Mini Review: Cognition Episode 1

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, is a chilling point-and-click adventure that follows Erica Reed, a Boston-based FBI agent, haunted by the unsolved case of a serial killer who took her brother’s life. Taking a turn for the strange, Erica unravels her cases with the help of her post-cognition abilities – seeing an object’s past with a touch. But things take a dangerous twist as it becomes clear that someone knows Erica’s secret. Who are they? How do they know what she can, and what do they want from her?

 

Pros:

• A strong dark story that keeps you on your toes, forever keeping you engrossed.
• Lovely art style with some great animations, with a high level of detail used in the expansive locations on offer.
• The point and click mechanic is a simple affair. Simply point on an item and options will appear around the circle, select the one you want and jobe done.
• Inventory system is non obtrusive and again a really easy to use interface.
• The game has some excellent voice work, the majority of the game is narrated by your character
• Use your physic abilities to relive past events by touching certain objects. This helps build the atmosphere and gives you a cool game mechanic.
• The first game in a series tend to just be a build up to things to come. Here you get that but its dealt with early on and gets straight into the action. A solid selection of various tasks and puzzles.
• Save and reload from anywhere so you never need to worry about repeating actions.
• A group of supporting actors all coming together to help move the story along whilst keeping you thoroughly entertained.
• The music is very good and is executed in game very well. Wether it be used for a build up to a scene or for your more sorrow occasion. As we all know good music and music usage helps bring atmosphere to a game and this game does it very well indeed.
• By the end of episode one you are left wanting more which is a good thing.
• Not a heavy puzzler based game, this has more of a flow based style to it. So things like examine the scene, talk to witnesses, the coroner. Then back to the office to collate all the evidence. If needed or wanted you can revisit the crime scene and see what using your powers reveals.
• Fast travel can be used and to achieve this its done as a map of the boston area. Key areas are unlocked through play and you can merely select where you want to go.

Cons:

• Animations can be a bit broken and messy. I had a few instances where the character would walk through a table or slide along the floor. It is occasional and when it happens you laugh more than mock.
• The voice acting is excellent but some of the scripting is a bit below par. A few characters you come across dont sound or act what I would call normal. Sounding more like they are trying to read a load of lines out as quickly as possible.
• A few quests within the game kind of go against real world rules. For example a section sees you having to break into your bosses room, which is smack bang in the middle of the FBI office space, swarming with agents all over it. Yet you are able to just shimmy the door and get in without bother.
• The physic abilities is very much a get out of jail free card. Its possible to abuse the system and brush over any real investigation skills. That said the game really isnt that hard but still.

 

 

For the first episode of a games series, the game does an excellent job of setting the scene, introducing the characters and showing the player what is expected of them. I enjoyed every minute of it as it is like an animated CSI meets Sherlock holmes type affair that oozes atmosphere. Like walking Dead has proved, players like the episodic approach to games and prove  that they can co exist in this generation of gaming. For a strong story with lush art style and a clever abilities, look no further than Cognition.

 

Note:

As this is an episodic game, we will do a full review once all the chapters are out to see how the whole story stays together. In the mean time we will continue to do mini reviews.