Project Cold Wave Demo

Open world games have gained a lot of popularity lately, even if the gimmick is not exactly new and it’s been used for a very long time in the industry. The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall had a massive world filled with monsters and people, although most of it was repetitive and random. Even so, the only thing that changed in the meantime is the fact that it is now much easier to develop an open world sandbox game.

Project Cold Wave is a role-playing game that allows you to be part a unique world and survive its perils to the best of your abilities. You play from a top-down perspective, and although the term “open world” might be used to describe the experience, you should not expect anything like Skyrim or Fallout 3. In fact, the environments are quite small and crowded, even if you do have the option to go whichever way you like

The demo at hand does not feature any story, although the final release should supposedly provide the players with a more clear purpose. Hence, it would appear that you are an amnesiac who finds himself in a strange city, with the goal to prove his innocence regarding a murder he is accused of. Not much originality involved, but it probably can be turned into something interesting.

Once you start exploring the narrow corridors of the so-called open world, you might stumble into enemies that block your path. Since they cannot be avoided, you must fight them and use your weapons to come out victorious. The combat system is turn-based, and it allows you to program every move in advance, for a turn. Unfortunately, it looks and feels quite silly, and it is difficult to get acquainted with the interface.

Speaking of which, the HUD is quite important to the gameplay, because it apparently tells you when you are in need of either heat or fresh. However, it’s a bother to keep checking it, especially since it is not readily available on the screen from the get go. Finally, the poor graphics engine doesn’t help either, and you truly feel the absence of animations this day and age.

Even if Project Cold Wave is nothing more than someone’s personal learning project right now, maybe the underlying concept can be successfully extrapolated into something fun sometime in the future. Until then, the chances that you will enjoy playing the current game are probably null.