Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller

not really vibing with the ending.

Honestly, I am quite conflicted about this one. There is a lot of good (and bad) about it, and before playing the last episode, I would've recommended it easily for the story itself. Unfortunately, I do feel like the story let me down. Overall, the game does a fantastic job of setting the atmosphere. It's fully voice-acted, and the actors did a really great job expressing the characters' feelings. It was tense, there was an actual sense of stakes, and it got my blood pumping several times. It builds the story well, especially with new mechanics added with each chapter as Erica's powers grow and evolve. However, I do feel like the conclusion was lackluster and left me wondering "why." [spoiler]Specifically, I don't understand Cordelia and her whole story. Why on earth did she have to lock her brother in the basement for three years, essentially teaming up with him, resulting in her murdering several people, all to get Erica to kill her brother? You had him. There were thousands of different options available to you, including handing him to the FBI, that would've prevented the deaths in this series and your corruption. And in the end, if your trust levels are high, Cordelia ends up killing him after all. So... why didn't you just do this three years ago? Before you murdered and tortured people yourself! I also really didn't like the ending when your trust levels are high. Because essentially... Erica leaves the force to do what Rose does for psions like them. And I'm sorry, but Erica can do so much good with her powers in the force that it feels ridiculous.[/spoiler] Sorry, I had to rant. Anyway, my feelings on the last chapter's storyline aside, I do think it's a well-built story and did a good job overall. Moreover, I can't say it was the best game experience I ever had. First, the graphics are atrocious. Time really hasn't been kind to this game, and the models are very glitchy and, at times, utterly wacky. Personally, I felt like it added an unintentional humorous element to the game and didn't bother me much (I did take so many screenshots, though), but if you're a graphics purist, it's worth noting. The worst offense, though, is the controls, which were not smooth at all—and that's an understatement. There were many times when it would glitch out, and they were extremely sensitive in terms of if you clicked a millimeter to the right, it wouldn't register it. Moreover, the puzzles themselves were very easy. You didn't really need to put too much thought into solving them; all you had to do was click the sphere. That said, there were many times when I could not figure out what the game intended for me to do next, and when I accidentally figured it out, all I could think of was, "How was I supposed to know that's what you wanted me to do?" Again, I think overall it's a good game and you should give it a shot, but I would LOVE to play an updated remastered version with better graphics and controls.