Phoenix Online Have More Than Silver Lining
More adventure gaming news now, following John's tearful account of the beautiful To The Moon. Sunday sees the release of the fourth episode of Pheonix Online's unofficial King's Quest game, The Silver Lining. As with the others, it's absolutely free but they are after money for something else. While working away on The Silver Lining, they've announced a new project, Cognition, in collaboration with Gabriel Knight designer Jane Jensen. It looks like a darker affair than King's Quest, which admittedly isn't a stretch, and there's a short promotional video for that as well. Two videos in one post - it's like a multiplex down there!
I haven't played any of The Silver Lining episodes so none of that made any sense to me. I recognise Graham because he wore that hat when he was no more than a few pixels high, back when we were pals, but the rest of it is beyond me, I'm afraid. If you've been keeping up with the series, it might be quite exciting though, I suppose. Or maybe the bit where a giant face swallows Graham is somehow anticlimactic? I'm tempted to play all four episodes since I followed their development for centuries.
The video for the Jensen collaboration is evidence of the early stage the project's at. There's currently a Kickstarter page for the game and donations are halfway toward the target. It's full title is Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, and along with adventuring and puzzling it will contain psychic powers and outlandish serial killers with names like 'The Wise Monkey', 'The Terrible Face' and 'The Cain Killer'. Except I just made one of those up. The video reveals which one.
I didn't play Gray Matter, which I should rectify at some point, but the Gabriel Knight games are among my favourites. I suspect the third has aged quite badly and the second used far too much live action not to look decades old five minutes after it was released, but the first one? A classic and still a mighty attractive game.
Which is a roundabout way of saying I would like to capture ludicrous murderers by clicking on small objects and pretending to be a woman called Erica Reed. There's a case file's worth of information about Cognition here, including details on what you can receive in return for pledging money in advance. If you pay $10,000 the team will fly to your home town for dinner, which is terrifying, and will also mail cookies straight to your door.
If they were in Cognition, they'd be called 'The Cookie Monsters'. Do not give them your address.