Cognition: Episode 2 Review

Somehow even darker than the previous installment, Cognition: Episode 2 also offers a tighter narrative that uses the psychic abilities demonstrated earlier, so much better than before. It's just a shame that the side characters within are still a touch on the shallow side.

Making things even more personal than before, main protagonist Erica finds herself thrown into despair again as her colleague and love interest, Sully, is tortured and kidnapped right at the start of the game. Despite it, presumably, being quite a serious matter for the FBI, Erica finds herself mostly going it alone to find him and track down the serial killer.

As before, there's a fair amount of actual detective work involved; from searching through case files and Sully's computer's database, as well as talking to various witnesses and people who could be involved somehow. Of course, there's still plenty of combining items, too, as is always the way with point and click style adventure games. It's mostly logical, though, which is a welcome sight. Erica's special powers still feature prominently too, with the addition of Synergy further helping her cause and adding some variety to proceedings.

It's a mostly well-rounded effort both puzzle and story-wise, even if it is quite shorter than the previous episode. Plus there are still some technical issues. At least, for those of us still stuck with an iPad 2 (like me!), with stuttering proving somewhat troublesome. Still, the controls are better this time round with a more convenient virtual button to highlight what items and places can be manipulated with.

It's a sign of how intriguing Cognition: Episode 2 is, given that I was happy to persevere despite my technical issues, and it certainly leaves one keen to see what happens next.