Cold Zero - The Last Stand Demo

Tactical games can be extremely fun and addictive, given the fact that they allow you to employ your own ideas when it comes to navigating the missions and achieving your objectives. Hence, titles like Commandos and Jagged Alliance made a name for themselves, although a lot of work and innovation had to go into such games, in order to make the freedom you enjoyed feel as natural as possible.

Cold Zero: The Last Stand is a tactical action game that allows you to make the choice of whether you want to blow everything up and go in armed to the teeth, or infiltrate the target location without attracting any attention and just eliminate those who stand in your way without causing too much fuss around it. Clearly, the gameplay idea is pretty familiar, but since such tactical games are pretty rare, even non-original attempts are welcomed to the club.

The game also has a story that goes on in the background, explaining why and how your character got where he is. For starters, you must know that he is a private investigator and an ex cop, which means that he knows his way around a few skills and how to survive in tough conditions. On the other hand, the scenario at hand involves a very powerful gangster, as well as powerful secret weapons that can obliterate everything that stands in their way.

When it comes to putting them into practice, however, the stealth mechanics are nowhere near as good as they could have been, or at least as they should have been, in order to make them feasible. Hence, sneaking around is not very effective and the gimmick itself is not properly implemented, given the fact that the enemies can quickly sense you, regardless of whether you are floating on a cloud behind them.

You can employ the full force of the guns, on the other hand, since the title handles the shootouts pretty well and you can definitely enjoy a few bullet exchanges from time to time. What's more, the main character also has a list of skills and attributes that can be increased as you gain more experience, such as strength, camouflage, close combat and rifle proficiency.

Cold Zero – The Last Stand may not manage to impress anyone that's familiar with the genre, but it certainly did try its best to at least make you feel comfortable. However, the annoying interface, lackluster sneaking mechanics and childish story end up ruining the entire thing, which is quite the shame, considering the good ideas that were part of the initial mix.