Interesting puzzle adventure game that tries some unique ideas.
I had been interested in this game ever since I saw the first trailer for it, a narrative heavy episodic historic puzzle adventure game? That presses my buttons and for the most part The Council is absolutely a success in what it aims to accomplish though there is the odd stumble along the way.
The year is 1793 and our hero Louis de Richet is looking for his missing mother, the founder of the Golden Order, a group dedicated to studying the occult. Louis receives a letter from the enigmatic Lord Mortimer who informs Louis about his mother having gone missing when attending a meeting at his mansion on a private island. Upon arriving Louis finds himself in such esteemed company as George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as dukes and duchesses of various nations. Just who is Lord Mortimer and why has his mother gone missing?
The game is set almost entirely within Lord Mortimer's mansion as Louis explores and interacts with the various guests looking for clues and trying to find out what is going on. There are a lot of dialogue, puzzles and secrets to find as you would expect with this kind of title though The Council does try some unique mechanics to separate itself from it's contemporaries. As Louis gains experience between chapters as well as certain choices or items he can level up various stats in several skill trees much like an RPG. These trees fall into three main categories (Detective, Occultist and Diplomat) each of which has it's own branching skills that have three levels of upgrades. These skills all have opportunities to come up and be used in conversation allowing Louis to manipulate, convince or misdirect conversations to progress the story. This will be entirely dependent on what skills you have invested in as to what options you can take during dialogue so some you will not be able to use at all at first but as you level Louis up more, there will be a greater selection.
It isn't quite so simple though as each skill has a cost to use, and Louis has a limited amount of power points for this (though items found throughout the mansion can replenish them). Each skill costs a different amount of points depending on who you talk to and your level in that skill, the higher your level, the cheaper it is (or even free) to use. Additional to that each of the characters in the mansion are unique individuals with their own strengths and weaknesses making them vulnerable or immune to certain types of manipulation Louis will have to discover as he talks to them so there is a degree of strategy to choosing these dialogue options depending on who you talk to and how many points you have to spend.
When you aren't talking to characters you are exploring the mansion looking for consumable items that replenish power points, show vulnerabilities, give a free skill usage and solving puzzles to progress the story. The puzzles are of varying quality for me, some I rather enjoyed that required a bit of thought and exploring every inch of an area to pass while others were an absolute slog going through menus reading passages from bible quotes that feel cumbersome and boring. Most are of the fun variety though with perhaps three that were a real chore across all five episodes.
On the presentation and audio side The Council is pretty good considering it's a fairly low budget title. The art design is top notch, I love the way most the characters look from stylistic choices to their period clothing and the mansion is pretty gorgeous and surprisingly detailed to boot. It does have some slight performance issues though like when Louis runs there are frame hiccups and stuttering at times which considering he isn't moving very fast and the areas are small is a surprise. The characters during dialogue also have a tendency to lack any real facial animations and the eyes especially of Duchess Emily Hillsborough look completely dead like a doll during conversations or aren't looking in the right place killing the immersion a bit. On the audio front the music is pretty good where there is any and there are some good sound effects of creaking and settling wood of an old mansion as Louis travels around. The voice acting is a little bit more hit and miss, not so much the actors themselves, I think most the voices fit the characters but more some of the performances at times especially when things are getting heated are a little flat but overall they are pretty good.
I would like to take this moment to talk about the storyline which I actually really enjoyed, the dialogue doesn't always flow completely smoothly but the different characters are all interesting to interact with and the story takes some twists especially near the end I never saw coming, the ending was a real let down however but I'm hoping a sequel would expand upon where they left off. The game lasts about 10-12 hours depending on how much you explore every chapter and how long some of the puzzles take, for the £20 I paid originally I'd say that's pretty good value for money for the entertainment I had.
All in all, The council is a great little game that tries some interesting new things in an established genre. It has great art design, interesting characters and story. It doesn't always nail everything it tries to do perfectly but it's a fun title all the same I recommend.
+ RPG dialogue system is a unique implementation.
+ Great art design and nice visuals.
+ Excellent setting and character variety.
+ Story has some great moments.
- A couple of puzzles are an absolute chore to go through.
- Some doll like expressions and frame hiccups while running.
- Ending was a bit of a let down.
I had been interested in this game ever since I saw the first trailer for it, a narrative heavy episodic historic puzzle adventure game? That presses my buttons and for the most part The Council is absolutely a success in what it aims to accomplish though there is the odd stumble along the way.
The year is 1793 and our hero Louis de Richet is looking for his missing mother, the founder of the Golden Order, a group dedicated to studying the occult. Louis receives a letter from the enigmatic Lord Mortimer who informs Louis about his mother having gone missing when attending a meeting at his mansion on a private island. Upon arriving Louis finds himself in such esteemed company as George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as dukes and duchesses of various nations. Just who is Lord Mortimer and why has his mother gone missing?
The game is set almost entirely within Lord Mortimer's mansion as Louis explores and interacts with the various guests looking for clues and trying to find out what is going on. There are a lot of dialogue, puzzles and secrets to find as you would expect with this kind of title though The Council does try some unique mechanics to separate itself from it's contemporaries. As Louis gains experience between chapters as well as certain choices or items he can level up various stats in several skill trees much like an RPG. These trees fall into three main categories (Detective, Occultist and Diplomat) each of which has it's own branching skills that have three levels of upgrades. These skills all have opportunities to come up and be used in conversation allowing Louis to manipulate, convince or misdirect conversations to progress the story. This will be entirely dependent on what skills you have invested in as to what options you can take during dialogue so some you will not be able to use at all at first but as you level Louis up more, there will be a greater selection.
It isn't quite so simple though as each skill has a cost to use, and Louis has a limited amount of power points for this (though items found throughout the mansion can replenish them). Each skill costs a different amount of points depending on who you talk to and your level in that skill, the higher your level, the cheaper it is (or even free) to use. Additional to that each of the characters in the mansion are unique individuals with their own strengths and weaknesses making them vulnerable or immune to certain types of manipulation Louis will have to discover as he talks to them so there is a degree of strategy to choosing these dialogue options depending on who you talk to and how many points you have to spend.
When you aren't talking to characters you are exploring the mansion looking for consumable items that replenish power points, show vulnerabilities, give a free skill usage and solving puzzles to progress the story. The puzzles are of varying quality for me, some I rather enjoyed that required a bit of thought and exploring every inch of an area to pass while others were an absolute slog going through menus reading passages from bible quotes that feel cumbersome and boring. Most are of the fun variety though with perhaps three that were a real chore across all five episodes.
On the presentation and audio side The Council is pretty good considering it's a fairly low budget title. The art design is top notch, I love the way most the characters look from stylistic choices to their period clothing and the mansion is pretty gorgeous and surprisingly detailed to boot. It does have some slight performance issues though like when Louis runs there are frame hiccups and stuttering at times which considering he isn't moving very fast and the areas are small is a surprise. The characters during dialogue also have a tendency to lack any real facial animations and the eyes especially of Duchess Emily Hillsborough look completely dead like a doll during conversations or aren't looking in the right place killing the immersion a bit. On the audio front the music is pretty good where there is any and there are some good sound effects of creaking and settling wood of an old mansion as Louis travels around. The voice acting is a little bit more hit and miss, not so much the actors themselves, I think most the voices fit the characters but more some of the performances at times especially when things are getting heated are a little flat but overall they are pretty good.
I would like to take this moment to talk about the storyline which I actually really enjoyed, the dialogue doesn't always flow completely smoothly but the different characters are all interesting to interact with and the story takes some twists especially near the end I never saw coming, the ending was a real let down however but I'm hoping a sequel would expand upon where they left off. The game lasts about 10-12 hours depending on how much you explore every chapter and how long some of the puzzles take, for the £20 I paid originally I'd say that's pretty good value for money for the entertainment I had.
All in all, The council is a great little game that tries some interesting new things in an established genre. It has great art design, interesting characters and story. It doesn't always nail everything it tries to do perfectly but it's a fun title all the same I recommend.
+ RPG dialogue system is a unique implementation.
+ Great art design and nice visuals.
+ Excellent setting and character variety.
+ Story has some great moments.
- A couple of puzzles are an absolute chore to go through.
- Some doll like expressions and frame hiccups while running.
- Ending was a bit of a let down.
The year is 1793. Mom and son duo Sarah and Louis De Richet, members of a secret society, are hot on the trail of the Al Azif, a mysterious grimoire said to hold secrets of the occult. They discover that a prospective buyer will attend a conference held by the mysterious aristocrat Lord William Mortimer on his private island, and Sarah sets off alone to find them. Weeks later, Louis is summoned to the island to help search for his mother, who has disappeared. There, he discovers there's more to this case than he first thought.
The Council is a narrative-driven experience that promises a fresh take on the genre by throwing RPG mechanics and character building into the mix. Unlike many of its genre peers, The Council has no combat mechanics of any sort, nor does it have QTEs. Instead, Louis can have up to fifteen different skills which he can use during conversations to persuade others, as well as during investigations to uncover clues.
Backing this system are the effort points, a limited resource which is expended during skill checks according to the difficulty of the check and the current level of the skill, thus making the player consider when to better employ their unlocked talents. Skills can be unlocked and leveled up at the players' discretion with exp. points accrued at the end of each of the game's fifteen main quests.
A lot of people seem to compare The Council to TellTale's games, but I find that comparison inappropriate for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that The Council is a lot more elegant about how it handles player choice. Instead of bombarding the player with cynical "x will remember that" prompts in a desperate attempt to make them care about what they're doing, The Council keeps its cards close to its chest: does this moment matter in the long run? Maybe it does, maybe it does not. You'll have to live with the anticipation, now, won’t you?
Plus, in The Council, there is no failure state. The game never reaches a Game Over screen and keeps going regardless of how badly you mess up. Apart from just making wrong choices in general, the game features complex puzzles in which the player may come to the wrong answer, as well as confrontations, which are heated dialogues where Louis must talk a person into or away from doing something, and can only pick so many wrong dialogue options before they become angry or lose interest. Interestingly, each character has specific weaknesses and immunities to your skills, and it pays off to discover them beforehand.
All the while, the game is quietly noting down the paths you take. Every so often, the choice legitimately doesn’t matter: it will be acknowledged in dialogue, but mostly forgotten. Sometimes, information or items obtained will open up new possibilities in the future, like new dialogue paths that would otherwise be grayed out, but other times, events will leave lasting marks: Louis will be left scarred or maimed, or a character will die and be absent for the rest of the game. And among all of these, there are moments that decide the game’s ending, a handful of situations that, even if you don’t notice at first, will shape the story’s conclusion, both for Louis and the supporting cast. There are a surprising number of ways in which the final scenes may resolve, depending on how resourceful Louis proves to be during his quest and who he chooses to side with.
The game takes place in a singular location, that being Lord Mortimer's island-mansion, and allows the player to more or less free roam around it searching for their next objectives instead of taking them from scene to scene, which enhances the sense of freedom even though, apart from a couple of forks in the path, the story plays out in a linear fashion. In fact, I almost wish it was more linear: sometimes, the game will allow you to pick one of two scenes to experience – it does so four times in the first episode alone – but it’s but a contrived choice, and if one were able to experience both scenes linearly, their understanding of the narrative and characters would have been enhanced.
Mechanics getting in the way of storytelling like that are the main issue I see in The Council. The biggest offender is the exp yield: exp is earned from finding items in the environment and completing predetermined objectives in each scenario. The former will have you combing each room obsessively trying to hoard as many items as possible, but it's when exp gain becomes the driving factor behind your choices that enjoying the narrative becomes harder. You can miss out on a lot of exp by not making the correct choices and/or not having a necessary skill unlocked at the right time, the latter of which, granted, is more common during the beginning hours than anywhere else.
The character builds and roleplay, as enticing as they are, also feel janky at times. During the opening moments, there's a choice of character class for Louis that determines his starting skills. Never mind that there are clearly superior choices of character build due to the uneven opportunities to use each skill, but it's always better to make Louis a jack-of-all-trades instead of specializing in a particular archetype: there are few cases where a skill check can't be bypassed, and in most of those, if you plan carefully, having a Lv1 skill is enough to get the full benefits.
Still, as flawed as the game may be, it doesn’t take away its successes: it presents a fascinating framework for a narrative-driven RPG, one that can and should be studied and iterated upon. Mechanics like character weaknesses and vulnerabilities, opportunities, confrontations and even parts of its skill systems are exciting ways to solve problems without combat, and the game still boasts an entertaining narrative that, while a bit convoluted by the end and not entirely spotless, presents an unusual setting and compensates for its less than extraordinary budget with smart art and scene direction.
All in all, The Council is a novel, fascinating game that has been on my mind since I finished it. It’s easy to see why it’s such a controversial experience, but for fans of narrative-driven experiences, it’s a definite recommendation.
The Council is a narrative-driven experience that promises a fresh take on the genre by throwing RPG mechanics and character building into the mix. Unlike many of its genre peers, The Council has no combat mechanics of any sort, nor does it have QTEs. Instead, Louis can have up to fifteen different skills which he can use during conversations to persuade others, as well as during investigations to uncover clues.
Backing this system are the effort points, a limited resource which is expended during skill checks according to the difficulty of the check and the current level of the skill, thus making the player consider when to better employ their unlocked talents. Skills can be unlocked and leveled up at the players' discretion with exp. points accrued at the end of each of the game's fifteen main quests.
A lot of people seem to compare The Council to TellTale's games, but I find that comparison inappropriate for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that The Council is a lot more elegant about how it handles player choice. Instead of bombarding the player with cynical "x will remember that" prompts in a desperate attempt to make them care about what they're doing, The Council keeps its cards close to its chest: does this moment matter in the long run? Maybe it does, maybe it does not. You'll have to live with the anticipation, now, won’t you?
Plus, in The Council, there is no failure state. The game never reaches a Game Over screen and keeps going regardless of how badly you mess up. Apart from just making wrong choices in general, the game features complex puzzles in which the player may come to the wrong answer, as well as confrontations, which are heated dialogues where Louis must talk a person into or away from doing something, and can only pick so many wrong dialogue options before they become angry or lose interest. Interestingly, each character has specific weaknesses and immunities to your skills, and it pays off to discover them beforehand.
All the while, the game is quietly noting down the paths you take. Every so often, the choice legitimately doesn’t matter: it will be acknowledged in dialogue, but mostly forgotten. Sometimes, information or items obtained will open up new possibilities in the future, like new dialogue paths that would otherwise be grayed out, but other times, events will leave lasting marks: Louis will be left scarred or maimed, or a character will die and be absent for the rest of the game. And among all of these, there are moments that decide the game’s ending, a handful of situations that, even if you don’t notice at first, will shape the story’s conclusion, both for Louis and the supporting cast. There are a surprising number of ways in which the final scenes may resolve, depending on how resourceful Louis proves to be during his quest and who he chooses to side with.
The game takes place in a singular location, that being Lord Mortimer's island-mansion, and allows the player to more or less free roam around it searching for their next objectives instead of taking them from scene to scene, which enhances the sense of freedom even though, apart from a couple of forks in the path, the story plays out in a linear fashion. In fact, I almost wish it was more linear: sometimes, the game will allow you to pick one of two scenes to experience – it does so four times in the first episode alone – but it’s but a contrived choice, and if one were able to experience both scenes linearly, their understanding of the narrative and characters would have been enhanced.
Mechanics getting in the way of storytelling like that are the main issue I see in The Council. The biggest offender is the exp yield: exp is earned from finding items in the environment and completing predetermined objectives in each scenario. The former will have you combing each room obsessively trying to hoard as many items as possible, but it's when exp gain becomes the driving factor behind your choices that enjoying the narrative becomes harder. You can miss out on a lot of exp by not making the correct choices and/or not having a necessary skill unlocked at the right time, the latter of which, granted, is more common during the beginning hours than anywhere else.
The character builds and roleplay, as enticing as they are, also feel janky at times. During the opening moments, there's a choice of character class for Louis that determines his starting skills. Never mind that there are clearly superior choices of character build due to the uneven opportunities to use each skill, but it's always better to make Louis a jack-of-all-trades instead of specializing in a particular archetype: there are few cases where a skill check can't be bypassed, and in most of those, if you plan carefully, having a Lv1 skill is enough to get the full benefits.
Still, as flawed as the game may be, it doesn’t take away its successes: it presents a fascinating framework for a narrative-driven RPG, one that can and should be studied and iterated upon. Mechanics like character weaknesses and vulnerabilities, opportunities, confrontations and even parts of its skill systems are exciting ways to solve problems without combat, and the game still boasts an entertaining narrative that, while a bit convoluted by the end and not entirely spotless, presents an unusual setting and compensates for its less than extraordinary budget with smart art and scene direction.
All in all, The Council is a novel, fascinating game that has been on my mind since I finished it. It’s easy to see why it’s such a controversial experience, but for fans of narrative-driven experiences, it’s a definite recommendation.
I can't decide whether to rate this a 2 or a 4. I have flipped back and forth a couple times.
You'd think 'three' is a sensible compromise here, but it's not an average kind of game! It is wild. There is (and this is all in the first episode of five) a cult, which contains you, and also George Washington, and also a cardinal of the Pope. Napoleon is there. A murder happens!
Even if you're along for the ride, there's a point where the game really takes advantage of your good faith - but it's also built on these really interesting dialogue puzzles, so it doesn't even solely exist in a 'enjoy, but ironically' space.
I don't think this is a good game? But I also want to play anything the creators make next. It does things, even if some of it is weird and clumsy. So take from that what you will.
You'd think 'three' is a sensible compromise here, but it's not an average kind of game! It is wild. There is (and this is all in the first episode of five) a cult, which contains you, and also George Washington, and also a cardinal of the Pope. Napoleon is there. A murder happens!
Even if you're along for the ride, there's a point where the game really takes advantage of your good faith - but it's also built on these really interesting dialogue puzzles, so it doesn't even solely exist in a 'enjoy, but ironically' space.
I don't think this is a good game? But I also want to play anything the creators make next. It does things, even if some of it is weird and clumsy. So take from that what you will.
Actually pretty good, which was surprising. It's a neat little spin on the TellTale formula, although it also suffers from the same technical issues and graphical hiccups. The characters are also not as consistently written as in a TellTale game, however, with many of them seeming to change their motivations, reactions to you and personalities on a whim according to the story and the conflict at the time. The last 2 episodes are also very weak, especially the ending itself.
Overall, I had a good enough time with it though.
Overall, I had a good enough time with it though.
A fun game, though if you're not familiar with religious info, some of the puzzles and information might go over your head and require Googling. I will eventually get to a second playthrough of this.
The Council is an extremely underrated gem that deserves more love. Throughout my two play throughs I really enjoyed upgrading my character differently so I can approach this interactive mystery game. The story is great and the way you can approach it is interesting.
If you love the TellTale style games, this game does it on a bigger scale with decisions that really matter and you will have to find a way to progress through your failures with the skills you chose to upgrade. I highly recommend it.
If you love the TellTale style games, this game does it on a bigger scale with decisions that really matter and you will have to find a way to progress through your failures with the skills you chose to upgrade. I highly recommend it.
An interesting adventure game, driven mainly by dialogue, and with just enough of an RPG infusion to give the illusion of character customization.
The use of historical figures creates some easy buy in, limiting the sense of being out of your depth as you are forced into a tight political battleground. Trading barbs with Napoleon and George Washington adds some weight to nearly all of the critical scenes in the game.
I'd have been happier with the game if I hadn't felt compelled to comb every inch of every chapter out of fear that I'd miss some crucial detail. The end result is, more often than not, running all over the map through empty hallways with nothing to show for your exploration.
Overall a solid little story, with an pretty good array of puzzles and some snappy writing, held back by uneven pacing.
The use of historical figures creates some easy buy in, limiting the sense of being out of your depth as you are forced into a tight political battleground. Trading barbs with Napoleon and George Washington adds some weight to nearly all of the critical scenes in the game.
I'd have been happier with the game if I hadn't felt compelled to comb every inch of every chapter out of fear that I'd miss some crucial detail. The end result is, more often than not, running all over the map through empty hallways with nothing to show for your exploration.
Overall a solid little story, with an pretty good array of puzzles and some snappy writing, held back by uneven pacing.
Adventure game dealing with conversation based confrontations with choices being based on your developed skills and your findings from exploring or talking with people. Puzzles solutions and story elements can be found out through exploration and with the help of your abilities. Entertaining story dealing with supernatural forces and your character joining an event hosted for world leaders and important figures while searching for his missing mother. Different events and endings in each episode that end up leading to some very different situations. The finale chapter felt rushed and while it can end in an interesting way or with at least some conversation events, mine didn't really require me to do anything, and no matter what it is followed by some narrated character epilogues that make it sound like they weren't sure what to do if certain choices were made.
Brings a lot of interesting ideas to the interactive story genre combining puzzles and dialogue options with RPG elements and multiple solutions based on playstyle. But it's hard to care about the story given that every character is a complete asshole.
it's in the mid range games where you'll see a lot of interesting ideas and experimentation that you'd hope to see more of. a lot of interesting mechanics here, with the skill checks turning this visual novel esque game into a sort of rpg, where your character's abilities matter.
the story starts strong, and the voice acting is pretty solid. however, as is to be expected, full 3d facial animations from a small studio can't do the proper job of delivering the emotions you hear, and that breaks the immersion. also, as is the case in these types of games, a few paths of dialogue aren't as well connected, and thus some information just comes out of left field or your character reacts in a way that is just unexpected. most of the choices you make are somewhat relevant to the way the story unfolded, but, upon a deeper look, a lot of the events are fixed and there are very few possible conclusions, despite the wide array of choices.
i also didn't enjoy the final twists, even though they were not unreasonable. i feel like this game showed promise and structure that would make me curious for a sequel, spin off or whatever by the studio.
the story starts strong, and the voice acting is pretty solid. however, as is to be expected, full 3d facial animations from a small studio can't do the proper job of delivering the emotions you hear, and that breaks the immersion. also, as is the case in these types of games, a few paths of dialogue aren't as well connected, and thus some information just comes out of left field or your character reacts in a way that is just unexpected. most of the choices you make are somewhat relevant to the way the story unfolded, but, upon a deeper look, a lot of the events are fixed and there are very few possible conclusions, despite the wide array of choices.
i also didn't enjoy the final twists, even though they were not unreasonable. i feel like this game showed promise and structure that would make me curious for a sequel, spin off or whatever by the studio.
Занятное кинцо с ролевой системой. Единственное - ближе к концу как ваши выборы, так и весь сюжет сливаются в унитаз.
Really underrated gem that probably not a lot of people have heard of.
J'ai beaucoup aimé ce jeu narratif avec une legere notion RPG . Une sorte de Cluedo avec des personnages historiques de l'histoire française!
The first episode was a very promising start, sadly devs run out of money (or ideas?) and each subsequent episode got more and more disappointing
The next step in the evolution of adventure games following and improving the Telltale formula.
Challenging puzzles, all of them logical and well designed, a smart system of attributes and effort points that make things even more interesting, and an intriguing story full of mystery and twists that continues even if you fail to solve a task.
The last chapter and especially the ending were a bit anticlimactic for me but all in all I had a great deal of fun. I'm glad I was patient and could play it all in one go, and I really hope a sequel is coming soon!
Challenging puzzles, all of them logical and well designed, a smart system of attributes and effort points that make things even more interesting, and an intriguing story full of mystery and twists that continues even if you fail to solve a task.
The last chapter and especially the ending were a bit anticlimactic for me but all in all I had a great deal of fun. I'm glad I was patient and could play it all in one go, and I really hope a sequel is coming soon!
I liked the idea and concept of this game, it’s normally a game I’d enjoy more but the gameplay mechanics are just outright silly and gimmicky. I did enjoy the historical characters making an appearance but overall, man…it was so boring.
Novel little historical Telltale knockoff that starts engrossingly but goes nowhere fast. As someone who's kind of over these episodic, choice-driven narrative-focused games I actually don't mind at all that most of the choices don't really amount to anything here - but out of all the places you could have gone with this genuinely mysterious premise and enticing cast of morally questionable characters (most based on famous real life figures from the time)... THAT'S the conclusion you decided to settle on? Really? That? Bummer, because while there's noticeable hiccups along the way (some weird pitch issues, a few bugs, and the occasional clumsy voice performance) this actually adds a lot of new elements to what I consider (at least in 2018) a rather tired genre. It's clear that a lot of brains went into developing the lore and puzzles, as if it were tailor-made exclusively for history geeks - which I am not, though I still admit that's a nice niche to fill. And idk about you but the locales in this thing are graphical beasts, anything made out of marble is pretty much guaranteed to look divine on PS4. Play the first two or three episodes then just use your imagination, trust me it's better than where this anticlimactically ends up.
The first chapter was so promising and the rest was just ....
This review contains spoilers
Played it with friends. We pretended this is what happens when a LARP session gets out of hand and you change the GM mid-session.
It's a fun game but the supernatural twist felt forced. The music was also really annoying at times. Imagine someone with a Xylophone (?) follows you everywhere to play the same three notes over and over again.
There are four female characters. One is your mother, two are crazy and they both exist to get fucked. literally and figuratively. The last one dies for the plot.
SPOILERS
Who also happens to be your sister. Also, your mom is actually your sister but not really because she's not your mom and seriously what kind of daily soap is this...?
END SPOILERS
It's a fun game but the supernatural twist felt forced. The music was also really annoying at times. Imagine someone with a Xylophone (?) follows you everywhere to play the same three notes over and over again.
There are four female characters. One is your mother, two are crazy and they both exist to get fucked. literally and figuratively. The last one dies for the plot.
SPOILERS
Who also happens to be your sister. Also, your mom is actually your sister but not really because she's not your mom and seriously what kind of daily soap is this...?
END SPOILERS
janky but enjoyable blend of Telltale-style episodic narrative game, adventure game, and RPG. the writing, voice acting, and visuals each leave a lot to be desired at certain points (there's a ton of beards and chins on the male characters visibly clipping through collars, and the protagonist's VO is a terrible actor who speaks with a wildly out-of-place 21st century American vocal delivery), but there's a lot of potential in this genre combination and I look forward to seeing how VtM: Swansong builds on the groundwork laid here
Platinum # 50
Fantastic setting and intro that completely falls apart under obtuse puzzles and narrative wackiness. The final episode is absolutely bonkers. It reminds me a lot of Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy.
Fantastic setting and intro that completely falls apart under obtuse puzzles and narrative wackiness. The final episode is absolutely bonkers. It reminds me a lot of Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy.
If you don't play it through in a couple of days, you'll forget what it's about and it won't make sense. Which has happened to me...
This review contains spoilers
Das Spiel hat ein vielversprechendes Konzept, allerdings mangelt es noch an der Durchführung. Das Spiel verspricht einem, dass man die Rätsel der Handlung auf seine eigene Weiße lösen kann, indem man sich auf verschiedene Skills spezialisiert und es bietet auch ein paar gute Ansätze wie man so etwas umsetzt. Die Spezialisierungen wurden durch die Konsumgegenstände etwas entkräftet, da für dem meisten Teil Resourcenmanagement nicht wirklich notwendig und auch schwer einschätzbar war. Leider leidet die Handlung selbst stark unter den Einschränkungen, die diese Struktur mit sich bringt. Zum einem stehen die Chancen gut, dass man wichtige Informationen verpasst, welche teilweiße dann einem direkt gesagt wurden, sollten sie erforderlich für die weitere Handlung sein, was das Pacing ruiniert und das Mystery etwas kaputt macht. Zudem hat man sich wohl so sehr auf das Mysterium der Handlung konzentriert, dass man irgendwie vergessen hat die Charaktere interessant zu machen. Noch schlimmer ist, dass das Rätsel zu Beginn des Spiels in der Mitte der Handlung aufgeklärt wird und das emotionale Investment sich bei mir aufgelöst hat, da danach einfach ein wirkliches Ziel fehlt. Die letzten beiden Kapitel drehen sich um eine Abstimmung, die mich Null interessiert und am Besten ist auch noch, dass das Ergebnis nicht mal eine Rolle spielt.
Ich hab mir überlegt es nochmal zu spielen, um zu schauen wie sich die Entscheidungen auf die Handlung auswirken, dass allerdings vieles einem einfach im Nachhinein erklärt wird entwertet den Wiederspielwert allerdings.
Ich hab mir überlegt es nochmal zu spielen, um zu schauen wie sich die Entscheidungen auf die Handlung auswirken, dass allerdings vieles einem einfach im Nachhinein erklärt wird entwertet den Wiederspielwert allerdings.
The Council (2018): Como Juego de Tronos, el final desbarra tanto que echa por tierra una historia y una narrativa brillantes, y es una pena. Aún así, pese al final y a algunas mecánicas innecesariamente complejas que no aportan nada, me parece un imprescindible del género (7,15)
Played on PS5
Playtime: 8 Hours
Play Status: Completed
Completion Date: January 7th 2023
No Spoilers
Ruined by Ambitions and Reality
If you don’t know, The Council is an interactive movie type of game following the path laid by Telltale Games and the Life is Strange franchise. But it tries to add some gameplay and RPG elements into the mix as well to come up with a familiar but still distinct feeling. While the first two episodes of this five episode journey accomplishes this, the later 3 episodes kills the momentum by including filler after filler, big story changes and terrible backtracking.
To start from the beginning, The Council is about, a council. A secret council that consists of important figures from around the globe like George Washington or Napoleon Bonaparte. These important figures comes together in a distant island under the direction of two very rich people to decide on the fate of the world basically. We play as Louis de Richet and come to this island to search for our missing mother who was last seen here.
While the story starts out good, some questionable plot twists that happens in Episodes 3 and 4 breaks the momentum of it and derails the plot out of it’s path. Trust me it’s very very ridiculous. But the problem isn’t the fact that it’s crazy, it’s the fact that the team clearly did not have the budget to take the story to that place.
I will come back to this again in the gameplay section but the whole 8 hours of the game is spent in the same mansion. Which consists of like 8-10 rooms. You never leave this mansion. It’s crazy. And while this makes sense for a game about super secret council gatherings, it does not make sense for where the game goes in it’s later stages.
As an interactive movie, a bad story takes away a lot of the game. But The Council is a bit different. It has much more of a gameplay focus than any other title I mentioned. In The Council, you will mostly explore, make choices and solve puzzles. Exploring starts off great. But, we come back to the same issue. 8-10 rooms. I looked at everywhere very closely during the first half but in the second half, I just rushed through the spaces because I didn’t want to look at them for the fifth time.
Making choices is a bit more interesting. We have the classic important choices that affects the story while we also have the other classic, your other choices doesn’t matter. But here is a very interesting thing. There are things during the exploration you can do that does not look like choices but they actually are. That might have seemed a little complicated.
Let me explain it like things. You need to be careful with every move of yours. Where you go, who you talk to. If you just explore and click on everything you see, you might close off some paths you didn’t even know if they existed or not. Basically, you need to watch your every move. This thing mostly happens while solving puzzles actually. You know, in some other games, you can eventually come up to the solution of a puzzle by just trying every possible option.
Not in this game, you need to be careful about what you choose because you might decrease your in game reward if you don’t. I think this explained what I was trying to say better. As an example, you have a page and you believe something is written on it. In order to reveal what that is, you need to do somethings. If you do a wrong thing, you might cause some of the writing to get damaged and you might not get the whole message once you solve the puzzle.
There is also a level system. And skills. Ok so, you get XP by completing objectives, finding collectibles or talking with people and discovering their weaknesses. Manipulation, politics etc. When you level up, you get skill points and you can use that skill on one of those abilities like manipulation or politics to reduce their cost of using. You have these points and whenever you want to make a special action, it will cost you these points. So giving skill points to the skills you use most will make the most sense.
Example, let’s say you found a very old artifact. If you have Level 1 Archeology skill, you can use 5 of your points to inspect that item archeologically. But if you make it Level 2, you can use the same skill but for 2 points. If you make it max level, Level 3, you can use it for free. It’s a nice system that awards good skill distributing. And that’s it on the RPG system of the game. Some of your choices are locked behind this skills and their costs mechanic.
The Council is not a pretty game. It came out on 2018 but it looks like a PS3 era game. Frame rate is solid most of the time but there are some glitches and bugs. Nothing game breaking though at least. Music, I don’t remember anything. It has an easy platinum, 1 playthrough. You might look at it if you want to have a platinum I guess?
As a lover of The Walking Dead, Life is Strange, Heavy Rain, Detroit and many other games like these, The Council was a huge disappointment. Story went to weird places, gameplay became very repetitive and boring and technically the game is weak. It has some good ideas but it fails to use them as well. I don’t recommend it, in fact, I recommend you to stay away from it. It was a waste of time for me.
Playtime: 8 Hours
Play Status: Completed
Completion Date: January 7th 2023
No Spoilers
Ruined by Ambitions and Reality
If you don’t know, The Council is an interactive movie type of game following the path laid by Telltale Games and the Life is Strange franchise. But it tries to add some gameplay and RPG elements into the mix as well to come up with a familiar but still distinct feeling. While the first two episodes of this five episode journey accomplishes this, the later 3 episodes kills the momentum by including filler after filler, big story changes and terrible backtracking.
To start from the beginning, The Council is about, a council. A secret council that consists of important figures from around the globe like George Washington or Napoleon Bonaparte. These important figures comes together in a distant island under the direction of two very rich people to decide on the fate of the world basically. We play as Louis de Richet and come to this island to search for our missing mother who was last seen here.
While the story starts out good, some questionable plot twists that happens in Episodes 3 and 4 breaks the momentum of it and derails the plot out of it’s path. Trust me it’s very very ridiculous. But the problem isn’t the fact that it’s crazy, it’s the fact that the team clearly did not have the budget to take the story to that place.
I will come back to this again in the gameplay section but the whole 8 hours of the game is spent in the same mansion. Which consists of like 8-10 rooms. You never leave this mansion. It’s crazy. And while this makes sense for a game about super secret council gatherings, it does not make sense for where the game goes in it’s later stages.
As an interactive movie, a bad story takes away a lot of the game. But The Council is a bit different. It has much more of a gameplay focus than any other title I mentioned. In The Council, you will mostly explore, make choices and solve puzzles. Exploring starts off great. But, we come back to the same issue. 8-10 rooms. I looked at everywhere very closely during the first half but in the second half, I just rushed through the spaces because I didn’t want to look at them for the fifth time.
Making choices is a bit more interesting. We have the classic important choices that affects the story while we also have the other classic, your other choices doesn’t matter. But here is a very interesting thing. There are things during the exploration you can do that does not look like choices but they actually are. That might have seemed a little complicated.
Let me explain it like things. You need to be careful with every move of yours. Where you go, who you talk to. If you just explore and click on everything you see, you might close off some paths you didn’t even know if they existed or not. Basically, you need to watch your every move. This thing mostly happens while solving puzzles actually. You know, in some other games, you can eventually come up to the solution of a puzzle by just trying every possible option.
Not in this game, you need to be careful about what you choose because you might decrease your in game reward if you don’t. I think this explained what I was trying to say better. As an example, you have a page and you believe something is written on it. In order to reveal what that is, you need to do somethings. If you do a wrong thing, you might cause some of the writing to get damaged and you might not get the whole message once you solve the puzzle.
There is also a level system. And skills. Ok so, you get XP by completing objectives, finding collectibles or talking with people and discovering their weaknesses. Manipulation, politics etc. When you level up, you get skill points and you can use that skill on one of those abilities like manipulation or politics to reduce their cost of using. You have these points and whenever you want to make a special action, it will cost you these points. So giving skill points to the skills you use most will make the most sense.
Example, let’s say you found a very old artifact. If you have Level 1 Archeology skill, you can use 5 of your points to inspect that item archeologically. But if you make it Level 2, you can use the same skill but for 2 points. If you make it max level, Level 3, you can use it for free. It’s a nice system that awards good skill distributing. And that’s it on the RPG system of the game. Some of your choices are locked behind this skills and their costs mechanic.
The Council is not a pretty game. It came out on 2018 but it looks like a PS3 era game. Frame rate is solid most of the time but there are some glitches and bugs. Nothing game breaking though at least. Music, I don’t remember anything. It has an easy platinum, 1 playthrough. You might look at it if you want to have a platinum I guess?
As a lover of The Walking Dead, Life is Strange, Heavy Rain, Detroit and many other games like these, The Council was a huge disappointment. Story went to weird places, gameplay became very repetitive and boring and technically the game is weak. It has some good ideas but it fails to use them as well. I don’t recommend it, in fact, I recommend you to stay away from it. It was a waste of time for me.
Очень странная игра. Не нравится визуальный дизайн, но сюжет интригует
Tried a bit of the first episode, just wasn't hooked enough to buy the rest.
There's only two reasons to really enjoy this game and they are held in place by a black corset.
Main character and his mother are as ugly as the story gets weird.
Main character and his mother are as ugly as the story gets weird.
Общая бюджетность, странноватый визуальный стиль, злоебучий бэктрекинг. И в середине игры шокирующий "вот это поворот", убивающий весь интерес. А начинали неплохо, в духе "что за херня здесь происходит?" и "кому верить?". А вот из хорошего (и важного) тут механика разговоров. Хоть сейчас бери и вставляй в любую рпг. Вообще, игра выглядит как игры Телтэйл здорового человека с загадками из олдскульных квестов. Загадки хорошие, логичные. И решения в диалогах будто бы действительно влияют на историю. Короче, допроходить или переигрывать я вряд ли буду, но за попытку - зачет.
O primeiro capitulo é muito bom, o resto.......