Posted March 09, 2009
In Cold Blood is a hybrid game, combining elements of a graphic adventure with a stealth action game. The game satisfies in neither way.
The adventure gameplay isn't as deep as it could be; puzzles tend to have straightforward solutions. This is unfortunate, but not killer. More seriously, the game frequently thwarts efforts to solve puzzles because the character is missing a piece of information. When using computers throughout the game. Frequently you won't even be present with necessary user interface until another character or puzzle has suggested that you need to. To take one example, I needed to activate a particular elevator using a computer. The computer was capable of doing so, but the option was not even displayed until I spoke with a particular character who told me to use it. All in all, I spent a fair amount of time backtracking to places I've been to do things I logically could have done earlier, but the protagonist didn't feel like it, or the option was removed. This is just padding to make the game longer, spreading the fun extra thin over the play time.
The game also frequently fails to suggest ways forward. In particular, a number of conversations seemed to be complete; it appeared that the other character had helped me as much as they could. But threatening them with a gun caused new information to pop out of nowhere. This doesn't feel like I had realized the character was holding out and needed to be threatened. Instead it felt like I was being asked to try every verb against every person.
The user interface is terrible. The game's interface was clearly designed for the PlayStation, not a PC player. You end up with stupid interfaces like computers which present you with a list of numbered options. You can't click on them with the mouse. (You can't use the mouse anywhere, not even the navigate the main menus for the game.) You can't move up and down through the list. Instead another list of just numbers is presented at the bottom, and you scroll right and left through them.
The interface would probably be better if you could use a gamepad. The game claims to support gamepads, but won't let you re-map most of the interaction keys. So you can use a gamepad, but you'll end up needing the keyboard constantly.
Like many PlayStation games, especially survival horror, 3d characters move and interact on top of a pre-rendered, 2d background. This looks pretty good. Unfortunately like many survival horror games this is a nightmare to navigate. Camera angles are frequently chosen for how good they look, and as a result as you jump from camera to camera while moving around, it can be hard to determine how rooms are interconnected. The game also commits the cardinal sin of early survival horror games: you'll occasionally end up fighting enemies that you simply cannot see because of the camera angle. When running around in an action scene, you'll bounce off door frames as you try to quickly maneuver while fighting the camera angle.
The camera angles are one of the problems with the stealth action play. The other problem is that it simply isn't compelling. Enter new area. Find guards. Find a way behind them. Vulcan death grip them. Repeat until all guards are dead. It's repetitive and dull. It's occasionally spiced up by having the only option to be to walk into a room and immediately shoot the guards, but the combat gameplay is just a matter of bouncing on the shoot button as fast as possible.
All in all, this isn't a very good game. Find something else to play.
The adventure gameplay isn't as deep as it could be; puzzles tend to have straightforward solutions. This is unfortunate, but not killer. More seriously, the game frequently thwarts efforts to solve puzzles because the character is missing a piece of information. When using computers throughout the game. Frequently you won't even be present with necessary user interface until another character or puzzle has suggested that you need to. To take one example, I needed to activate a particular elevator using a computer. The computer was capable of doing so, but the option was not even displayed until I spoke with a particular character who told me to use it. All in all, I spent a fair amount of time backtracking to places I've been to do things I logically could have done earlier, but the protagonist didn't feel like it, or the option was removed. This is just padding to make the game longer, spreading the fun extra thin over the play time.
The game also frequently fails to suggest ways forward. In particular, a number of conversations seemed to be complete; it appeared that the other character had helped me as much as they could. But threatening them with a gun caused new information to pop out of nowhere. This doesn't feel like I had realized the character was holding out and needed to be threatened. Instead it felt like I was being asked to try every verb against every person.
The user interface is terrible. The game's interface was clearly designed for the PlayStation, not a PC player. You end up with stupid interfaces like computers which present you with a list of numbered options. You can't click on them with the mouse. (You can't use the mouse anywhere, not even the navigate the main menus for the game.) You can't move up and down through the list. Instead another list of just numbers is presented at the bottom, and you scroll right and left through them.
The interface would probably be better if you could use a gamepad. The game claims to support gamepads, but won't let you re-map most of the interaction keys. So you can use a gamepad, but you'll end up needing the keyboard constantly.
Like many PlayStation games, especially survival horror, 3d characters move and interact on top of a pre-rendered, 2d background. This looks pretty good. Unfortunately like many survival horror games this is a nightmare to navigate. Camera angles are frequently chosen for how good they look, and as a result as you jump from camera to camera while moving around, it can be hard to determine how rooms are interconnected. The game also commits the cardinal sin of early survival horror games: you'll occasionally end up fighting enemies that you simply cannot see because of the camera angle. When running around in an action scene, you'll bounce off door frames as you try to quickly maneuver while fighting the camera angle.
The camera angles are one of the problems with the stealth action play. The other problem is that it simply isn't compelling. Enter new area. Find guards. Find a way behind them. Vulcan death grip them. Repeat until all guards are dead. It's repetitive and dull. It's occasionally spiced up by having the only option to be to walk into a room and immediately shoot the guards, but the combat gameplay is just a matter of bouncing on the shoot button as fast as possible.
All in all, this isn't a very good game. Find something else to play.