Last updated on January 26th, 2026 at 10:51 pm
Cognition Episode 1 – Adventure Game Review
Cognition Episode 1 is a Adventure/Puzzle game from Phoenix Online Publishing LLC, first launched in 28th February 2013.
It’s rated 17+ and currently has 28+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Cognition Episode 1 Stand Out
Take on the role of Erica Reed, a Boston FBI agent with the power to see the past, in this intense adventure game as she follows the trail of four different serial killers, and a series of clues left for someone with her specific ability. Who’s leaving the clues? How do they know her secret, and what do they want from her?
Find out what the fate of Erica's brother is in the exciting first episode entitled: The Hangman.Get Erica's power under control as you go face to face against a dark serial killer as Erica risks her own life to uncover the mystery behind The Hangman!
Developed by a true “indie dream team”, the line-up includes comics artist Romano Molenaar (Batman, Witchblade, Tomb Raider, X-Men) as Art Director and renowned adventure game designer Jane Jensen (Gabriel Knight, Gray Matter, and Moebius) lending her expertise as Story Consultant.
Now updated with Game of the Year bonus features, including director's commentary, concept art, storyboards, outtakes, and other behind-the-scenes material about the development! And don't miss the GOTY edition of Episodes 1, 3, and 4!
Subtitles available in English, German, and Italian.
NOTE: Compatible with iPad 2 and up, will not run on iPad 1
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Cognition Episode 1 is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 9th February 2018
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
Removed FPS Counter.
Download & Availability
Cognition Episode 1 is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Cognition Episode 1 on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
This is one of the best Ive played. Great story, really cool visual style, 3 dimensional characters, great music and voice acting. The controls work great on a mobile screen, the puzzles are quite intuitive, and the hint system is good. The only reasons why you shouldnt buy it rare if you dont like point and click adventure games, or if you dont like dark & violet content. Otherwise, buy it now! Its great.
Its a waste of time playing this game (which actually had a good plot), because episode 2 is missing from the App Store. No reason to download episode 3 at this point.
The other review is correct. We cannot get the tape player, which is clearly a bug. Do not buy this game until the developers address this issue.
This is a REALLY GREAT game! We've played a lot of them and this is top 5 easy. Need a walkthrough tip every once in a while during the cognition feature but long play time, good story, and great value for the price.
We really loved the story, this game keeps you riveted till the very end. We've never experienced much in the way of crashes. There's mystery, in-game puzzles and interesting characters to make up a great adventure game. The only thing we're sad about is that the third and fourth games haven't been released on the ipad yet.
Wow this game is awesome keep up the good work.
This would be a fun game if it wasn't for all the graphics bugs(popping animations, clipping, material issues) which take you out of the immersion that the story creates. Seems like a sloppy port.
Don't waste your money. Would like to give more stars (good storyline so far) but game design/mechanics are poor. Spent hours trying to figure out why tape recorder quest is not activating (Terrence won't help and can't call Morgue due to needing Terrence's help). Combed walkthroughs, presented items to all characters over and over and it is just stuck. No matter how much or how little $ paid, game should work and no, Phoenix, we don't want to create an account, just to see if your site might help us. We're done. We're ready to go to the dentist at this point.
Somewhere and sometime it may live up to its better reviews but we will never know. We won't be playing it. It is not a user-friendly game. It does not re-orient on IPad Air 2 and the print on the dialogue at the bottom of the screen is so incredibly small that by the time you find and read it, you have moved on to another screen. We're really sorry we bought it.
Looks to be a really cool game, but the speech text is so small it's nearly impossible to read. We've contacted devs multiple times, but never get a response.
First time we ran it, it loaded, we watched the intro, did a couple things and it crashed. Since then, it never goes past the main screen without crashing. We would try the demo first to make sure it works first.
Love this game ? Will there be more episodes.
Sure the graphics aren't the best, but the story line keeps you playing! The game play is fun and varied. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Need episode 2.
This is a fantastic game. Great story and decent puzzles that don't force you to try everything in your inventory.
Very nicely done. Awesome interactive fiction game. Can't wait for episode 2 to be released on iPad.
Easily the best role playing game we've played on the iPad. The story is great, and thank god they consulted writers from the old Gabriel knight series–it shows in the storytelling. Gameplay is a little clunky, but manageable. We haven't played anything like this yet on the iPad–can't wait for episode 2.
Fabulous game. Am soo excited for the next chapter. Best app we have played in a while.
Really excellent adventure game but it slows down to a snails pace in some parts. Additionally the motion and load times are generally very slow. That said, it's a killer story well worth the price.
We cannot wait for the second episode! This is a great game with a complex story and unique puzzle solving style. The interface is a little buggy, but its easy to overlook. We hope phenix releases the next episode for the the iPad soon.
This is a great game!! Very challenging and different from a lot of games out there! It's nice to play something other than an HOS game! But… MAKE SURE YOU SAVE THE GAME CONSTANTLY!!! After every scene you complete…SAVE! We lost our progress half way through the game and had to start all over again! That's the only glitch and only problem with it. Other than that… Absolutely loved the game and can't wait for number 2!!! Great job.
We would have easily given a five star rating if game loaded a bit faster…..ie: from scene to scene,it's kinda slooow ! On the plus side….a great game that keeps us guessing and although easy it's not too easy and grabbed our interest from the beginning. We also appreciate the fact that its more adult oriented than most .Thank you Devs,we look forward to "act two".
The developers must have rushed through the iPad version of this game. As an iPad 3 user, we would expect more. We can't interact with objects well because the pointer is messed up in the game. Can't even load a saved game because you can't get the pointer to click the Load button!!!! This is massive flaw and makes the game unplayable. We wish we hadn't spent the money on it and tried the lite version first. We could live with the graphic issues, like the way certain cut scenes have big blue blocks in it obscuring entire scenes, IF the game functioned well. To add insult to $4 injury, the game doesn't orient correctly even with the iPad's rotation lock turned off so you have to play the game upside down if you have a standup case. Horrible game on the iPad. Money back or fixes please!!!! May 23, 2013 and still no update to fix this. Takes up more than 1GB of space. Deleting. Waste of money. Hopefully future updates will fix the MANY bugs in this game. Disappointing.
Why would we want to restart our game every time we save it? We want our $$ back.
The iPad has plenty of games that are great for a few minutes and few that are great for a few hours. This is very definitely one of the latter. It also has a mature and engrossing plot and managed to freak us out a little as we were playing alone and in the dark while our boyfriend is out of town. This was well worth our time and money and we cannot wait for the next episode to make be ported to the iPad! :).
This is what the iPad has been missing. An engaging, immersive, old school adventure game, full of mystery, suspense and a story line that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Definitely worth the few bucks.
Jane Jensen is hand's down the best Adventure game designer there ever was. We don't know how much influence she had on this title, but so far, so good. We need more adult storytelling in games. The first generation of video gamers like us are now starting to become old geezers, we needz better storeez.
Finally a game that has the traditional adventure mechanism with a story that adults can enjoy. Very enjoyable and looking forward to the next episode.
The game started off with a bang – great graphics and movement and riveting dialogue. From there it became similar to other games but not as good. It is difficult to play without hints and there was this one scene where someone we were interrogating wanted something to eat but we couldn't offer the box of donuts we had! Game play needs to be improved before we will give it 5 stars.
At the very beginning of this game a cellphone pops up which we can't get rid of no matter what buttons we press including the exit button. We have a current generation ipad. Very disappointing. Don't waste your money.
We love games like this but found this one to be literally unplayable. The UI is clunky and unintuitive and the gameplay is frustrating, laggy and simply abysmal. Very disappointed.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 4.1
- Size: 1,323.43 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence, Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor, Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes, Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes
- Developer: [Phoenix Online Publishing LLC]()
Last updated: 9th February 2018 | Genre: Adventure, Puzzle | Developer: Phoenix Online Publishing LLC