Cold VR (PC) Review

It is often said that imitation is the best form of flattery, and that is certainly the case with Cold VR, a love letter to Superhot VR. However, where Superhot saw enemies move when the player moves in what became a tactical puzzle in solving the various rooms, instead Cold VR switches this concept on the head with frenetic and sometimes mixed results.

The goal here is to keep moving in order to slow time down across more than 40 stages. Enemies flood the level and try to stop the protagonist. Stop moving and that Matrix-style bullet slowdown disappears, enemy bullets whizz by, and death inevitably follows.

Keep moving, though, and the player has the advantage. Grab swords, axes, pistols, or use fists to clear the stages. It's a pretty simple but effective concept. Those stages are nicely varied, from intimate close-quarters action to sprawling cityscapes, arenas, and even pirate ships. What is especially fun is the verticality. There are bouncing pads, places to leap onto enemies, and lots of things that will keep the heart rate pumping.

Interestingly, there is also a dash of horror in here, with some backroom-style levels thrown in amid the action. It's a nice change of pace with the objective in these stages to instead escape the area and avoid enemies as opposed to killing everything. The jump scares are also pretty effective.

Why is all this happening, though? Well, the player has teamed up with a hacker trying to take down a rogue AI, and this can only be done by stepping into a virtual world (inside a virtual world) and taking it down one stage at a time. No, this is not the most original story, and frankly it is a bit weak, but the FMV cutscenes interspersed throughout the narrative are surprisingly fun and well acted, even if the material is not exactly riveting. The music throughout also keeps the action moving with pumping beats to encourage the endless movement that is required.

Where Cold VR ultimately falls down somewhat is in the fundamentals of gameplay and missing polish. Where Superhot felt like a highly optimised and tuned VR experience, here things just feel a little off.

It's disappointing that enemy weapons cannot be stolen from them like in Superhot. That decision, while on the face of it small, kills a lot of immersion and additional tactical considerations. It also ties into a similar theme of clunkiness that pervades most of the experience, with the general weapon and player physics not being as refined as Superhot.

On so many occasions, too, using melee weapons or punching enemies fails to register even when it feels like it should. The enemies also have a remarkable habit of shooting and killing each other, as well, often rewarding simply ducking and diving for as long as possible and letting them take each other out.