ColdSide Review Summary

Beautiful graphics and effective atmosphere shine with well-executed jump scares, but a cliché story, missing voice acting, and limited terror make this horror title forgettable.

Graphics highly praised: Many reviews highlight the game's beautiful and detailed visuals, often calling them stunning or excellent. This strong positive reception suggests graphics are a key strength of the game.

Effective atmosphere and audio: The game's atmosphere is enhanced by good lighting, sound design, and music, creating an immersive and tension-filled environment. These elements are consistently praised and contribute to the horror experience.

Jump scares well-executed: Players generally appreciate the jump scares, describing them as well-placed, surprising, and not overdone. They contribute positively to the horror experience without becoming annoying.

Multiple endings based on choices: The game features several endings influenced by player decisions, offering replayability and meaningful choices. Reviews mention two to four possible endings, highlighting narrative depth.

Overall positive experience: Reviews describe the game as a solid, fun, and well-constructed experience that is worth its price. This indicates a generally favorable impression of the game as a whole.

Lack of voice acting: Players consistently report that the game has no voice acting in any language, with all dialogue and character interactions presented as text only. This significantly reduces immersion and character engagement.

Dull and cliché story: The story is frequently described as boring, cliché, and uninteresting, lacking depth and originality. This fails to engage players emotionally or narratively.

Game not scary: Players note that the game is not genuinely scary, often becoming funny or lackluster in horror delivery. This undermines the core genre appeal.

Confusing story presentation: The story is often hard to follow due to confusing narrative structures and poor presentation, with key parts omitted or unclear. This leaves players frustrated and disconnected.

Boring and repetitive gameplay: The gameplay is described as monotonous, repetitive, and easily boring, with tasks becoming tedious over time. This diminishes long-term player interest and enjoyment.

Horror game with scripted scares: The game is widely recognized as a horror title featuring frequent scripted scares and jump scares. Players mention a psychological horror experience with a first-person perspective.

Walking simulator with horror elements: Players consistently describe the game as a walking simulator with horror and jump scares. The gameplay focuses on exploration and narrative rather than action or combat.

Choices affect multiple endings: Player choices, especially in dialogue, influence the story and lead to multiple endings. The number of endings varies from two to three based on player decisions.

First-person exploration experience: Players emphasize the first-person perspective and exploration of abandoned locations, particularly an underground laboratory. The game is linear but features environmental changes.

Puzzle solving gameplay: The game includes puzzle-solving elements, often described as simple but varied. Puzzles are part of the core gameplay loop, though not overly complex.

Good optimization and performance: Players report the game runs smoothly, is well optimized, and performs well even on moderate hardware. This positive feedback is prominent in the clusters.

Frequent crashes and freezes: Several players experienced game freezes during specific actions like running from monsters or interacting with email, and crashes requiring system restart. These issues disrupt gameplay significantly.

Long loading times: Loading times are reported as long, which adds unnecessary waiting and can detract from the overall experience.

Performance issues exist: There are various performance issues mentioned, but they are not detailed extensively, suggesting a general dissatisfaction with stability.

Game is widely recommended: Several clusters indicate strong positive recommendations, including outright recommendations and praise for overall worth.

Great for horror fans: The game is recommended specifically to horror genre enthusiasts, with emphasis on atmosphere and tension.

Buy on sale: Multiple reviewers suggest waiting for a discount before purchasing, indicating the game is not worth full price.

Worth its price: Reviewers consider the game fairly priced, providing good value for the cost.

Scares may disappoint: Some horror fans find the scares insufficient, and the experience may not be intense enough.

Community fair range: $8.00 - $12.00.

Game completion: 3.0h.

Story completion: 3.0h.

The game is enjoyable from the start, with engaging forward pacing and carefully crafted areas, despite minor late-game repeats and occasional progress-loss friction that do not undermine overall enjoyment.

Friction: Long exploration sessions can result in lost progress, disrupting pacing.

Atmosphere & Story Devotee: Exploratory, slow-paced, savoring environments and story beats. Motivation: To immerse themselves in a tense, atmospheric horror narrative and replay levels to catch missed details. Stance: buy.

Completionist Achievement Hunter: Goal-driven, methodical, often replaying levels to meet achievement conditions. Motivation: To unlock every achievement and fully complete the game, often seeking exploits and workarounds. Stance: deep sale.

Horror Genre Connoisseur: Engages with story and atmosphere, tolerant of reading and slower pacing. Motivation: To experience narrative-driven horror with atmospheric tension, especially if they enjoy cosmic horror or SCP lore. Stance: buy.

Short gameplay duration: Players consistently report a short playtime, ranging from 2 to 10 hours, with most mentioning approximately three hours. The brevity is a common point of discussion, possibly affecting perceived value.

Built on CryEngine: Multiple reviews highlight that the game is developed using CryEngine 5, which is noted as a departure from typical Unity or Unreal horror titles. This engine choice may affect performance and graphical capabilities.

Similar to previous games: The gameplay and style are similar to AdroVGames' earlier titles, such as ShadowSide and Investigator. This consistency may appeal to returning players but could also lead to monotony.

Sole developer achievement: Reviewers emphasize that the game was developed by a single person, often praising this as a significant achievement. The solo development is seen as impressive given the game's scope and quality.

Multiple endings available: The game features multiple levels and alternate endings that depend on player choices. This provides replayability, though some players may not find all endings without multiple playthroughs.