The Council
The Council is an episodic game like no other. Delivering a fresh new take on the Narrative Adventure, your choices and character growth truly matter. Make hard-hitting decisions, but also develop an array of skills to directly impact how the story unfolds. With permanent, long-lasting consequences, there is no going back. Plunge into a tale of intrigue and manipulation in the style of a classic murder mystery, living with a cast of alluring characters each hiding their own dark secrets. Trust no one while uncovering dire truths – no matter the cost to mind and body.
The Council begins in 1793, with players taking the role of secret society member Louis de Richet after his invitation to a private island off the shores of England by the enigmatic Lord Mortimer. Joining him are a number of high profile guests, including Napoleon Bonaparte and President of the newly-formed United States of America, George Washington. The strange nature of this private reception goes beyond just the prestigious guests –Richet’s own mother has recently gone missing on the island, while each and every one of the colorful cast seems to have their own hidden agendas.
In a new twist for the genre, the core of The Council’s gameplay comes from manipulating and maneuvering through character encounters using the unique Social Influence system. During confrontations, skills and limited resources can be used to gain the upper hand and achieve the desired outcome. Players will be rewarded for their knowledge of each character’s psychological vulnerabilities and immunities, as well as their preparations made during prior exploration and investigation. Failing an encounter does not mean ‘game over’, and no action can be taken back. The consequences are permanent, and may result in persistent physical disfigurements or mental traits that help or hinder the rest of the player’s adventure.
Richet’s numerous skills can be developed to align with your chosen approach to the adventure. Solve issues with diplomacy, delve into occultism to expand your historical and scientific knowledge, or play detective and see what others do not perceive. Your skills will have uses that extend far beyond your conversations with fellow guests. With 15 diverse skills to use and invest in, players are free to uncover The Council’s mysteries how they see fit, with wildly varying consequences depending on their methods. The results will forever alter the life of Louis de Richet, of those around him, and shape history as we know it.
The Council Review
If you’ve enjoyed games such as Life is Strange or anything made by Telltale, then The Council is for you. However, The Council does implement certain aspects to the game that I have yet to see in a narrative adventure game like this, such as a leveling system, an inventory where you store items, as well as other RPG elements.
The game follows the same structure as the mentioned title(s), by spliting the game into episodes. Episode one out of five is currently out, and the game has the potential to become one of the best in the genre. So this review is entirely based of episode one, and is more of a first impression I guess you could say (I’ll re-write the review as more episodes gets released).
You take on the role as a member of a secret society sent out to an island housing a gigantic manor owned by one of the wealthiest people in the world, in search for your mother who went missing on the island under mysterious circumstances. Once on the island you discover that you aren’t the only person invited, as you come across a handful of characters of different origins and with various personalities, including a few historical people such as George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte.
As expected, all your choices matter, and at the end of each chapter you will be presented with all the things you managed to accomplish, the ones you failed to accomplish, as well as things you could have done. There are a lot of difficult choices, and ultimately they all lead to a nice cliffhanger at the end making me look forward to the next episode.
The voice acting is overall really nice, fitting for each character making the game feel more immersive. Although some improvements could have been made. But for a game being developed by a smaller studio they have gotten a nice cast of voice actors.
One minor complaint would be the lack of facial animations, making the characters feel a bit stiff at times, but it didn’t bother me too much during my playthrough.
After playing the first episode I can recommend the game, but with the warning that you never know what you will get in the upcoming episodes, a good first impression only takes you that far if the other episodes are lacking. So here’s hoping for the best!
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