High Strangeness - Paying Tribute with Crystal Skulls

At first glance I don't think I thought much about this game. I was already dazzled by seeing Evoland a week before. Upon taking a closer look at the game and playing a bit I soon realized that this was a completely different beast, in a good way of course. This is not a tribute game. Well maybe it is... just a little.

You play as a young kid named Boyd as he wakes up to find some evil shadowy looking figures in his house. Only to find out they've invaded your town.Then you're whimsically transported to a magical place to fight hoards of demons, etc. and have the power to switch between 8 and 6 bit graphics gameplay on the fly.

While I've only played the demo the story looks interesting enough and doesn't take it's cue from any particular retro game. There are littered throughout the game various references from old NES and Super Nintendo games. Such as the part in the beginning where the main character tells one of the NCPs he's moving to Truce Village. Of which you'd recognize the Chrono Trigger reference. From what I have seen little easter eggs like that are the extent of the tribute elements in the game. Fighting is pretty much straight forward action RPG with a fatigue element, so you can't mindlessly mash on the keys to kill 20 things at once. Any normal 16 year old arms would get tired.

It's slated for a 4th quarter release and you can pre-order it for on their Asbogo site. They're also trying to get on Steam through Greenlight so check out some screenshots there as well.

Pre-order: HERE
Steam Greenlight: HERE

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller - You Didn't See It Coming

Cognition, developed by Phoenix Online Studios is an adventure thriller featuring a protagonist who's resemblance to X-Men's Jean Grey is uncanny. Red hair, green eyes, mental abilities, and she has a brother named Scott. If you're a fan of the comic it'd be hard not to notice the glaring similarities. But in all fairness one of the art directors for the game is Romano Molenaar, who's done work for X-Men and Batman. I've secretly resigned myself to the idea this might be one of the many Marvel Universes out there. That however, is where the similarities end.

Erica Reed stands solid as our strong female FBI agent on the search for her brother's killer. When the game starts it wastes no time dropping your in the middle of Reed and her partner's hunt for her brother's kidnapper. The suspense is amplified by the moody atmosphere and music. The sense of urgency will keep you on your toes as during a lot of the high action sequences require you to react quickly. Something you don't find in many adventure games and has only recently been done in Tell Tale's The Walking Dead.

This 4 episode series does a good job in sucking you into Erica's shoes as she also has a secret ability, she can piece together the past of objects she touches. This post-cognition power is something she doesn't quite understand how it works but it helps her solve cases. The puzzles the game puts through you through gives you a good chance to use Erica's ability to extract and put clues together. There is a small learning curve and one or two puzzles stumped me for a while but if you are stuck there is an in game hint system where you can text your veteran cop dad for his expertise on what to do next. It would be cool if there was a bit more character development. Episode 1 was pretty much devoted to Erica and her abilities. Hopefully in the proceeding chapters we get more info about her partner and other people in her life. Since it's an adventure game you really would expect more character detail. This game has a lot of great things going for it and it's definitely worth checking out. You can try the demo from their website and purchase the full game too. And if you like what you see please vote for it on Steam Greenlight.
http://www.postudios.com/cognition/