There are three things Ubisoft wants you to know about its third person action adventure game Cold Fear. First, the game isn't to be associated with the words "survival horror". Second, it doesn't have zombies, and finally, it's not anything like Capcom's Resident Evil 4. Thing is, Cold Fear is very much like Resident Evil 4. In fact, whether Ubisoft likes it or not, its game is basically Resident Evil on a boat (even though Resident Evil: Dead Aim takes place on a boat). However, that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.

So here's the deal. After an elite group of commandos get torn to pieces while exploring a seemingly derelict Russian whaling ship, coastguardsman Tom Hansen and his team are called in to investigate, and no sooner do they board the mysterious boat than Hansen's men meet their grisly demise. Experiments gone awry are running amok, horrible mutations as well as dead humans who've been reanimated by these strange spider-like creatures known as ExoCels, and the only way to stop them is to blow their $^#^$^# brains out, and this is where you come in. Playing as Tom Hansen, you must explore the whaler to not only stop the plague that's infected it but to also get the hell back to shore.

There are several great things Cold Fear has going for it starting with its impressive boat physics. Darkworks created a marvelous environment never before seen in a videogame, a thunderous storm and skyscraper-sized waves, and in the middle of this they dropped a large boat. The result is a whaler that gets pitched about and rocks according to the water's behavior, meaning heavy chains sway back and forth, giant waves crash onto the deck and drag careless wanderers to Davey Jones' locker, and Tom Hansen slips and slides all over the place. It's an awesome effect but it's not just for show. There will be moments when you can use it to your advantage to solve puzzles as well as knock monsters overboard, but at the same time you'll need to keep your wits about you since those large swaying objects can hit Tom in the face.

Much like in Resident Evil 4, Cold Fear features a behind-the-shoulder perspective that comes in handy for precision aiming, but the real kicker is you're able to both shoot and walk at the same time. However, in order to access this feature you need to press and hold the L trigger, so when that's not being used, the game plays like any standard third person shooter and this default view is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it allows you to get a better view of the playfield so you can avoid things such as swinging boxes and enemies that would normally be concealed by your blind spot, but on the other, actually hitting enemies can be difficult, and when you open a door while using the other perspective the game always brings you back to the standard view. If an enemy is in the room and you're caught with your gun down, it's a shame because you're going to need to be ready to kill throughout the entire game.

Cold Fear is chock full of all types of enemies, some human, some not so human. For the most part you're going to be up against these zombie-like dead guys who've been reanimated by the ExoCels, and just like in the famous undead flick Dawn of the Dead, the only way to dispose of them is to blast them in the head. Since the game puts serious emphasis on that, you'll go through Cold Fear making heads explode and it's quite satisfying. So too are the triggered scary moments, which include enemies bursting through doors, dead bodies falling out of freezers, and twitchers, seemingly dead people who still have some surprises up their sleeves. I'm not saying that Cold Fear is just as terrifying as Konami's Silent Hill series, but it still managed to make me jump several times. The scene with the killer whale...well...I'll let you experience that for yourself.