The Council

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Summary

The Council is an episodic game developed by French indie studio Big Bad Wolf that delivers a fresh new take on the narrative adventure genre. Make hard-hitting decisions, develop an array of skills, and 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, interacting 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.

Storyline

"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."


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The Council Reviews & Ratings

80
Review by BulgarianCritic [user]
May 27, 2021

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 .

80
Review by DKurac [user]
May 23, 2021

Out of 5 episodes overall 3,5 episodes were excellent. I really enjoyed decision making, politics, puzzles and mysteries in those. SadlyOut of 5 episodes overall 3,5 episodes were excellent. I really enjoyed decision making, politics, puzzles and mysteries in those. Sadly enough remaining 1,5 episodes was ending which kinda ruined the rest.

80
Review by Truth_ [user]
March 17, 2020

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 hoursRating: 8/10

50
Review by Klewer [user]
March 2, 2020

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.

85
Review by CD-Action
December 11, 2019

Big Bad Wolf did what Telltale Games’ works promised but could never deliver. A true revelation in the world of non-linear adventure games.

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Game Information
Release Date March 13, 2018
Publisher Big Bad Wolf, Focus Home Interactive
Content Rated M (Mature)
Game Modes Single player
Genres Role-playing (RPG), Adventure
Themes Action, Thriller, Historical, Mystery
Platforms PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4, Xbox One