Who Is Cohen? Cohen 1939 Story and Setting Explained
This page covers the setup and the first two chapters (the demo’s six levels and its boss) of Cohen 1939, the part shown in the demo, and stops before anything later. Names come from the game’s dialogue in recorded playthroughs and from the demo’s level titles; where the voice acting leaves a spelling unclear, that is noted.
Who is Cohen?
Elisa Cohen, the main character. Her name is printed across her character screen in the game. She is the widow of Richard Cohen, head of a Birmingham gang called the Raven’s Claw. A Steam forum thread titled “Who Is Cohen?” is one of the first questions new players ask; the answer is simply the family name.
The world in 1939
The game opens on a BBC evening news bulletin that sets the scene:
- The Raven’s Claw has clashed with a rival faction, named the Moss gang in the bulletin, over a dispute of interests.
- Unemployed workers have rioted in Birmingham city centre.
- Weston Leonard has just been elected Prime Minister on a promise to restore order.
- The Tower of London museum has been burgled, and a 19th-century music box donated by a missionary, Father Weston, has been stolen.
- A popular commentator writing as Black Eagle is promoting fascism in the newspapers.
None of this is idle flavour. The music box turns up again before the demo chapters end.
Richard’s last night
Richard answers a letter offering an “opportunity” and walks into a meeting where he is told to hand over half of the arms trade or a secret about an old fire will come out. The meeting is an ambush. Tommy, a man forced to set him up, slips him a gun, and Richard fights his way out only to be cornered again. His death is scripted, which is why the enemies seem endless at the end.
At his funeral, Elisa swears to hunt down everyone responsible. The gang’s senior man, Mr. Cambot (as the captions spell it), wants to hold the territories together first; Elisa refuses to wait.
The trail
- The Drunken Raven. A letter of Richard’s points Elisa to this bar, where a drunk brags that his crew was in on the killing.
- The Queen of Hearts. Under pressure, one of the rival gang’s men gives up their real base: an underground casino at 12 Sparks Street, entered through a tailor’s shop round the back.
- The ledger. At the casino Elisa finds an arms ledger. The exchange site is the place where Richard was killed, and the name behind it is Eleckhans (spelled this way in the demo’s level title; the dialogue sounds like “Elekhons”).
The warehouse and the abattoir (to the end of Chapter 2)
- The docks warehouse. Elisa goes after Eleckhans at a warehouse by the docks and corners him in its vault. His papers show Richard was set up from the start, and point to Bill Bison and, oddly, to a music box.
- Confined to base. Cambot orders Elisa not to leave without his say-so, so her bodyguard Sevinda goes to Old Tom’s Abattoir instead, where Bill Bison’s men hold people who knew about Richard’s death.
- The banquet. Bill Bison, it turns out, is no mere arms dealer but a “cleaner” of bodies and evidence. The trail ends at a midnight banquet at an old warehouse up north, and what is being served is the reason the boss fight is so grim. He is the Butcher; see the boss guide.
Told from four sides
The story moves between four playable characters, each chapter told from one of them: Richard on his last night, Elisa, Sevinda and a fourth killer who uses rage. See the four killers.
Peaky Blinders and Hotline Miami
The developer describes the game as Peaky Blinders-style gangster atmosphere with Hotline Miami’s lethal top-down combat. Players reach for the same comparisons, and a Chinese reviewer notes the character designs lean towards the show’s look. There is no official connection to either.
Why do the characters sound American?
Players have noticed the English voice acting does not use British accents, which a Steam forum thread calls odd for a game set in Birmingham. One player thinks the voices are AI-generated. English is the only language with full audio; Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Russian get text only. Some players also say the release cut voiced lines and cutscenes that were in the demo.
Is there a Korean version?
Korean is not an official language, but a Korean menu option exists with nothing behind it. A fan-made Korean patch on GitHub fills it in with machine translation; it is not official, so use it at your own risk.
Noted. One more name off the list.