if atmosphere is the mood or tone of a piece, then i would argue that blood money has, if not the ‘best’, then the most interesting in the entire series so far.
it’s all about tension.
i adore contracts’ incredible gothic european-flavoured noir. it’s many things - a heady mix of rain, ghosts, blood, ruminations on death - but it is not in any way subtle.
contracts wears it’s unsettling aspects entirely on its proverbial sleeve, hiding very little from the player. almost every level immediately lets the player know how they should feel. we know, even without the brief, that there is something very off about beldingford manor simply by looking at it. precisely what it hides requires exploration, but there is absolutely no room for doubt that something is very wrong there.
blood money’s a new life, on the other hand, isn’t so obvious. on the surface, and without looking at the brief, it appears to be an idyllic north american suburb; the peak of the elusive american dream. it’s only when we scratch the surface - open the doughnut van, meet the wife, etc. - that you can see the rot brewing underneath.
it’s like looking through a beautiful lawn of rich green grass and coming across a rotting, severed ear.
that’s a reference to blue velvet, by the way, which i suspect was an influence on a new life, if not the entirety of blood money. i’ve said this elsewhere, but i’ve always felt that blood money comes across as quite lynchian in-and-of-itself. by lynchian, i mean a juxtaposition between the relatively mundane (boring, everyday, earthly) and the macabre (horrifying, gruesome, pertaining to death).
47’s deathly presence alone is enough to strain each locations’ superficiality. he is death, invading these blandly iconic american locations: theme parks, rehab, steamboats, weddings, vegas, suburbs, etc. compare this to contracts where 47 doesn’t look out of place at all ; he is very much part of that sleazy, seedy universe.
(i know contracts is all in his head narratively speaking, but that’s besides the point. we’re talking from a gameplay experience here).
this is, i think, blood money’s greatest trick: it appears at first sight to be bright, clean, colourful and even cartoonish, but the juxtaposition between its overwrought surfaces and the grim machinations underneath provide a tension contracts’ can’t.
i also think it’s no coincidence that the first hitman to explore america chooses to do so using this technique as opposed to contracts’ brooding take.
blood money is the first game in the series that really embraces its dark, satirical potential (which 2016 kind of carries on, i think), and it aims it squarely at the veneer of the american dream. it’s not exactly brass eye or swift, but it does a relatively good job, i think. it doesn’t get enough credit in this regard.
i could bang on about this and go into deeper examples, but i think i’ve blathered on way too long already. 