i posted about this in (painful) detail elsewhere, but i think each entry tends to have a different atmosphere and i think that’s part of what’s kept it fresh.
in equally painful detail, i also argued that i think blood money has the most interesting (not the ‘best’) mood because there’s a tension between the surface and the hidden rot underneath, which the woa trilogy kind-of-sort-of-not-quite harkens back to.
i’d rather they took cues from that blood money kind of thinking than the edgier entries like contracts and absolution. it seems to me to fit the gameplay better in that repeated play reveals more of the narrative and (potentially) contradicts what we initially think, rather than wearing everything grim directly on its sleeve, if that makes sense?