He debuts in the first title of the series, developed by 2K Boston, as a celebrated polymath of the underwater city of Rapture who has a deranged and sadistic personality.

Various commentators in video game reviews, retrospective features, and literary publications particularly highlighted Cohen's role in the story of the first BioShock.

[1] Cohen's character traits and name were influenced by American entertainer George M. Cohan, who was a notable playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer and dancer.

Thomas explained in an interview with PC Gamer that the manner in which a semi-abandoned space like Fort Frolic comes to life with power restored asserts, wordlessly, that it is a character unto itself.

The ambience of Fort Frolic's atrium area is also intended to convey the subtle notion that Cohen's emotionally state is intrinsically linked to the place: for example, when Cohen speaks the lights in the room turn purple, or turn red to mirror his anger if the player performs an offending action such as attacking his artwork.

[5] Examples of what appear to be Cohen's works of sculptural art, which are in fact the remains of his human victims encased in plaster, can be found throughout Fort Frolic.

It was aesthetically inspired by Norman Bates’ mother in Psycho and Rupert Pupkin’s imaginary basement audience in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy.

It is implied through dialogue lines by his estranged proteges, Silas Cobb and Martin Finnegan, who both refer to Cohen as an "old fruit."

The Kinetoscope videos for The Black Dream and The March Hare in Burial at Sea - Episode 1, which depicts Cohen's artistic bent, were composed by Bill Gardner.

To commemorate the success of BioShock, employees for 2K Boston were each gifted a 6-inch scale model of Cohen by Ken Levine during a work function.

In her column for GameSetWatch, Leigh Alexander thought Cohen's whimsical mannerisms and facial features reminded her of American composer Cole Porter.

She formed the view that the character designers responsible for Cohen's poignant and tragic personality may have been intimately acquainted with theatre people.

Christian Guyton from TechRadar criticized Cohen as an example of bad LGBT representation, and argued that his "orientation is meaningless in context", only serving to infer a correlation between depravity and homosexuality.

[16] Cohen was featured as part of the core cast of characters in a loose musical adaptation of the BioShock series by performers from the John Burroughs High School Powerhouse choir.