them?

Tom soon discovers that the Russians have discovered "something" while drilling for oil. Instead of high tailing it out of there, in true monster movie fashion they decide to experiment on the creatures (called Exocels) with predictably dire consequences.

The result is a ship full of dead people and mutated Exocels prowling the deserted corridors looking for fresh meat.

Cold Fear spans two major locations - the Russian whaler and an oil rig where all the trouble began. As with Resident Evil, clues to your adventure are scattered around the place and they glint when you walk past. They also fill in the developing plot and provide important tips on how to survive. Cold Fear isn't as up-to-the-minute as the new Resi game as it mixes the traditional static camera angles with the new style over-the-shoulder viewpoint. Personally, I preferred the older camera shots anyway so this wasn't much of a problem for me.

It looks good, too. Probably not in the jaw-dropping way that Doom or Resi 4 do but plenty detailed enough to draw you into the storyline and have you peeping beneath the bedcovers afterwards.

The weather effects - including terrifying waves - are particularly well done. Likewise, the ship looks suitably battered and rusty, although the levels set inside the old hulk do tend to resemble the same old metal corridors for hour after hour. It's easy to get lost on these missions and to compound this problem, you have to do a lot of dashing backwards and forwards during the game.

At least it helps by making Hansen wonder out loud if he isn't heading in the wrong direction. A map would have been better, though.

The music in survival horror is integral to the overall effect. So important is the soundtrack on Resident Evil that it has been released on a separate CD and featured in an episode of the sitcom Spaced.

The sounds of the sea pounding the hull, rain splattering across the deck and the odd peal of thunder all set the right audio atmosphere in this game. Mind you, the dubbing over some of the characters is pretty atrocious - it reminded me of a dodgy Italian splatter movie (more Lucio Fulci than George Romero).

Controlling your character is straightforward and you can switch weapons quickly (a perennial problem with Resident Evil games) just by scrolling through using the pad's shoulder buttons. Tom can use a trusty AK47 Kalashnikov to despatch the monsters and, later on, a grenade launcher. The best way to kill the Exocels is the traditional head shot (or splinter their craniums using a boot). Ammunition seems to be in plentiful supply, so blast away to your heart's content.

Anyone who likes a good late night scare will find lots to enjoy in Cold Fear. Just don't bother if you feel sick at the sight of a duck pond.

COMPETITION

WIN Hollywood-inspired Constantine games

THANKS to CHIPS video games stores and publisher SCI we have four full promotional PS2 games of Constantine to give away.

Based on the DC Comics/Vertigo Hellblazer graphic novels, Constantine casts you in the role of irreverent mystic detective John Constantine.

Using Keanu Reeves and Tilda Swinton's likenesses from the movie, Constantine forces you to embark on an investigation in a world of demons and angels that exist just beneath the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles..

Constantine, for 16+, is available on PC - £29.99, PS2 - £34.99 and Xbox - £37.99 at CHIPS stores across the region. CHIPS buys, sells and trades new and secondhand consoles, games, accessories and DVDs, and has stores in Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar, Hartlepool, Northallerton, Guisborough, Consett, and Chester-le-Street.

To have a chance of winning, answer this question: Under which city do the demons and angels live in Constantine?

Send your answer on a postcard, including your name, age and address, to Burton's Byte, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, by next Friday.

NB: Game winners must be over 16.