Who would have thought that freelance journalism could be so damn hard?! In the third-person stealth shooter, Cold War we play as Matt Carter (no relation to John), an American freelance journalist with some incredible survival skills. After a hint from a man named Sergei, Matt is off to the U.S.S.R to snap some shots of a secret meeting. As to who this man Sergei is, we never actually find out, but I suspected foul play right from the beginning. Almost as soon as he is on the ground, Matt begins knocking guards out, crafting some rubber bullets out of a plastic bottle and shooting some more guards. It almost stands to question, ‘What is so stealthy about Matt Carter?’ We get our answer shortly as he hides, rather poorly, behind a bust of Stalin. The meeting takes place between the President, who I am assuming is Gorbachev seeing as the game takes place in 1986, and two other unknown individuals. These two actually become main characters later on in the game.
Matt primes himself for the photo-op and gets a glimpse of Gorbachev’s bones. This is clearly not Matt’s camera. Out of curiosity he takes a snap of a nearby fire extinguisher, Matt definitely values lives, which promptly explodes. Next thing we know, Barinsky head of the KGB and several armed guards, place Matt under arrest. Barinsky accuses Matt of being a CIA assassin stating that no normal reporter would have an x-ray camera. I guess we can all guess whats going on here. What happens in Mother Russia, stays in Mother Russia.
After a short run, Matt is hit by a car and thrown in KGB prison, which is not very nice. Of course the other two numbskulls with the president end up in the same place. Matt manages to escape from the prison as well, he is very very resourceful. To avoid spoiling the entire game for you let us just say Matt gets a bug up his behind and starts to uncover the KGB plot to stay in power. The game is riddled with explosions and firefights as well as nuclear bombs. Trust me this game has it all. What makes Cold War so much different from other games of its time like Splinter Cell or any of the Hitman series games is the crafting system. Matt is constantly losing everything he owns, and as a force of habit picks just about everything up. Matt starts by crafting rubber bullets but as he proceeds and gains more ‘tech points’ he learns to build a silencer made from a plastic bottle, some ether mines, and a slingshot. Yes a slingshot.
Normally in games we would not pick a dirty rag up, I would never even in real life, but Matt does and the combinations he forms can be quite interesting. but like I said earlier Matt tries to do about as little stealth as possible. You are going to spend most of the game “sneaking” up to guards and shooting them in the head, sometimes twice…
Besides the unrealistic nature of this 2005 stealth-shooter, it is quite a gem. Matt Carter is a well-rounded character, humourous at times but always determined. Not to mention the mechanics are a little ahead of its time. The question stands, “Why review a 2005 game in 2014?”
Final Verdict: Worth Your Time
January 8th saw Cold War join Steams ‘Games under $5′ section. Any fan of Third-person Stealth games should definitely look into this one. Cold War can make an excellent addition to any fan’s collections. It can even be placed next to one of those Hitman games I keep hearing so much about.