Review: Cognition Episode 2

When someone close to Erica is kidnapped by the Wise Monkey, a serial killer fixated on the gruesome mutilation of her victims, Erica is in a race against time to save his life. With the Wise Monkey case in her hands and the FBI’s resources already stretched thin, she’s on her own to find the killer before it’s too late — again.

 

Pros:

• Cut scenes are still a comic book style affair, and look great and keep the darkness of the game going through out. Reminiscent to a a detective tv show, the cut scenes are really well done.
• The story overall is a lot darker with a killer who has kidnapped an FBI agent, whilst previous victims have had their eyes and tongue removed. Can reed save them in time?
• Music is still the best thing in the game series, adding terrific atmosphere, building tension, always on time and executed with perfection.
• Since episode one, the story has taken a much darker sinister twist, this is a good thing and shows how the game will grow episode by episode.
• You have alot more to do in terms of investigating this time round.
• New abilty has been added to your roster of skills. Takes the game forward and opens up new scenarios and solutions.

Cons:

• Character animations outside of the cut scenes still look blocky and awkward. Their animations are not very fitting with the mood of the game, and cause you to lose any level of immersion they may have built up.
• Gameplay is still slow in build up and indeed through out your play through.
• You get a new ability but again they fall into the trap of over using it in the game. Which it turn cheapens it and it loses a lot of its appeal.
• Voice work needs to be improved, They dont sound natural in a lot of the conversations and it comes across as cheesy and unbelievable.

In summary, they are advancing the series and it does show. With the strides they are making in terms of story telling they cannot be faulted. It grips you and pulls you in, like a fine TV show it leaves you wanting more. The first game did it but not as strong as this one. The only down sides are again the basics such as voice work and animation. I hope they improve on that in the third one and do some more convincing voice work. Puzzles could still be tweaked and made a bit more varied and engaging. Once they build on that I think we are looking at a good game and one that brings new ideas to the genre. Keep up the good work and continue to build on what they have got and it will do well.