Review

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller – Episode One: The Hangman

I must admit that I didn’t know much about the new project from Phoenix Online Studios, Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, and so I didn’t have any specific expectations when I began to review this title. Now after playing Episode One: The Hangman, I am anxiously awaiting the second, third and fourth episodes! Published by Reverb, this point-and-click adventure will have you pulling out all your detective skills as it sucks you into the world of FBI agents, serial killers, dubious murder cases, and mysterious powers.

Now just to clarify, this is a review for the first episode of a four part series focused around Boston FBI agent Erica Reed. We first encounter Erica when she is in a rush to locate her brother who has been abducted by the very same serial killer who Erica has been investigating; the Cain Killer. Unfortunately for Erica, not only is she unable to rescue her brother, but she is unable to apprehend the Cain Killer. As one would imagine, this leaves her without closure and more than a little vengeful. Three years later, the Cain Killer’s case remains unsolved; Erica is forced to put her past behind her and investigate a new, equally disturbing case.

Now, I know it sounds like this is your basic, run-of-the-mill crime thriller but trust me its not! Erica has always had a slight leg up on her fellow agents when it comes to her investigative skills. Erica has the ability of retrocognition; by touching an object she can see a glimpse of its past. This unique ability is what I think gives this title such promising possibilities as a point-and-click game, which brings me to the gameplay.

Whether great or small, your choices directly affect how puzzles will be solved. Choosing one way or the other may leave you with a more arduous method for obtaining information from a prime suspect, or you might just get scolded by your commanding officer. Either way, you are not penalized for a poor choice; the game doesn’t necessarily end, you may just have to try harder. Also, you really need to pay attention to the details that Erica collects, comments she makes, what others say, and even what you, the gamer, glean from any of the above. Every now and then the dialogue will resemble something like a mini test and you will have to choose form several responses. Depending on how you answer you may end up stuck or you may change how you interact with that character for the rest of the game. So while your choices may not carry story-altering weight, they do still directly affect the gameplay. Therefore, choosing the right places to save your game can become pivotal as there are aren’t any autosaving features in this title.

In order to test Erica’s and your own investigative skills, you will utilize three main control interfaces. The first is the object selection. In order to select an object or another character to interact with you use the right mouse button. In doing so, you will pull up a circular menu with three placeholders for variable icons, representing a type of interaction. Usually you will see the “eye” icon that will prompt Erica to look at an item and describe it to you briefly. You’ll also see the “briefcase” icon, representing the option to pull an item from the inventory to use on the object. The last spot is a bit more variable, as you will see icons that allow you to open up, get a closer look at, touch the selected object or to talk to a person. I appreciated the simplicity of this interface; there was no clicking with left-mouse button or anything of that nature. There is also the convenience of having one of these interaction options missing, which gives you a hint to move on if you cannot interact with an object in the way you originally planned (i.e. if you can’t hand an object to your partner than maybe you should figure out another way to solve your problem).

Secondarily, you have the inventory which initially consists of logical FBI agent accoutrements such as a badge, a gun, and a smart phone but eventually it will house all items that Erica collects as you move through game.  Within the inventory you have three limited options; you can make inventory items available when you want to use them on other objects or people (the briefcase icon option), you can examine them, or you can combine them. The combination option is restricted though as you can only combine specific highlighted items; a tape recorder and a tape as opposed to a cell phone and badge. Again I appreciate the simplistic nature of the inventory in that you won’t ever find yourself making countless combinations of your inventory items in order to luck into progressing the story after getting stuck. Additionally, if you cannot use an item from the inventory with or on a specific object, Erica well tell you so. However, I do have an issue with the logic behind how you use inventory items on other objects.

There were a few times where Erica refused to comply with my logical requests. Let’s take this completely random example (so as not to give away anything away) to illustrate my point. Say you have a Phillips screwdriver and a flat-head screwdriver in your inventory and you come across a vent that needs to be opened. It is fastened to a wall using screws but you can’t see what type of screws they are. Logically, you decide to try both screwdrivers. You try the Philips but because it is not the right item Erica will tell you that she “has no reason to do that now”. Well now it isn’t clear if you’re even supposed to remove the screws or if you just have the wrong type of screwdriver. If it is not the correct type of screwdriver, a better response from Erica would be “this is not the right fit” or “I think I need a different tool” or something along those lines to reinforce the logic that the gamer is using and guide them to a better choice. This type of illogical response from Erica can actually lead you down the wrong investigative path if you just happen to choose the “wrong” inventory item before you choose the right one. This slight mishap didn’t cause any severe problems, but it is definitely something that if remedied, could improve the over all gameplay.

The last interactive mechanism is really the most important, the cognition sphere. This is a small, well…sphere icon that is available for use at anytime. When selected, it shows which items or people that Erica can interact with in order to prompt a post-cognitive vision. If there are vision-giving objects present, they will glow blue when you are in cognition mode. You can then click on these objects and watch a brief vision from its past to help Erica solve a myriad of small puzzles and collect clues. Now I don’t want to give anything away, but Phoenix Online Studios took this basic idea and ran with it to create more engaging uses for this power and created some pretty interesting puzzles! With that said, I have no complaints with the cognitions sphere or any of its related uses; it really is an interesting way to gain information in this investigative drama of a game!

And speaking of drama, while it isn’t excessive it is an obvious theme within the developing story. There is drama between the characters, their points of view, and of course the underlying emotional struggle Erica is faced with every day as she is reminded of her brother’s death and the unsolved Cain Killer case. In this first episode you learn a decent amount about Erica, her colleagues, and a few other characters involved in her current investigation; a gruesomely brutal hanging (hence the episode title) that was committed by a killer who seems to be on an unknown mission.

Helping to reinforce the ominous and suspenseful atmosphere of the game are the graphics and musical score. Cognition utilizes a combination of detailed, hand drawn scenery and still frames with animated sprites to bring a comic book feeling to the overall look of the game. The illustrations were pretty meticulous and very well drawn. There were several times that I caught myself just pausing to take in the scenery before I began to investigate a new room or crime scene. Contrastingly, the character animations were sometimes awkward and a bit halted. Watching Erica get in or out of a chair, for example, kind of broke the visual flow of the game. I don’t consider this a huge graphical flaw, just a place for improvement. As for the audio components, the original musical score does an outstanding job of eliciting a specific feeling from the player in order to further engross them in Erica’s world. Hearing the intense high and low pitches of a guitar chorus during a cryptic cognitive vision will jolt you out of the otherwise melodic piano soundtrack you would hear, gripping you in suspenseful curiosity. Moreover, the voice acting was strong and believable. All of the characters seemed to have a very distinct personally which was conveyed primarily through their voices and supported with their facial expressions or physical movement.

Overall, The Hangman is an exciting first installment to the Erica Reed series. The story progresses in a coherent and interesting way, giving you a strong narrative foundation but also allows for enough mystery to leave you pining for the next episode. You will use Erica’s cognitive, investigative and sometimes persuasive skills to divulge integral clues on how to solve this case and your choices really do matter. Don’t worry, if you get stuck on one of those pivotal choices, you can always use your smart phone to text dear-old dad for help. The graphics, soundtrack, and voiceovers work collaboratively to captivate you in a web of mystery, suspense, and drama. The puzzles and obstacles you come up against are logically solvable with a combination of basic investigation and Erica’s cognition. While there are obvious setbacks to the control interfaces, they are not serious enough to make you get up form your computer in a frustrated rage. With an exceptionally reasonable price tag for both the individual episodes and the season pass I don’t see why anyone with a thirst for a good mystery crime thriller wouldn’t check out Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller!