For Backlog 365 I plan on playing one game on my backlog everyday this year and write about it. For each game I will decide if I want to put it on my "Shelved" list (games that I plan to come back to and play in depth) or put it on the "Retired" list (games that I will delete or sell and move on with my life).

• January 13
• PC
• Time Played: 54 minutes

Ah, Cognition. Good 'ol Erica Reed. Since I purchased this game I have started it twice, very late at night. I remember trying to play it, but honestly can't remember a thing about it. I guess it's time for a third go at it. And, I think I'll remember it in the morning. I can at least tell you that it is an adventure game that has four parts.

This one is a tale of three game sessions. Last night I played Cognition, hated it, and was ready to bury it. The game's graphics were awful (pieces of the guys neck were spiking out), the frame rate was horrible, and the character animation was unbearably slow. I went to sleep sure I was going to retire Cognition.

As I tried to go to sleep, I kept thinking about the puzzle I failed before I quit playing Cognition. There are some wires you are supposed to cut in the reverse order they were attached. I couldn’t figure out how to get that information. I knew I missed something, but I didn’t know what it was, and didn't care. Then it struck me. Of course, the whole gimmick in Cognition is that the main character Erica Reed can sense the past. I felt really stupid and decided that I had to go back and complete the puzzle.

The next morning, I launched Cognition, and what do you know? The default graphics setting was “fastest.” Well that explains the game’s crappy performance. So, I turned up the graphic settings so that it was “beautiful,” and it fixed some of the problems. The character models still look weird and the character animation is still slow as heck, but the game was playable. So, I finished the puzzle, watched the uninspiring cut scene, and turned the game off.

But, then I started thinking, maybe I should play a little more. Now that I figured out how the main mechanic is supposed to work, and now that I fixed the graphics, maybe it’s worth giving another chance. During this play I wouldn’t say I started liking Cognition, but I became curious about how the game was going to use the past-sense mechanic and some of the research mechanics it teased. So, I decided that if it pulled me in this much, then I was worth playing, at least the first episode.

Judgment: Shelved