The Council

1. leopodl

   Mar 8, 2019

   10

   The Council could be better, yes. But the main plot is pretty interesting and characters looks authentic in the Mortimer's mansion, I evenThe Council could be better, yes. But the main plot is pretty interesting and characters looks authentic in the Mortimer's mansion, I even have no question about what such powerful persons doing in such place without any guard or servants. RPG elements give player the opportunity to replay the moment and see different result(not always exactly), based on your skill build tree. But dialogs are still simple enough to get what you need from NPC without potions and skills, I think its definitely plus. Also, I like visual style of decorations and characters, some faces are horribly difficult to forget. ;)
   
   Beside, game has a lot of technical issues such as walking through the objects and walls in a second episode, lip sync, freezes while sounds tracks loading, body block of main characters, etc.
   But for me its still 10. :)… Expand

   • 7 of 9 users found this helpful
2. Slav000

   Apr 13, 2020

   10

   Игра про тайное мировое правительство, комитет трехсот. Из недостатков могу отметить механику игры, а именно взаимодействие с предметами,Игра про тайное мировое правительство, комитет трехсот. Из недостатков могу отметить механику игры, а именно взаимодействие с предметами, недоконца проработанные текстуры, не самая хорошая оптимизация, но на это можно закрыть глаза. Из плюсов это хорошо продуманный сюжет, множество вариантов прохождения, персонаж Эмили Хилсборроу заслуживает отдельной похвалы. В целом игра понравилась, хотя есть в ней и минусы, такие как одни и те же локации, которые к пятому эпизоду уже исхожены вдоль и поперек.… Expand

   • 1 of 3 users found this helpful
4. Sepherim

   Oct 29, 2020

   9

   The Council es, en muchos sentidos, una evolución del género de las aventuras de toma de decisiones. Nos presenta una trama de ocultismo yThe Council es, en muchos sentidos, una evolución del género de las aventuras de toma de decisiones. Nos presenta una trama de ocultismo y misterio en la época de la revolución francesa, con una misteriosa reunión en una isla lejana. A partir de ahí, el juego nos da una libertad a la hora de explorar y movernos por la isla poco frecuente en juegos de este estilo, que encaja muy bien con un sistema de juego más complejo que el habitual. Así, el personaje va ganando puntos de experiencia que vamos gastando en mejorar sus habilidades, las cuales luego juegan papeles importantes a la hora de intervenir en conversaciones o abrir nuevas rutas, y encajan especialmente con las personalidades de cada uno de los otros ocupantes de la isla. Con eso en mente, vamos tomando decisiones narrativas que impactan mucho en la historia, al mismo tiempo que gestionamos nuestro desarrollo como personaje y los recursos (en forma de puntos de esfuerzo) que tenemos, creando un conjunto realmente interesante. Y eso salpicado con unos cuantos puzzles bastante ingeniosos y divertidos que resolver en puntos clave de la trama.
   
   Gráficamente no se puede decir que sea lo más vanguardista que se haya visto, en especial algunas animaciones son algo toscas, pero la verdad es que el ambiente que crea es espectacular. El sonido cumple bien, aunque sin nada especialmente destacable.
   
   El resultado de todo ello es que, sin ser perfecto, sin duda The Council es un juego que vale mucho la pena y que, junto a juegos como Disco Elysium, van desarrollando y evolucionando la fórmula de los juegos de toma de decisiones. Un 8,5.… Expand

   • 1 of 2 users found this helpful
5. Truth_

   Mar 17, 2020

   8

   The Council is a great example of a narrative game done right.
   
   Solving an interesting mystery from the start while uncovering the trueThe Council is a great example of a narrative game done right.
   
   Solving an interesting mystery from the start while uncovering the true nature of what's going on and its substantive side-plots keeps you engaged and intrigued by the results. You have a healthy cast of characters to slowly glean information and begin to gain their trust (or lose it) and play politics, mixed with a bit of intrigue (really trespassing and theft, let's be honest), and lots of sleuthing for clues and information. The setting is combined with its interesting characters, tantalizing lore (including real-world occult lore), and plot-twists makes this the best narrative game I have played.
   
   Learning information to make informed decisions or put your verbal opponents on their back foot is satisfying. Learning the other characters' weaknesses and immunities is fun if a little gamey sometimes. I hate puzzles, but many of them were interesting if not fun, although some were very easy and others quite hard. Unlocking talents and hidden traits is also fun and adds a bit of depth to your character and your choices. Certain skills are more useful than others, but you earn enough points throughout the game for that not to matter too much. Thankfully the story itself is well-paced and overall quite interesting. Most importantly, I totally appreciate it that your choices truly matter. Not just for the next dialogue or some superficial automatic background comment by an NPC later, but totally changing the way you need to approach future encounters with that character and even others. While the game never lets you reload (rare in games), you may start a new game at the start of any episode or chapter, which saves a ton of time if you simply want to try specific different narrative paths and endings.
   
   It all comes together well, but does have a few hiccoughs. Re-searching every room in the mansion every single chapter for newly-revealed items is simply tedious, especially when many are locked but you have no way of knowing ahead of time, forcing you to do even more running around when your path is unexpectedly blocked with no provided reasoning. Additionally, while the characters are each unique, some matter far more than others, and they are the more interesting ones. The others are fairly shallow, preventing you from much caring about what happens to them or gaining their opinion.
   
   The dialogues are overall good, but there are many mistakes in the voice acting compared to the subtitles, as well as several spelling, grammar, or typo mistakes. I only saw a single missed translation, however. Overall the voice-acting is also good... except for the main character of all people. His voice itself is good, but he slurs fairly often, awkwardly pauses between certain words, reads a word wrong, or uses the wrong emotion (sometimes using no emotion at all). Why wouldn't this actor listen to his own recording and simply redo it immediately? It's also strange that most characters use an accent for their country of origin, except the main character, his mother, and Peru, all of which are French but use an American accent, ruining immersion (thankfully the main character's voice actor is decent at pronouncing words in other languages). Additionally, the mother sounds middle-aged yet her character is clearly elderly - it doesn't fit at all and was constantly distracting. Finally, not being able to skip certain voiced lines, especially repeatable ones, was annoying.
   
   There are certain complaints about the endings, but I thought they were each satisfying and logical. I absolutely would recommend this game for anyone interested in social-based narrative games. I really hope they make a new game that expands on the setting, involves exploring different environments, and really dives into the different factions and characters of the world with choices that continue to really matter. (Since first writing this, they made Call of Cthulhu, a social-based narrative game that was okay, but far inferior to The Council).
   
   Mmm... royal jelly.
   
   Playtime: 24 hours
   Rating: 8/10… Expand

   • 1 of 2 users found this helpful
6. BulgarianCritic

   May 27, 2021

   8

   This game had a lot of elements and mechanics going for it, I enjoyed the sense of mystery even if the final 2 chapters kinda made the twistThis game had a lot of elements and mechanics going for it, I enjoyed the sense of mystery even if the final 2 chapters kinda made the twist really weak and kinda expected in these type of games.The animation a lot of the times is crude and the voice acting sometimes is hilarious even if it was not intentional but there are more positives than negatives and I overall enjoyed the experience and character building and setting .… Expand

   • 1 of 3 users found this helpful
7. watchm824

   Jun 22, 2021

   7

   I liked the game. Interesting plot (though only in the first half of the game). Mysterious atmosphere. And unusual game mechanics.
   True, theI liked the game. Interesting plot (though only in the first half of the game). Mysterious atmosphere. And unusual game mechanics.
   True, the ending and plot twist in the second half of the game let us down.
   Graphics and animation are normal, you can play.… Expand

   • 1 of 1 users found this helpful
8. Klewer

   Mar 2, 2020

   5

   A disappointing game overall. The first two episodes were intriguing and kept you enthralled. Slowly after that as the story unraveled itA disappointing game overall. The first two episodes were intriguing and kept you enthralled. Slowly after that as the story unraveled it became stale, repetitive at times and not engaging. Choices became less frequent and some interesting mechanics not revisited often.… Expand

   • 3 of 5 users found this helpful

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