You are John Cord, an MI6 Secret Service agent who has been sent to Vologia, USSR, at the request of CIA, to help track down a missing agent. Captured by Nagarov forces, you are alone in a hostile country. You must escape, infiltrate, sneak and shoot your way through increasingly dangerous locations...
You are John Cord, an MI6 Secret Service agent who has been sent to Vologia, USSR, at the request of CIA, to help track down a missing agent. Captured by Nagarov forces, you are alone in a hostile country. You must escape, infiltrate, sneak and shoot your way through increasingly dangerous locations. Find out who betrayed you and get closer to the ruthless mastermind behind the plan to trigger a nuclear holocaust!
Enter the world of espionage and conspiracy in which intelligence and self control will be your only way out.
Stealth or brute force... The choice is yours!
A gripping spy-themed storyline that will keep you entertained for over 60 hours
A great adventure gameplay with a mix of stealth, survival and action
An unusual example of adding a movie-like field to the game without sacrificing the game
Goodies
manual (15 pages)
artworks
System requirements
Minimum system requirements:
Recommended system requirements:
Please be advised that Windows 10 operating system will receive frequent hardware driver and software updates following its release; this may affect game compatibility
Recommended system requirements:
Please be advised that Windows 10 operating system will receive frequent hardware driver and software updates following its release; this may affect game compatibility
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The game is an hybrid between some genres around there.
First, it works like a point and click but it is not since there is no mouse, is full keyboard.
Then, it works like a Resident Evil, with pre-rendered scenarios and obviously pixelated out of the picture elements to interact with.
The way the game works is very similar to PSX game of El Dorado animation movie.
If you are up to this type of games, adventures with puzzle elements to solfve using the items the scenario gives you the game turns out enjoyale.
Controls are clunky, slow and unrensponsive, and it is a game that shows it's age.
Pros:
The puzzles are easy enough to figure out and they make logical sense.
Entertaining cut scenes.
Satisfying ending to completing the game.
Cons:
Holy crap the movement controls are terrible! Action sequences become clunky when you have to press multiple buttons and move around. Sometimes the action button won't work unless you're in the exact spot. The awkward controls become a problem during time sequences.
I had to use a walkthrough a couple of times because of bad camera angles prevented me from seeing the door and a couple of times because I had tried everything only to find out I wasn't angled or facing something right while pressing the action button. That's frustrating!
Challenge Mode: Trying going up and down a ladder on your first try!
If you can get past the bad controls/movement, then the game is pretty good story wise. I enjoyed the game and the puzzles weren't off the wall in difficulty.
In Cold Blood has its setting in the republic of Volgia, a country vying for its recognition of independence. Tension exists between various countries, mainly America and China. Volgia comes across a source of material that can greatly change the balance of power in the world, Brittan taking an interest, sends in secret agent 'John Cord' to investigate the disappearance of an American, who went in first but disappeared.
The game itself is a mix of Adventure/Stealth/Action, each of which you will be doing for the whole game (rather a couple of sections).
When this works, it works very well. Planning and Timing moves and attacks (or lack of) is required, and charging head on into rooms usually ends in death.
Puzzles are here too. Mostly to stop Cord from moving into new rooms, however some are set up to assist with the enemy by causing distractions. It's rare you would get stuck as they are reasonably simple & item/pixel hunting does not exist, though some are required to be done in a specific sequence to work. This is based on Cord's knowledge, rather the player, which can be frustrating, especially if you have to repeat a series after loading a save.
Death is handled slightly different. Revolutions approach was to have Cord recount the events of the game. You don't really die, instead you remembered incorrectly. Unless you are very good, you are going to remember incorrectly a lot. An awful lot.
Controls: The most annoying part of the game. Cord is moves like steering a buggy-car. Frequently pausing, running off into walls, and moving only in the direction he faces or jumping left and right (a strafe attempt).
This is where the game really fails, and sadly it lets all the other areas down. You can remap keys, which does help, but the game remains quite frustrating nonetheless.
If he is not facing an interactive object directly (and sometimes even if he is), either nothing will happen, or Cord decides you wanted to do something with that object on the other side of the room.
Sound and Music is quite clear and well done. The voices, and implied attitude, of Cord and Chi really make them unlike able, which probably was not the exact aim, but it does fit their characters. I found you don't really 'feel' for the characters in any way, there is no connection like Revolutions other games. And the relationship between Cord and Chi just feels plain wrong because of this, perhaps if there had been more than a few hours rapport between the two...
Music in the cutsceens bleeds over the voices, and subtitles are only available in the game. It's a small point, but you do need to turn the volume up after each chapter/mission to hear people speak.
Graphically, it's an early 3D experiment. It's also made in 2001, so it shows a bit. Thankfully, it's low-poly 3D done well. Many games at this time tried to do too much, but In Cold Blood was made at the point where scenes, while looking simple/early, did not try and be more than they were.
The usually qwirks pop up with this, but once you get into it, you forget this easily.
If you can get past a number of issues, and are willing to play and take a chance on a 3d adventure game. In Cold Blood is a reasonable way to go. It might not be anything special, but it is entertaining enough for what you get.
This game had the potential to become a real classic but numerous design flaws hold it back. But In Cold Blood does have redeeming factors, some of which actually significantly redeem the game; unfortunately without a good, solid foundation no game can be better than "OK".
For starters the game's plot is interesting. Not ground-breaking by any means but I found it to be told in a cool way and it had some fresh ideas. The pacing, however, is just awful. Can you believe that Metal Gear Solid, a game which has huge hour long cutscenes, actually moves the game and story forward faster?
The story is basically reserved only for the cutscenes and dialogue with NPCs and the rest of the game is padded with tedious puzzle solving and horrible action elements. I have no idea why they made the broken gun mechanics and turret movement controls such a huge focus of this game. I actually thought this was going to be a stealth game when I started playing it, because the first level does have some prominent stealth elements (at first). You infiltrate a Volgian refinery and the very first guard you run into you can actually interact with. You manage to BS your way out of being killed by saying you're delivering something I think and need to take a shower. Then when I made a mistake later on and got shot I actually thought that was this game's way of saying: don't get detected. But the game shifts the focus from stealth-oriented gameplay to action-oriented gameplay almost immediately in the second level. You will get killed a whole lot when guards run into the room and it takes you two whole seconds to turn and face them and by the time you've readied your gun you're already dead. They really should have taken some cues from MGS, which does the whole action-stealth thing so much better. It would have really helped to either make a stealth game, an action game or an adventure game because they really don't know how to mix those elements correctly. Oh, and it can be done. The Penumbra series and Amnesia: The Dark Descents are a testament to that (though my definition of action in this case is a bit different, I'm not talking about the gun-spraying combat-type action).
It's also very lacking as an adventure game. Other people have pointed out that the puzzles are very badly designed because you need to *know* about something before you can do it. Sounds logical right? But the reason it's stupid is that computer terminals have no function until an NPC tells you they do. This design is really maddening and every time I accessed a walkthrough to find out what to do next the solution was always what I was trying to do only I needed some exposition first in order to do it.
It has some very cool moments though, which I won't spoil, but you will know them when they occur. I recommend playing it if you played MGS and want a sort of poor man's version of that; I'm sure you'll enjoy it, but it does have a lot of flaws that keep it from being enjoyable (hell, almost keep it from being playable).
For a 9 year old game In Cold Blood reminds me of many more modern titles. Its narrative reminds me of the first Prince of Persia: Sands of Time where the story is told like an account from memory. Its deep storyline and stealth action reminds me of Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell though far simpler in execution. Its tank like controls and pre-rendered background reminds me of the Resident Evil series.
I was attracted to the title because of its genre - stealth action - a genre rarely seen in today’s games and dominated by few. Okay, it does have a lot of adventure elements but its control and overall feel makes it a steal action game in my book.
In Cold Blood you play as John Cord, a British agent on a mission to rescue Scott Kiefer, an American MIA in the mines of Volga. But all is not as simple as it seems and John finds himself deep in a conspiracy to destabilise the powers of the world, alone with no one he can trust.
I really like the story in this game, and the excellent dialogue and voice acting helps allot. I was surprised at In Cold Blood usage of sound effects. Ambient sounds for example from machinery seems to be in relative to John’s position on screen. Dialogue’s however is always clear even if you go into the next room in mid conversation.
I find that the one “clatter-clank” footstep sound used no matter what you are walking on can get annoying.
The tank like controls however could be a deal breaker for some. That plus the changing fix perspective of each scene makes some steal moves, like knock out, hard to pull off. John, being an excellent shot and his wrist radar that doubles as a map makes some tasks a bit easier though.
Overall, In Cold Blood is average. There are some highlights and there are some low points. Stealth Action lovers should give this one a try. It is simplistic compared to what we are used to so keep that in mind.
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