On the heels of the recently released superhero comedy Supreme League of Patriots (it’s on my review to-do list, so stay tuned!), Phoenix Online Publishing has announced a partnership with Red Herring Labs to launch the studio’s first-person point-and-click sci-fi adventure Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock. The game is slated to release at a price of $9.99 for PC/Mac on February 17th via Steam, Humble Store, and Phoenix Online Store among other digital distributors.

Here’s a synopsis and feature list to set the scene:

Crash-landed on a desolate, alien planet, what should have been a routine work-for-hire job for Powell has become a deadly mission to save the merchant vessel Morningstar and her crew. With one man dead and the captain gravely injured, Powell is on his own to repair the ship and find a way to escape the strange gravity well of the empty planet they’ve landed on. If the situation weren’t dire enough, the only signs of life on the planet are the remains of a much larger and better equipped ship and her crew, all dead, and not by natural means. What—or who—brought down these ships and is killing their crews? Why? And can Powell find a way off-planet before he shares the same fate?

Key Features
•Experience an immersive sci-fi adventure, packed with gorgeous HD graphics, brand-new puzzles and scenes, and an all-new, streamlined interface
•Newly remastered cinematics display the haunting landscapes in beautiful high definition
•Uncover the mystery of Deadrock through new and optimized puzzles and an extended storyline
•The alien planet of Deadrock comes alive with full voice acting and engrossing sound effects
•Includes an atmospheric remastered soundtrack with over 30 minutes of original music

And of course screenshots. There are always screenshots…

French indie studio Cuve Games has partied up with Phoenix Online Publishing to release a new fantasy JRPG strategy game titled Heroes & Legends: Conquerors of Kolhar. While Cuve makes no mention of any such relation, Heroes & Legends clearly is an evolutionary step forward for the gameplay mechanics featured in QuestRun, which we recently featured in our Indie Quickie series.

The gameplay and UI similarities are unmistakable, as are the visuals, which have the same artistic aesthetic, only with richer detail and less cutesy, more realistic character designs. In addition to having a much longer title than QuestRun, Heroes & Legends: Conquerors of Kolhar looks to bring more strategic depth to the Active Time Battle random encounter runner-style gameplay with more monsters, class types, special abilities and even an all-new crafting system for custom-making weapons and armor.

Heroes & Legends: Conquerors of Kolhar is scheduled to launch August 21st for PC, Mac and Linux on Steam and the Phoenix Online Store, as well as various other online distribution networks. If you love the grind of JRPG random encounters, you’re going to want to keep tabs on this game for sure.

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At the time of the first Jane Jensen game, my computer didn’t have a CD-ROM drive, so I unfortunately never got to hear Tim Curry perform the voice of Gabriel Knight. Not having the CD version didn’t matter, though, because Gabriel Knight and the rest of the settings in Sins of the Fathers were so rich and interesting and well crafted, that playing the game sans voice work allowed me to interpret Knight on my own. I was hooked. Sierra On-Line pushed the boundaries of point-and-click adventure games with each Gabriel Knight title. Sins of the Fathers included high quality voice work. The Beast Within took things further by doing full motion video performance in what was traditionally a 2D flat animation medium. The third chapter, Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, evolved further with the introduction of a full 3D game engine. While watching the tech continue to grow over the course of the series was kind of fun, it was the narrative and characters that made the games worth playing.

Jane Jensen was the creative force behind the characters and deep historic narrative of the three Gabriel Knight games. The same creative spark has returned with the new release of Moebius: Empire Rising, a collaboration between Jensen’s Pinkerton Road studio and Phoenix Online Studios, makers of the excellent adventure thriller Cognition.

Moebius differs slightly from the Gabriel Knight formula. Malachi Rector stars as a dealer of antiquities who has a gift for finding fake or modified items, but does so with a rare and unique gift of remarkable memory and the ability to see patterns where many cannot. His talents have earned him a healthy sum of money as well as a bit of a reputation. Rector is slightly off-putting, but charming in his Sherlock Holmesian manner of deduction and logic. He reminds me of a slightly less socially awkward blend of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory and Benedict Cumberbatch’s interpretation of Sherlock, confident and suave yet gangly and slightly aloof.

The voice work is confident and enjoyable, but there are times when the character model of Rector (and anyone else he comes into contact with) just seems a bit skewed.  Rector almost looks like a bulked-up version of a wavy tube man with a nice suit on, his lanky movements across the screen causing a jarring distraction. The game allows for double clicks on the screen which instantly transports Rector to that location, almost as if to acknowledge that character animation wasn’t the highest priority during development. While this is passable and not offensive, it does seem a bit out of place when looking at the depth of the narrative arc presented in Moebius.

The title Moebius refers to a theory in which certain archetypes repeat throughout history. The same rich, smart, politically minded female appears in different moments, such as Cleopatra, Anne Bolyen, or Livia Drusilla mirroring that of a modern woman somewhere around the globe now. Rector is hired to discover which modern woman meets the same characteristics of the past to stop her from being murdered. The summary sounds a bit far-fetched, but when combined with the references of historically significant figures who also fit the profile of Rector and his bodyguard, David Walker, the coincidences don’t seem like too much of a stretch.

Aside from the oddly lanky character models, there is something else weird with Moebius (and point-and-click adventures in general). Usually the world is static with a hand painted background in which a 3D rendered model of the character will be able to move about. What stands out, is the fact that only objects that can be picked up are identified as interactive when the mouse cursor moves over it and the cursor changes. It seems a bit silly, though, to put a lot of effort into making gorgeous background art but then to only have some of it be interactive. Of course, impatient gamers have a way to speed up the process by simply holding down the space bar to highlight every object that can be interacted with in some form. This takes away a bit of the fun of trying to find what should be clicked on, but also removes the frustration of pixel hunting by moving the mouse over every inch of the screen. All objects that can (or will eventually) be used have some sort of interaction; however, not all objects can be picked up or used until certain events have been triggered.

This leads me to one of the biggest goofs with Moebius. There are times where interacting with one character may require more than one conversational meeting. What’s even more ludicrous is how, for example, a character Rector needs to talk to might be in Washington, D.C., yet key inventory items are only available in New York City. During the course of one conversation in D.C., Rector realizes he needs to procure items from New York in order to progress the encounter and further the story. Rector excuses himself, flies to New York, collects the items and then flies back. One time I flew to New York, got one object, flew back to D.C. and started the conversation up again only to realize that I needed yet another object from the Big Apple, at which point I had to retrace my steps all over again. I don’t know about you, but even if I had a private charter jet, flying back and forth between two major cities simply to continue a conversation seems overly expensive and unnecessarily tedious. The game doesn’t allow objects to be collected prior to the conversation yet clearly teases that an object is needed in the near future simply by being highlighted when the space bar is pressed. This sort of design logic breaks any and all gameplay momentum.

Overall, the puzzles aren’t the typical find Object A to place into Object B like so many other point-and-click adventures, which is great. Instead, Rector’s ability to deduce character traits from a given set of patterns forms the basis of many of the puzzles. Logic deduction puzzles like this are my Kryptonite. I can handle reducing down four or five characteristics from a short list, but having to reduce thirteen historic figures down to three led me to a resource that makes me proud as a father. I had to call upon my 11-year-old to help reduce all of the characteristics in what amounted to one of the most dense and cryptic logic charts I’ve ever encountered. Fortunately, the mind of my daughter is much sharper than that of her old man.

Moebius has a lot of potential, but is stymied by old-school animation and design logic. While I enjoyed the characters and story, the manner in which certain elements unfold made for moments of pure drudgery. I grew to like Rector’s character by the end of the game and I would love to see another adventure take place in this world, with these characters, I just hope that a bit more polish can be applied if there happens to be a next time. It doesn’t measure up to the standard of Gabriel Knight, but fans of Jane Jensen’s work should still find enough point-and-click enjoyment in Moebius to make it worth their while.

Pros:
+ Fascinating storyline with historic ties to a modern setting
+ Not every puzzle has the same tried and true inventory object-based solution
+ Interesting and well written characters that have depth

Cons:
– Janky character animation
– Puzzle logic and conversations can be overly tedious
– Some objects can’t be collected until certain points of the game trigger them, which leads to tedious backtracking

Game Info:
Platform: PC, Mac
Publisher: Phoenix Online Studios
Developer: Pinkerton Road / Phoenix Online Studios
Release Date: 4/15/2014
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by publisher

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Imagine being able to touch an object and see the past as it relates to whatever you are touching. Not just objects, but people as well. To touch several seemingly random objects that all occupied the same space to paint a vivid picture of events that happened in the past. To help a person remember the past by looking at their memories and clear up faded images to spark new details from history. Now imagine being an FBI agent gifted (or cursed) with this ability and you have the premise of Phoenix Online Studios‘ point-and-click adventure game, Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller.

A mix of comic book panel motion art with 3D modeled characters and environments, Cognition tells the story of Erica Reed, a detective with a sixth sense who is on a case to capture a mysterious figure known as The Cain Killer. Told over four episodes, the game weaves a complex narrative of family history, blackmail, serial killings and supernatural powers. Presented almost like a TV show, each episode opens with a “previously on” intro which then cuts to a short climactic build up and transitions into an opening credit sequence featuring a rocking music score by Austin Haynes. While each episode is a self-contained storyline, together they weave a much grander narrative.

The game really does make you feel like you are playing the role of a detective in a gritty TV drama. Part of this is due to the subject matter, and part of it is the excellent performance of the cast, led by Raleigh Holmes as Erica Reed. The first episode focuses on a serial killer who is murdering victims by hanging them and making it look like suicide. Reed uses her cognitive powers to examine crime scenes and piece together random clues that a non-psion would have overlooked. Like many good detective shows, there is plenty of banter and character building between Reed, her partner, and the rest of the usual cast that fills out a crime investigation story (nerdy forensics, demanding chief, grandmotherly tutor, and hard-nosed coroner). As the story progresses, new locations open up on the map and traveling between them is a simple click with the sound of a revved motor to indicate travel. For as complex as the story and puzzles can be at times, the presentation feels like an updated, classic Sierra game (more specifically the original Gabriel Knight).

Reed’s ability to perform cognitive powers on objects grows through each episode. At first, clicking on the cognition power shifts the view with a filtered lens and highlights objects with a blue aura that allows Reed to divine new information. As she learns to control her powers, items in the inventory can be clicked on to show a fuzzy image relating to a crime. The more objects that are collected and touched with the cognitive ability, the clearer the clue becomes, ultimately unlocking a new piece to the puzzle, usually through a cut scene or animated comic panel. Further improving Reed’s powers, she is able to touch subjects and see snippets of that person’s past. Each snippet can contain one or two clues that aren’t fully remembered, and through a mix of interviews and in-game cellphone web searches, the correct objects can be selected to help jog a subject’s memory.

These memory puzzles are both really cool, but also really challenging. I strongly recommend taking notes because out of six snippets that may contain one or two details (that may or may not be correct), clicking through each one to get the entire memory correct can become a bit frustrating and tedious when everything does not line up as the game intends. This is my only real gripe with the game. This isn’t necessarily leveled at Cognition alone, but pretty much every point-and-click adventure ever made. When a game offers one or two fairly obvious clues that are collected from one location, the game mechanic should offer one of two options. The first option would be to not allow forward progress until ALL clues are collected (especially if a major clue needs to be collected at a different location). The second option would be to allow forward progress but with perhaps a less complete interaction.

I bring this up because during several highly complex puzzles, I ran into moments where I was three or four screens deep into the process only to realize that I didn’t have a clue necessary to complete the logic that the game was expecting. The process of clicking back out of three or four screens, traveling to a location to find the necessary clue, then heading back to the puzzle to click through three or four screens to get back to the point I was stuck at and move a bit further, only to then get stuck again because I had missed yet another clue from a different location, is completely frustrating and breaks the momentum of the game. The challenge, of course, is to provide a way to offer clues without giving away too much. Letting gamers stumble through a puzzle is half the fun, but breaking the momentum and having to leave the puzzle, travel to a new location, find more clues, then travel back to reestablish the puzzle is frustrating.

Maybe part of my frustration is that there are several areas (mostly in the first episode) where certain actions require a specific set of steps. There is a person sitting in an interrogation room. Reed and her partner at the time are observing the person through the two way mirror. Clicking on the person doesn’t allow Reed to talk to him. Clicking on the door (on the opposite side of the room) makes Reed walk into the interrogation room. Clicking on the person to talk still doesn’t allow Reed to talk because she isn’t close enough. So you have to click on the chair to sit down. Then clicking on the person allows her to talk. Why can’t clicking on the person while in the outer room be interpreted by the game to line up all of the aforementioned steps? These multi-step clicks add up at times when clues are missing and scenes need to be exited in order to collect additional information.

This is just a minor complaint (and something that could fairly easily be addressed in the future) when looking at the rest of the game as whole. Some of the powers that are introduced in the first episode are then expanded upon in later episodes, and the game does a good job of offering a tutorial when new concepts are introduced. Often a new cognitive mechanic is added which simply takes previous powers a bit further, and through repetition and familiarity of the process, these additional powers quickly become second nature during the investigation. Clicking on the cognitive power highlights objects that can be examined individually, or clicking on two or more allows Reed to see events unfold. The subtle baby steps that the designers put forth in the game are huge but very welcome.

As the third episode gets moving, another mechanic to the game is introduced via another psion with cognitive powers, however this time the power is to see into the future.  As this character is the yin to Reed’s yang, they mesh and the game allows players to switch between Reed and the other character. I don’t want to be too specific because the reveal of the character is one of the better moments in the overall experience. Needless to say the ability to switch between both Reed and this other character who will remain nameless provides some complex puzzles where at times the expected outcome and logic isn’t entirely obvious, but the UI of the game provides subtle context by menu objects switching from color to mono once a particular path is complete.

As I mentioned above, each episode is its own complete story, but events from each tie together for a larger, highly impactful end. The music and voice work is fantastic and helps to overlook some of the janky aspects that crop up now and again. Some character animations are off–timing is slow, and then speeds up to almost unintentional hilarious effect. Objects that are collected for inventory sometimes aren’t positioned correctly when a character is holding it during a cut scene. Several of these have been fixed, but be aware going in that there are moments where things just appear a bit off. Also, one word of warning to our readers who enjoy the use of the Raptr desktop app: The game may crash if you are using the app while playing. I experienced this most noticeably during episode 4.

Cognition proves that mature themed games don’t have to be solely about shooting dudes in the face, or have to thrive on T&A. Phoenix Online Studios have put together a complex narrative that explores some dark behavior but also has some genuinely funny moments based on the excellent performances by the characters and the actors lending their voices. Grisly images and mature language are seen and heard throughout the game, so I can’t recommend it for kids or to be played as a family, but I strongly urge anyone who loves murder mysteries and point-and-click adventures to pick this game up.

Pros:
+ Fantastic, complex story
+ Great voice acting
+ Interesting “super power” investigation mechanics
+ Atmospheric music

Cons:
– Puzzle logic can be frustrating and obscure at times
– Pathway clicking isn’t always intuitive
– Some distracting visual glitches

Game Info:
Platform: Reviewed on Steam, also available for iPad
Publisher: Phoenix Online Studios
Developer: Phoenix Online Studios
Release Date: 9/19/2013
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by developer

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Reverb Publishing sure is pulling out all the stops to get its stable of PC digital downloads approved on Steam Greenlight. They’ve already pledged to donate money to rescue homeless kitties from euthanasia if Edge of Space is greenlit, and now they’re trying hard to push episodic point-and-click adventure game Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller through the approval process.

If Cognition, developed by The Silver Lining makers at Phoenix Online Studios, is voted into the next top-10 wave of Greenlight titles by the October 15th deadline, Reverb will give away 500 season passes to download the game’s complete series of four episodes which will be released roughly a month or so apart and will each take around 4-6 hours to complete.

So, go ‘Like’ Cognition on Facebook and give it the ol’ thumbs-up on Steam Greenlight to help push the game towards digital distribution and enter for your chance to play it for free when it releases. It’s that easy.

Watch this narrated gameplay demo walkthrough to make your voting decision a no-brainer.

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller is the next adventure game from indie developer Phoenix Online Studios, a team you may know for the episodic King’s Quest homage The Silver Lining. It is the story of a Boston FBI agent named Erica Reed who is blessed (and cursed) with the post-cognitive ability to sense the past of any object she touches. She must use this innate gift to solve the mystery of a serial killer responsible for murdering her brother.

The first episode, titled The Hangman, is due out on digital download platforms this fall, and today gives us our first look at the game’s 3D cel-shaded graphics, creepy storyline and atmosphere, and traditional point-and-click puzzles and play mechanics. Yep, I’d say adventure game fans are in for yet another indie thriller. Be sure to swing by the Reverb Publishing booth at PAX Prime for a hands-on look at Cognition, if you’re in the Seattle area between August 31st and September 2nd.