Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller Episode 2 - The Wise Monkey

So while episode 2 is certainly an improvement, the series still has a little ways to go before I say, "Wow." Right now, I'm saying "not bad."

This is an improvement over The Hangman despite the shorter length meaning you get less bang for your buck. Everything feels a little bit more settled and confident and it moves quickly.

Anyway, even with its flaws, The Wise Monkey offers some good old-fashioned adventure game entertainment and promises more to come. Fortunately for us, the Cognition series' compelling heroine and an even more compelling story arc do two important things: make it possible to overlook the game's graphics, dialog and puzzle design hiccups and ensures that I for one, will see it through to the end.

Overall, Cognition: an Erica Reed Thriller – Episode 2: The Wise Monkey is a solid step forward for this promising mystery series. The point-and-click gameplay does feel somewhat outdated, but it is devoid of the pixel hunts and illogical hilarity that has ruined past games of the genre.

Perhaps not as surprising as the first episode but still maintains a good narrative level and an atmosphere like few adventures have. Has some weaknesses, such as being shorter and with less pace but overall a highly recommended game.

Though The Wise Monkey is not all it could have been, it's a strong second episode. Much of it, however, felt almost like filler.

As good as the first episode, the game tries different roads and it goes forward with its mature, bloody, strong and maybe a bit too melodramatic take on procedural crime drama. Don't expect the kind of "choice and consequences" dynamics we experienced in Telltale Games, though.

Phoenix Online manages to produce another entertaining adventure thriller with the same mystical puzzle atmosphere as the predecessor.

After setting up the bases of their sci-fi thriller, Phoenix Online delivers a second episode that is shorter, but much more intense and well-paced. It's a better episode, even though the production values haven't improved - a shortcoming that prevents it from truly shining.

Not many adventures have as much dark storytelling ambition as Cognition-endure the awkward conversations to get to the puzzles and story developments, and you'll be glad you stuck with it.

The high stakes created by The Wise Monkey's first scenes propel the player through the rest of the episode. Although the game stumbles mechanically in a few spots, it manages for the most part to maintain the tension that The Hangman lacked.

Compared to others of the adventure genre, Cognition Episode 2 is pretty average. It serves as a solid continuation of the Cognition story, but if anything it offers just a little less than the first installment.

The second episode of the Cognition series is a big improvement of the first episode, with a more purposeful direction and less backtracking between locations. Erica's psychic powers also take on a more central part of overall gameplay, but could be given an even greater focus. Writing is also improved, with the developers clearly having a good grasp of what makes a psychological thriller such as this work well. Sadly, there's just too little of it to earn it a higher grade.

The Wise Monkey is overall a better installment than its predecessor, but it still has its work cut out. Characters and dialogue are once again rather tin-eared and jerky animations can take players out of the experience.