Cold Verdict

About

"Cold Verdict" is a 1-2 hour visual novel where five strangers awaken in a dark room with no memory of how they got there. Players must work to build trust with others, make choices, and uncover the mystery behind their abduction. With multiple endings based on who survives, each playthrough offers a unique experience. The game features atmospheric 3D rendered images and encourages players to shape the story through their choices.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

88%

Audience ScoreBased on 32 reviews

story12 positive mentions

graphics3 negative mentions

The game features an engaging story with a sense of mystery and interesting characters, each with unique backstories.
There are meaningful choices throughout the game that can lead to different outcomes, enhancing replayability.
The music is immersive and fits the dark atmosphere, contributing to the overall suspense of the experience.

The game is very short, with a playtime of around an hour, which may leave players wanting more content.
There are issues with grammar and typos in the writing, which can detract from the overall experience.
The lack of a skip function for previously seen dialogue limits replayability and can make multiple playthroughs tedious.

story
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
38%
13%
The story is engaging and easy to follow, centered around a past tragedy with well-written characters and decent twists, though it concludes rather quickly. Players appreciate the meaningful choices that can influence the narrative, but some critique the dialogue and character depth, noting that they often feel stereotypical. Overall, while the story has potential and aligns with players' moral choices, it suffers from grammatical issues and could benefit from further refinement.
- “The story is easy to follow, involving a tragedy that happened in the past, and as you play, everyone's part is revealed.”
- “Very good thriller, well written characters, story, and conversations.”
- “What pleased me is that the most rewarding ending (for me) is how I played through the first time; the story lines up with my morals and how I would handle it.”
- “The dialogue could have used some work as well as the plot and art.”
- “For 2 bucks worth for a 1 hour story, it's 'ok'.”
- “Cold Verdict started off grabbing my interest with its story.”
graphics
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
17%
50%
The graphics are generally praised as great, utilizing OpenGL for rendering. However, there are notable issues with typos and orthographic errors in the text, which may detract from the overall experience for native English speakers. Additionally, the absence of voice acting is mentioned, but players can navigate the environment at their own pace.
- “Graphics are great, there's no voice acting and you can fly through it or go slow.”
- “The graphics are outdated and lack the polish expected from modern games.”
- “The character models look flat and lifeless, making it hard to immerse myself in the game.”
- “The environments are bland and repetitive, which detracts from the overall experience.”
music
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The music in the game is highly praised for its immersive quality, featuring dark ambient tracks that effectively build suspense. Reviewers note the beautiful soundtrack, expressing a desire that it was composed specifically for the game, despite its relatively short duration.
- “The music is very good and immersive; dark ambient tracks that build suspense.”
- “Pretty short game with some beautiful soundtrack; I hope it was written especially for this game.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, users report issues with the stability of Steam achievements, noting that they are often buggy and fail to register correctly, even after completing the game. However, no significant bugs or glitches were observed in other aspects of gameplay.
- “Steam achievements are buggy; despite completing the game, I only received one achievement.”
- “I didn’t notice any other bugs or glitches.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of the game is consistently described as eerie, contributing significantly to the overall experience and enhancing the sense of immersion.
- “The eerie atmosphere was also great.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has low replayability, primarily because players cannot skip previously seen dialogue, which can make repeated playthroughs feel tedious.
- “Not very replayable due to being unable to skip previously seen dialogue.”