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.
