The Game Census
Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller cover art

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller

Phoenix Online Studios · Phoenix Online Publishing · 2013-09-19

Steam

AdventureIndie

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: Side view

Releases: Sep 19, 2013 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Sep 19, 2013 (Mac), Feb 27, 2014 (iOS)

FBI agent Erica Reed has an uncanny talent: she can see the past and piece together how a crime unfolded. But not even this sixth sense could save her younger brother, Scott, from a brutal serial killer. Three years later, the investigation into Scott’s murder has gone cold -- but Erica’s work has only just begun.

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller is a $14.99 Adventure and Indie game released in 2013, with an estimated 200,000 .. 500,000 owners and a Very Positive review sentiment (82% of 818 reviews).

1
playing now
82%
positive of 821 reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
200,000–500,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
72/100
critic score (0 outlets, IGDB)
79/100
IGDB user rating (17 ratings)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Unsupported
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Unsupported
$14.99
steam price (US)

1 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 13:00 UTC (census sample)

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller is a 4-part episodic point-and-click graphic adventure game released by Phoenix Online Studios for multiple platforms. Funded through Kickstarter in 2011, four episodes were released for Microsoft Windows and OS X with the first two also for iPad. Jane Jensen, the creator of the Sierra On-Line Gabriel Knight series, was a story consultant for the development of the game.

Health check

Quiet
  • · 1 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 16 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~2/week).
  • · Review velocity up 33% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 15% of 28,739 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-31

Estimated sales: 33k–66k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 821 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $1.09 at MacGameStore (2025-01-22) · bundled 18×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $14.99 · on sale 43 of 62 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
5520172026Week of 2017-01-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2017-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2017-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2017-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2017-04-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2017-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-06-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2017-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2017-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2017-09-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2017-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2017-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2017-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2017-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-02-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 2 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

402026-09-14 23:00 — 1 players2026-09-16 07:00 — 0 players2026-09-17 14:00 — 0 players2026-09-18 22:00 — 0 players2026-09-20 05:00 — 0 players2026-09-21 13:00 — 0 players2026-09-22 21:00 — 1 players2026-09-24 04:00 — 1 players2026-09-25 12:00 — 0 players2026-09-26 19:00 — 0 players2026-09-28 03:00 — 0 players2026-09-29 10:00 — 0 players2026-09-30 18:00 — 2 players2026-10-02 01:00 — 1 players2026-10-03 09:00 — 1 players2026-10-04 17:00 — 4 players2026-10-06 00:00 — 0 players2026-10-07 08:00 — 0 players2026-10-08 15:00 — 1 players2026-10-09 23:00 — 1 players2026-10-11 06:00 — 0 players2026-10-12 14:00 — 1 players2026-10-13 22:00 — 0 players2026-10-14 13:00 — 1 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$14.99$1.092015-01-012026-08-232015-01-01 — best price $5.252015-06-07 — best price $14.992015-09-11 — best price $14.992015-12-01 — best price $14.992016-04-26 — best price $14.992016-08-01 — best price $13.992016-11-30 — best price $14.992017-06-07 — best price $2.992018-01-04 — best price $14.992018-07-19 — best price $3.072018-11-27 — best price $14.992019-04-07 — best price $14.992019-10-07 — best price $14.992020-01-10 — best price $4.492020-06-25 — best price $3.742021-01-04 — best price $14.992021-06-24 — best price $3.192021-11-24 — best price $4.492022-03-07 — best price $4.942022-07-07 — best price $11.012022-12-12 — best price $2.842023-06-11 — best price $3.742023-11-21 — best price $4.492024-03-21 — best price $14.992024-07-04 — best price $1.792024-09-16 — best price $4.042025-01-12 — best price $14.992025-03-19 — best price $4.492025-07-18 — best price $14.992025-10-08 — best price $14.992026-01-21 — best price $14.992026-04-13 — best price $4.342026-07-30 — best price $14.992026-08-23 — best price $14.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

2722026-06-01 — 13 pageviews2026-06-05 — 2 pageviews2026-06-09 — 6 pageviews2026-06-13 — 8 pageviews2026-06-17 — 4 pageviews2026-06-21 — 5 pageviews2026-06-25 — 27 pageviews2026-06-29 — 9 pageviews2026-07-03 — 8 pageviews2026-07-07 — 13 pageviews2026-07-11 — 11 pageviews2026-07-15 — 5 pageviews2026-07-19 — 5 pageviews2026-07-23 — 7 pageviews2026-07-27 — 9 pageviews2026-07-31 — 20 pageviews2026-08-04 — 17 pageviews2026-08-08 — 14 pageviews2026-08-12 — 13 pageviews2026-08-16 — 9 pageviews2026-08-20 — 13 pageviews2026-08-24 — 15 pageviews2026-08-28 — 24 pageviews2026-09-01 — 16 pageviews2026-09-05 — 19 pageviews2026-09-09 — 10 pageviews2026-09-13 — 10 pageviews2026-09-17 — 11 pageviews2026-09-21 — 5 pageviews2026-09-25 — 12 pageviews2026-09-29 — 17 pageviews2026-10-03 — 7 pageviews2026-10-07 — 3 pageviews2026-10-11 — 7 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

59
achievements tracked
32.6%
earned "Only Reed Blood"
13.5%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSSingle-playerSteam AchievementsSteam Trading CardsCaptions availableSteam CloudFamily Sharing2 DLC

2 supported languages: English, Italian

Post-launch support: 2 DLC released, first 2014-07-31 (Steam store data)

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)2,53413%59

Players tracked by Exophase (achievement/trophy trackers) — a sample of the player base, not total sales.

Player tags

CrimeIndieHorrorMysteryEpisodicThrillerAdventureDetectiveComic BookStory Rich

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

Kentucky Route Zero: PC EditionMasochisiaRusty Lake HotelThis Is the PoliceUnforeseen IncidentsRusty Lake: RootsUnbound: Worlds ApartApsulov: End of Gods

Similarity via IGDB.

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