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/