Ahhh…to play video games that haven’t been hyped to the moon. It brings back the feeling of being a regular gamer, who just happened to stumble upon a hidden gem. Although this game is still in development it looks like Ubisoft’s Cold Fear might be an interesting title when it hits the streets in a few weeks.

Cold Fear is a survival horror game, in the vein of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, et al. Whether it manages to strike out on its own and be more than just a clone of the other games in this genre remains to be seen.

The game starts with a military strike on a Russian Whaler that ends almost as quickly as it began with the entire squad dead. We’re talking body parts scattered everywhere dead – not pretty, and definitely ensuring a strong M rating for Cold Fear. So if the military can’t handle the problem, who should be sent in to investigate? You -- Tom Hansen of the American Coast Guard, that’s who. Well to be more precise; Tom Hansen and a few members of his unit. Of course you know the rest of Tom’s unit meets a quick demise, and so you’re left alone in the dark of the night, on a ship, out at sea, in the middle of a vicious storm.

That’s just what you’ll be watching in full motion video. The opening intro only sets up your first few minutes assuming control of Tom Hansen. As you get ready to start moving Tom around you immediately realize the game doesn’t play from the same perspective you’ve come to know in all the other titles in this genre.

Rarely do I get to say wow, or be caught of guard by something completely new in a game. Cold Fear regardless of the final critical outcome will have at the very least done that. The second you start the game on that boat, with waves crashing down on the ship, causing it to sway violently, forcing Tom to try to balance himself against the rain, the wind and the ship's swaying, you’ll know you’ve seen something totally new.

You'll have your hands full battling evil and the elements as American Coast Guard rescuer Tom Hansen

The game doesn’t sport hugely rendered characters or backgrounds, but the visual quality of the title comes more from the sum of its parts rather than the quality of each individual piece.

Little things like the pouring rain being blown into your face and splattered on your camera, thus reducing your visibility, help you feel what the character feels. The camera being taken out of your control and framed by the game to really only allow you to see what Tom can see, adds to the tension. When in aiming mode its cool how the game recognizes when you’re aiming at something completely meaningless, brings the gun up by your head, and snaps it back down the instant there’s something to shoot at. Very cool looking graphical things like that are imprinted all over Cold Fear.

Survival horror games live and die by their ability to create tension. Take away tension and what you’ve got left is a sub par shooting game. Cold Fear definitely has its moments early on that help establish that. First there’s the fact you don’t even see any mutated evil for the first hour of your gameplay. Early on you’ll be shooting at the terrified Russian crew of that cursed ship. You’ll simply read notes scattered throughout that allude to some deadly creatures referred to as Exocels, all while getting to see their gruesome handy work.

Not immediately seeing what you’re up against only makes scenes like this even scarier: You arrive at a lower flooded deck on the ship, you’re waist deep in water (so you can’t run away quickly if you need to), and you see a floating body off the in distance. You also see a shining object you just know you have to pick up lying under water right next to the body. You haven’t seen an Exocel for 20 minutes, and sure enough this set up screams to you that it must be the big reveal. So you walk over towards the body watching to make sure it’s not moving. Problem is, it’s impossible to make that call, because the body is floating. You’ll be asking yourself: Is it the body’s natural movement in the water, or is it something lying in wait, only stirring ever so slightly.

There’s one final thing that survival horror fans have come to expect of this genre – a steep difficulty curve. Cold Fear unleashes a doozie on you to make sure you play the game with your ‘skillz’ turned to high. Its mutated evil can only be killed if you use the dreaded “Head A ‘Splode” attack. In other words, any ammo plunked into the body is wasted ammo. Only head shots put the evil menace down, and keep them down.

Cold Fear is still a few weeks away from ending up in your hands, and we’ve still got hours to play through before we can pass final judgment on it. But if nothing else, we expect you’ll be impressed at the quality of this game, given how far under the radar it has gone. Don’t be surprised if Cold Fear ends up being a hidden treasure, in the vein of Eternal Darkness: Sanities Requiem.