I've been playing In Cold Blood now for about ten hours, and I'm totally amazed by the storyline and atmosphere. Last night I was stuck on one of those puzzles you just have to solve, and I was frustrated, so I put the controller down and grudgingly went to sleep, drifing off as I mentally examined the puzzle over and over. Though I was frustrated, I was happy - it's not often you run into a game with puzzles that stump you, but In Cold Blood has many. In one level you need to pass some guards without them recognizing you, so you might need to make a diversion in order to pass them, or you might need access codes for certain computers so you can hack yourself into the system. All those stumbling points make it a very challenging and very appealing game, since they're all embedded in a stunning espionage plot, where you slowly uncover more and more of the so-called truth.

　　The game's story is being told in flashbacks. You find yourself in a room with someone asking you questions and threatening you. You, as British agent John Cord, try to remember what happened, and you answer the questions. So you sort of play in real time what has already happened. This effect is very clever and makes you always want to know more of the story. Before you know it, you've played for several more hours, and at 3am you think you really should go to bed now and continue tomorrow.

　　John Cord can pick up objects, talk to people, hack into computer systems with his REMORA tool, crouch, shoot, knock someone out, climb, sidestep, run, and much more. The graphics are absolutely breathtaking and will quickly make you feel addicted to the atmosphere. Imagine Resident Evil-style rendered backdrops, with the gameplay and plot of Metal Gear Solid, and you'll get very close to this game's style.

　　Spanning two CDs, the game features fully spoken dialogue instead of written dialogue, and plenty of rendered cutscenes, which help tell the story. The only downfall is the loading time, especially when you're dying and need to reload the last saved game, but the overall gameplay experience compensates for this little problem.