Cognition - a short and yet exciting adventure!

It's not really a review that I'd like to write, just a warm recommendation for a game which is easily the best I've played this year. It is blunt, for starters. That turns me on. Many of these types of games tend to "polish" the ascetics and the language, maybe to allow a wider audience (like children and people who are generally afraid of swearing in games). Personally, I find that, when done elegantly, use of bluntness both in language form and is graphical form increases the authenticity and the immersion the player has. I mean, if you wanna make a game look and sound realistic, you cannot have policemen not swearing :-) So this game really topped it in this sense.
The story is complex and leaves you wanting more. It reminded me a lot of Still Life, also had some elements that reminded me of Gray Matter (not surprisingly, Jane consulted the guys and you sense it). The soundtrack is really really good (though I'm a little tired of Scarlet Furies popping in every adventure I play, with all due respect!) The length of the game didn't really allow the depth of both characters and plot to go one step further, this felt more like an introduction - which was maybe the goal of the creators, since there are 3 more episodes to come.

It ain't perfect:
- firstly, I found it slightly too short. It is the first episode of four, but I think it is slightly pricey and therefore raises one's expectation of a longer game. (it took me two days to finish, roughly 12 hours I would say, and only used one tiny hint here at the forums ). However, better a short game that leaves you wanting more than the opposite.
- Puzzles are fair in my opinion, not the most brilliant or creative, and slightly too easy if you'd ask me. Also found one or two of them not very well designed:

- The graphics are really nice and refreshing, but you need to remember this game was rather low-budget to begin with (Kickstarter goal was 25K which is like 5% compared to others). It does look really good despite that!
- I have no problem with it, but some of you might dislike the fact you can die, or that there are a couple of "action" scenes. Action still means point and click, and dying takes you 5 seconds before you died however, so I wouldn't want to skip on the game even if I did have issues with it.

All in all, I'm expecting the next episode! I hope lots of gamers here share the same thoughts and that the game succeeds in the market!

Thanks Katie and Phoenix Studio for this wonderful game!

Very well written Tomer

Everyone knows that I prefer first person games but besides the usual things that I dislike about third person, namely watching the character walk across the screen many times, I too enjoyed the play of the first episode of Cognition. After getting a grip on using Ericas "Powers" the game moved along well. I agree with you about the ease of the game but I would say it is of average difficulty of games recently. I would like to mention that I was experiencing a lot of "Black" transition loading screens between scenes which interrupted with the flow of the story for me and at times quite annoying. And the story is what is the strong point with episode one. And I am with Tomer in anticipating the continuation and learning more about the characters and who

Yup!
You're right about the long loading times. Especially every time one exited to the map...

LOL, then it just wasn't me and my machine

Thanks Tomer

Thank you, Tomer. Nice to hear about the game from a player

Tomer, I just wanted to say thanks for this post. I loved the demo and this post helped me decide to purchase. As a tester in Phoenix's TSL series, I love Phoenix, and this game makes me love them even more

Thanks for a descriptive, helpful review, Tomer!

NDLVR - I'm happy to hear that and I hope you like it

Thanks for an interesting review Tomer!