The Council

 PC
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 110 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 75 out of 110
  2. Mixed: 28 out of 110
  3. Negative: 7 out of 110

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  1. Balry
    Apr 1, 2019
    8
    It is a very good story. Extremely compelling characters that you start to understand and kind of get attached to if you let the game in. While the graphics are pretty on the surface repeating animations may take certain players out of the experience, but I think that is the exception rather than the rule if you like a good story.

    On the downside, this game is really only good for a    It is a very good story. Extremely compelling characters that you start to understand and kind of get attached to if you let the game in. While the graphics are pretty on the surface repeating animations may take certain players out of the experience, but I think that is the exception rather than the rule if you like a good story.

    On the downside, this game is really only good for a single playthrough as I do not feel like the game is designed to be replayed; This is mainly because of the fact that none of the scenes or dialog are skippable even after the game was completed once before. This is kind of a shame because I believe the developers meant for people to go back and experience more of the story, but I frankly recommend just looking up videos of people making different choices and researching the separate endings.    … Expand
  2. ritas666
    Aug 7, 2020
    8
    It's a really interesting and unique game with a rich and varied gameplay mechanics. It contains an intriguing detective side and a subtle psychology. Your choices really matter. The ending of the game could have been better, but it didn't spoil my entire impression of it. Strongly recommend.
  3. igolrum
    May 25, 2021
    9
    Despite the story turning into a bit of a chaotic mess in the middle, the overall story, lore, dialog and especially the unusual style of villain are still very good.
    It's not an illusion of choice game either. You can get a fair amount of different outcomes and endings.
  4. signcontrast
    Mar 28, 2020
    9
    I waited to complete the game before I reviewed it, seeing the reviews that extolled its virtues in Chapters 1-3, and completely derided Chapters 4-5. I had been following this game since its release, and held off on purchasing it because of these reviews. That...is a shame. The game is beautifully done. It's one of the finest roleplaying games I've had the pleasure to play. It isI waited to complete the game before I reviewed it, seeing the reviews that extolled its virtues in Chapters 1-3, and completely derided Chapters 4-5. I had been following this game since its release, and held off on purchasing it because of these reviews. That...is a shame. The game is beautifully done. It's one of the finest roleplaying games I've had the pleasure to play. It is true that the last two chapters got a little weird, but this was set up from the beginning. To pretend like that's not the case, or to say that the last chapters were trash...that's just bloviating. It's the sort of unmeasured review that's common nowadays, and really unfortunate, because it has real damaging consequences for fine products like these and how writers and developers approach their work. I'm glad the writers and developers here took a risk, and it paid off well, if not perfectly. That said, on to the meat of the review.

    Story (4/5): The story was fantastic. It pays to talk a length to characters, and they give meaningful insight into the motivations of characters, the events the player does not witness, the setting, and how to approach decisions. The story has a satisfying arc, even if it didn't move me to tears. It does sacrifice more choice in Chapters 4 and 5. That is to say, the choices are more infrequent, but higher stakes. And there were definitely times I would have liked the same open-ended and nuanced sorts of choices that it felt like I had in Chapters 1-3. I imagine that would be difficult to write, though, and The Council does this several degrees better than almost any roleplaying game. It certainly holds up to the best Telltale games such as Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, and Batman.

    Character Design & Voicing (4.5/5): These were superb! There is a limited cast, but then again, this isn't a game you're paying $50 for. But the voice acting was 4 out of 5 stars, with occasionally awkward renditions. The writing was 5 out of 5 stars, with characters having their own conversational habits. The art work was 5 out of 5 stars, with characters each having their cultural and personal style.

    Mechanics(4/5): There are a couple ways to look at this. Movement was awkward, and once or twice there was a glitch. There is no real combat to speak of, but many quick-instance conversations, but they're generally done well and timed just right. A couple in the end were a little quick for my tastes, but that's nit-picking. The combination of skills, traits, and talents really had me choosing things carefully and I loved how they each mattered. That's where the mechanics shined. The unique way in which opportunities and details or items can be observed was aesthetically perfect for a game that relied on intrigue, attention to detail, and social combat. I have honestly never seen social combat done so well in a game.

    Gameplay, Choice (4/5): Much of this I've spoken to already, but it's worth highlighting that choices really matter. Characters live or die based on your choices. Taking advantage of one opportunity sometimes (but not always) costs you another advantage. That provides the illusion of reality while rewarding thoughtful choices. This isn't a game where completionists can run around and join every guild or get everyone to side with them. I love that, despite the fact that I am quite the completionist. I am rewarded for running around and checking every detail, but there are times I simply must make a choice and enjoy the ride. The same goes for skills (one can 't be a master of everything). Puzzles are engaging, but not so difficult that I felt the need to google. Just perfect. Intelligence, attention to detail, and careful character building are rewarded, but I don't need to be a master puzzler or Google researcher to get good outcomes.

    Aesthetics (4.5): This is worth a separate little nod. The combination of the secret cults and societies, philosophy, religion, historical richness, allusions to the supernatural and elements of this, and nefarious agendas is right up my alley. It's true, it gets a little ...weird, but in the style of mature games like World of Darkness...it doesn't just do weird for weird sake. If you're into the elements above, you'll likely love this game.

    It comes together for a 90/100. It's a great buy at @20, it's usual price. And for a couple days it's an absolute steal at @7.50. I'm hoping to see more of this from this developer - either this game or something like it.    … Expand
  5. PublicNuisance
    Apr 4, 2020
    8
    The Council has some good things going for it that it does well to go with some things that it could have done better. It has a great story that got more and more interesting as it got towards the end. I think the end itself was a little rushed and weak but the last 20 minutes of a game shouldn’t tarnish what came before. The game is divided really into two parts: conversations you haveThe Council has some good things going for it that it does well to go with some things that it could have done better. It has a great story that got more and more interesting as it got towards the end. I think the end itself was a little rushed and weak but the last 20 minutes of a game shouldn’t tarnish what came before. The game is divided really into two parts: conversations you have with others and puzzles that you encounter. The conversation system is fantastic. You can upgrade different skill sets such as science; manipulation; politics; agility; and many more by gaining XP and finding texts to study. Each character you converse with will have immunities and vulnerabilities that tie into your skills. So if you are strong in psychology and the person you’re talking with has a vulnerability to that then you will have dialogue options that you otherwise wouldn’t to convince them of what you’re saying or to have extra insight into what they’re saying. If however they’re immune to say etiquette then you can’t use that trait to try to lie or manipulate them because they see right through it. You can find out these traits for characters through conversation; by finding out from others or by means such as searching their rooms for clues. The other half of the game was the puzzles and they were a real mixed bag. Some of them I didn’t mind but others required constant reading one clue that points to another clue which points you back to the previous clue to get a different piece of data to proceed to another clue. Some of them were just convoluted. It wasn’t so much I didn’t understand what the game wanted from me as I simply didn’t enjoy it enough to care. The map system was another sore spot as it wasn’t very good. I found the game didn’t always give me a good idea of where I needed to go. If for instance I had to find a specific character and they weren’t in their room I was walking all over the mansion trying to find where they may be. The map was poorly labelled as well. I wish that I could have just turn on a radar system telling me where to go sometimes. I don’t like those kind of aids but it would have saved some frustration. The voice acting was overall very good. I thought that the voice of Jacques Peru and Louis de Richet who were supposed to be French characters had distinct North American accents. Everyone else had appropriate accents for their homeland but those two stood out. The graphics were fairly good overall. The world detail in the mansion was well done as was the lighting; clothing and facial detail. The hair was a mixed bag that ranged from decent to poor though. Two things I found strange was the ability to pick the locks of peoples belongings right in front of them and they didn’t seem to care as well as after being physically deformed due to one of my choices almost no one seems to notice or act differently. If someone I knew to be fine and healthy a few hours ago suddenly shows up missing a limb I may ask if everything is alright. I am not bothered by those two issues, I just was amused by them.

    I played The Council on Linux using Proton. It never crashed on me. It did have an error about a crash every time I closed the game but it never impacted save data and never happened during game play. It really was a nothing issue that I just closed each time. I played version 0.9.5_6359 of the game. It had an auto save system not a manual but luckily it saved often so it wasn’t a big deal. You can’t rebind keys but there are only a handful of keys to use. It has options for Vsync and 2 other graphics options. The game uses the Unreal engine. Alt-Tab didn’t work. The game supported refresh rates above 60 even though there wasn’t an official setting for it. The game ran really well. I had the settings at highest with Vsync on at 1080P and it was very smooth, never dropping below 60 FPS.

    Disk Space Used: 22.77GB
    VRAM Usage (MB) : 3778-4511
    CPU Usage (%): 17-28
    RAM Usage (GB): 3.5-4.5
    GPU Usage (%): 6-99
    Frame Rate (FPS): 61-130

    I recommend The Council to those who enjoy dialogue heavy games that have a robust choice system. The conversation system and the plot was more than enough to entertain me and outweigh the puzzles I didn’t care for. I finished the game in 12 hours 30 minutes and paid $10.99 CAD for it. That is more than a fair price; I would have paid $25 for it.

    My Score: 8/10

    My System:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 5700 XT 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 19.3.5 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Manjaro 19.0.2 | Mate 1.24 | Kernel 5.5.13-1-MANJARO | Proton 5.0-5    … Expand
  6. 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 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 dialogsThe 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. jseph1234
    Jul 16, 2021
    8
    Unfortunately the voice-acting and writing/dialogue is sub-par. They have used an obvious American to play the French Lead actor and the whole thing is has some EXCELLENT Choice and Consequence and overall a good playing experience.
  8. maya430
    May 19, 2018
    10
    It's simple, i am just finished ep 2 and definitively for me "It's THE GAME OF YEAR". It's better than "life is strange" and all "telltale games". A perfect mixt between adventure point and click games and RPG. BRAVO
  9. cogdotnet
    Mar 22, 2018
    8
    As an old school gamer who remembers such titles as Myst, Police Quest, the Gabriel Knight series, Quest for Glory and others with such fondness and admiration for their storytelling, it is great to see the genre make such a strong return with Telltale Games and other developers like Big Bad Wolf leading the way. Based on the first episode alone The Council would fit in with the best ofAs an old school gamer who remembers such titles as Myst, Police Quest, the Gabriel Knight series, Quest for Glory and others with such fondness and admiration for their storytelling, it is great to see the genre make such a strong return with Telltale Games and other developers like Big Bad Wolf leading the way. Based on the first episode alone The Council would fit in with the best of those old school classics. It also brings something new to the table and establishes such an intriguing plot. Its especially appealing to someone who appreciates history and great mysteries, such as myself. Agatha Christie would surely give a tip of the hat to The Council.… Expand
  10. 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 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    The 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
  11. 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 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 unThe 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
  12. 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 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 experienceThis 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
  13. Slav000
    Apr 13, 2020
    10
    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,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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. CD-Action
    Dec 11, 2019
    85
    Big Bad Wolf did what Telltale Games’ works promised but could never deliver. A true revelation in the world of non-linear adventure games. [03/2019, p.66]
  2. PLAY! Zine
    Mar 5, 2019
    60
    The Council started with a big bang but ended with a huge sigh of disappointment. It has a great level of details to represent the world at the end of XVIII century, it has some nice changes to the stagnant genre of "choices matter adventures", but the story and storytelling are not up to par with them. Also, world feels unresponsive, the pacing feels inadequate and in short, it could have been a great game, but it failed on the most important things.
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  3. Adventure Gamers
    Jan 25, 2019
    50
    Although the idea of blending role-playing elements with traditional adventure gaming sounds intriguing, The Council doesn’t do anything particularly interesting with either of them after a very strong introductory episode.
    Read full review
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