My little review for the 4th episode.

[frederic09]

Ok, i finished the game.

I'll say to this :  "no comment."

I don't like giving bad reviews, avoiding the little things which doesn't go well, but i'm sorry, i can't pass it this time.

The game is awfully short, i spent "almost" 3 hours to complete it (and without skipping). It took me ~1.5x more time for each other episodes.

There's only 5 "locations", the investigation is close to none, the game is composed at ~90% with puzzles.
It really breaks the game immertion, to repeat them over and over until i found the logic.

The story flow is kinda erratic, I moved from scene to scene sometimes even without knowing why.

Unlike the other episodes, all the Erica's and Cordelia's puzzles are completely useless and the way they are done makes the game completely linear.

Lack of inspiration ? At least in the other episodes, when i was stuck, there was still something else to do or "try". Here, nothing. I have to do the puzzle to go to the next puzzle, which will unlock the next puzzle.

Wow, really, you have disappointed me. I wasn't expecting an episode as bad as this one.

And the ending. Incredible. Even Cordelia's last actions are illogical. But since you wanted to finish the Season one's story, i can understand you had no choice but to rush things.


So here's my final notes :

Episode 1 : 13/20
Episode 2 : 14.5/20
Episode 3 : 14/20
Episode 4 : 4.5/20 (there's no number missing !)

[stika]

Hey Frederico!

It's a shame that you feel episode 4 wasn't a fitting ending to the series, but I understand your complaints :\

[KatieHal]

Hi Frederic09--sorry to hear you feel that way. We did take a different direction with this episode in some ways, and it was intentional--the mysteries have solved or revealed by now, so the driving point was more to finish what Erica started, really. But I hope you enjoyed the season overall, in any case, and thank you for the feedback.

[frederic09]

Hey Frederico!

It's a shame that you feel episode 4 wasn't a fitting ending to the series, but I understand your complaints :\

I'm really sorry it ended that way, but the ending itself was not that bad. It's just the way how the episode 4 was made. It made everything wierd and rushy, like the scenarists had no idea what to put inside to make the story advance, except when it comes with puzzles.
Well i don't mind having them, but all the fun goes poof when other parts which make a "cognition episode as a true one" aren't there.

If only the story were a little more smoother and a bit slower !

I really hope i will not see the same mistake with the season two. Rushing things and making a very linear game kills almost everything you have worked on.

Hi Frederic09--sorry to hear you feel that way. We did take a different direction with this episode in some ways, and it was intentional--the mysteries have solved or revealed by now, so the driving point was more to finish what Erica started, really. But I hope you enjoyed the season overall, in any case, and thank you for the feedback.

I know i know. I can understand you wanted to close this case.

If you didn't know yet, i'm French, and i have a proverb in my language. It says : "Il ne faut pas confondre vitesse et précipitation".
Based on some translation websites, its translation could be : "Make haste slowly". Like i said, the episode pace was too hasty/rushy. (in French : Vous vous êtes précipités pour cet épisode).

Be careful okay ? I don't want to see the same mistake again.

[agewisdom]

Yes, I have the same feeling about Episode 4. It felt just like one set piece after another. There wasn't any freedom as to where to go or what to do. There wasn't any opportunity to question other NPCs further to gain further information especially between Cordelia and Erica.

I think the biggest opportunity that was lost was fleshing out the Cain Killer's motivations further and revisit the crimes committed by him and Cordelia in Episode 1&2. The other serial killings committed by Cain Killer was hardly mentioned nor used after being fleshed out in Episode 1.

[wilco64256]

I think the biggest opportunity that was lost was fleshing out the Cain Killer's motivations further and revisit the crimes committed by him and Cordelia in Episode 1&2. The other serial killings committed by Cain Killer was hardly mentioned nor used after being fleshed out in Episode 1.

There is more information to be had regarding these other cases in the intro e-comic.

[frederic09]

i think agewisdom wanted to say that you/the Cain Killer could have done several puzzles in the cave, like forcing Erica to use her power to go back to all the C.K. crime scenes in the past (including the places where Erica wasn't there), to find "forgotten" traces or indices to solve the enigma. And the "opposite" way for Cordelia, seeing the future, just by touching her brother's new prototypes.

[agewisdom]

Yes frederic09, that's roughly what I envisioned would happen in the 4th episode. After all the ups and downs that Erica went through, I had hoped the Cain Killer motivations and purpose would be fleshed out more than just him having the compulsion to kill...

[Numbers]

I think the biggest opportunity that was lost was fleshing out the Cain Killer's motivations further and revisit the crimes committed by him and Cordelia in Episode 1&2. The other serial killings committed by Cain Killer was hardly mentioned nor used after being fleshed out in Episode 1.

There is more information to be had regarding these other cases in the intro e-comic.

The problem with this logic is that not many people are going to read the e-comic. The vast majority of players are simply going to play the game, ponder briefly about some of the things they felt were off or missing from the final episode, and then set the game aside and play something else. If useful information is completely left out of the game and regarded as "bonus content" that only certain people will know or care about, then it's sloppy storytelling.

This is exactly what Red Letter Media was saying about the novelizations for the Star Wars prequels. The books answer a lot of questions that the movies raised and are generally of a much higher quality, but in the end, the movies are what matter, not the books, because hardly anybody reads anymore. You shouldn't have to read the books to get the full experience; if there was something cool or interesting in the books, then it should have been in the movies to begin with. Same general idea here--people shouldn't have to read the Cognition e-comic to get the whole story.

[Cez]

I personally never wanted to explore Cain's motivations. I wanted to keep him in mystery as much as possible. My focus were Cordelia and Erica, and the way this man disrupted their lives, and the parallels between Erica and Cordelia because of Cain. Going into Cain would have taken away from what I wanted to focus on. It was never about who he was, but rather how he affected our two main characters.

[Numbers]

Well, you definitely get points for Erica's portrayal. Unfortunately, it seems the reception to Cordelia as of late is a bit...mixed.