Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller (2013)

Rating was more like 3,5.

I liked working as detective. Serial killers. All that psionic stuff. Nice puzzles, idea, story. Not easy, but beatable without walktrough. Overall I liked it.

Disliked, when, as game progressed, it was less detective story, more like standard adventure. Did game developers have any idea, how FBI are working? It is not definitely like that, when one person is stealing from colleagues, ignore every instruction, break every rule, is contaminating crime scene. Sometimes it felt like parody of FBI detective work. Choices from last episode. Hated them. Basically game was forcing you to make choices like this - hey, I understand why you killed or mutilated my colleagues, its OK. In fact I don-t felt compassion or empathy. It was forced, railroading choices, which by some reason game developers felt as best.

The game has tons and tons of potential. The story is done well and I like the characters. I like how they have the setup. The voices are nicely done and extremely colorful. Unfortunately, while the game gameplay set is nice. The glitches in the game me a headache. Moving sometimes was way off point and made some of the life and death puzzles harder than what they should have been. I got stuck only once. But find a quick fix (I wish developers would play their games through before releasing it. But I digress) The soundtrack was nice. The game does force you to become heavily in gross as agent Reed.

I would play it as an in-between game. Or if your just a lover of this genre. which I am.

Touted as the spiritual successor to Gabriel Knight, I really wanted to love this. An intriguing murder mystery/supernatural crossover setup, a strong female lead and Jane Jensen as a story consultant. This has a lot going for it.

However, I never really felt that this had the heart that some of the best adventure games have, such as Gabriel Knight and the Blackwell series. You're plunged into the action from the get-go, but I missed those quieter, reflective moments that give more insight into the characters through idle chit-chat, relationship building and even the protagonist's home space. You never visit Erica's home (the closest thing is her work desk - this tells you something about her, but nothing particularly meaningful) or learn much about her outside of her job/predicament.

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