The Council

Société d'élite
Imagine a group composed of ones of the most influential individuals in the world, people who either directly or indirectly steer the world politics towards their common interests, and you are invited to join their midst and take part in their next world-changing decision making conference. You come over with your own agenda, but fulfilling it is not so easy as it seemed at first. The place, where The Council is held, is filled with mystery, there is deception on every step and politics, deduction, knowledge and other soft skill play vital role in your advancement in this place.
The Council is a great story-rich adventure game and I really pleasantly surprised how well the game masters grabing my attention and holding it until the very end of the game. With every hour played I wanted to know more and more about everything in the game, I went through every little corner, talked to everyone about everything just to know more about this. About high society of the world at the end of the 18th century, about influential art pieces from this and previous time periods, about individuals met in the game such as Manuel Godoy, Napoleon Bonaparte and George Washington.
One of the best parts of the game, in my opinion, is how well crafted the conversations were and how many possibilities there were on how to deal with them. This was also masterfully combined with skill tree, which had three main branches - Occultist, Detective and Diplomatic skills. One thing I also would like to mention is that the game is not that easy, some of the puzzles are a really hard nut to crack, which was a pleasant change in contrast with other games of this type.
Summary
Pros
✪ Immersive story
✪ Sophisticated and very engaging conversations
✪ Detailed environment
✪ Symbolism
✪ Choices matter - decisions and actions have real consequences
✪ Great skills/skill tree usage
✪ Extraordinary puzzles
✪ Atmosphere
✪ Impeccable voice acting - I love usage of accents in the game (especially Napoleon)
Cons
✪ Camera position was not optimal for me, and there was no option to change it (zoomout)
✪ Animations are not of the highest quality
✪ Story ending was a bit rushed, but still enjoyable to play
9.5 /10
As other reviews mention the game worsens towards the end, but still it is an amazing experience and it is definitely worth playing.

Unique game. An hour into it I already felt I was watching a historical drama rather than playing a video game. Come to think about it, this game can be transferred into a nice theatre play.
The story is well written. intriguing, the script writer has done a beautiful job, always keeping a good amount of mysteries, I have no idea what is going to happen. Seeing historical figures come one by one all gathered to decide big events that will have huge influences is both peculiar and interesting. It is like the head of each powerful nation having a United Nations conference with no consolers. Louis at first is anonymous but later became very important a persuasive talker, though he came to the island to find his missing mother at the beginning - Turns out there's a bigger conspiracy.
Game has multiple endings, and it transfers from historical drama into a fantasy. At the end the player got to choose who to side up with, attitude to mother, being an heir or completely destroying the family. It is satisfying, and consistent, giveing the gameplay always offers the player enough patterns to choose. I feel like riding a roller coaster while playing: I change my standpoint twice, persuade the guests then regret. As the game proceeds the player learns more background stories and at the end, is able to invade and read minds to tell what is better and worse, before making the final decision.
As a RPG game, players choose a class and by exploring places, reading letters, unlock chests etc to gain exp, players level up to unlock new skills, which is essential as certain choices may require particular skill, thus to understand the logic and see the strength and weakness for each guest. The only thing I do not like is players cannot have a full game experience in one gameplay. Some choices are bound to be missed in conversations, which is annoying and the reason why I played this game 3 years ago for 5 hours and stopped. I hope this game has better mechanics to let players understand sooner than after, to make better choices, how to answer questions, agree or not, especially knowing if you can't experience both paths.
Apart from the plots, the game has so many famous paintings in real life, and Louis comments on them. I also get obsessed with the fine furniture, the capets with all the detailed decorations, the beautiful art style of the palace and the rooms, each looking magnificent and vivid. The game does not have a big map and most of the time you run better guest rooms and the garden, but the beautiful layout made up for the shortage. The puzzles are very well designed, you need to get to know the myth, the religions acknowledge, be patient and read the hints carefully to seek answers. The puzzle to open the secret path in the underground tunnel is extremely delicate and also hard, player has to solve a series of complicated puzzles to open the game, and if fails Louis has to take the consequence.
The story is rich, yet there are plot holes like why all the guests agree to take the invitation to the island, without a single bodyguard or counselor and some are not well-prepared. However, One flaw cannot obscure the splendor of the jade, I enjoy playing very much, and am satisfied with the explanation at the end.

One has to commend The Council for its ambitious narrative. From what I can tell, there is not just the mere illusion of choice we've come to known from Telltale Games (RIP), but there are multiple actual, meaningful decisions throughout all episodes.
Sadly, it seems that the game ran into budget constraints on the later episodes. While the plot itself and the puzzles keep their high quality throughout, the storytelling and the direction of the cutscenes and cinematics start falling flat more and more.

Who rules the World ???
Not a wellness trip on a sunny island, but a very complex journey with a lot of multi-layered deepness and things to really think about!
Extremly enjoyable, interesting and mysterios, probably espacaly made for an "older Gaming-Generation". When you are interested in art, history, politcs, religion and conspiracys, this is a game you should really play!
Contents
You playing "Louis de Richet", an french member of the secret ingame society "The Golden Order", what is like the freemason´s in reality! You can choose between the roles of diplomat, occultist and detective, but regardless of the choice you can also learn all other specializations. Your task is to search for your mother, investigate different things, solve some puzzles, talk to people and make a lot of decisions. How the story develops depends on the decisions you make, there are a lot posible of ways and endings! There are some unexpected twists in the story but unlike others I really enjoyed them. It always depends on the player and his taste.
Art and History
There are tons of objects and a lot of history processed into game that you can research (google) in reality and that's a part that made this game so special and unusual for me. For examples the many pictures from old painting Masters, like Rembrandt, Rubens, Raffael, Leonardo da Vinci, Dossi, Regnault, Ingres and lots more. Historical events such as the French Revolution, emergence of the USA, pacts, wars, slavery...
Stability – Graphics
The graphics are a little eccentric in places and over the top at times, but that's not a mistake or a bad thing, it's on purpose... just think about it, like the rest of the game! The graphics are really nice and stunning in some places, so it's better if you have good hardware. I have an 3060ti and had no Crashes, or noteworthy bugs in 2K resolution...
Savegames
You can have 3 different savegames (3 possible roles) and you are able to free chose every „Episode or Chapter“ after finishing it, so there is no point to copy and paste something! Saves are automaticly but very very often....
A phrase from the game:
„Always keep your mind logical and open“
…there are more truth in this game than you maybe expect... just think about the WEF in reality today...
Good luck, have fun and enjoy this difficult comparable Game!
Greetings

One of THE best and THE most interesting games I have ever played - PERIOD!
I am a lover of RPG's. In my honest opinion, I would estimate that anyone who likes good stories and characters will cherish this gem.
I can recommend this title wholeheartedly.
A true AA-indie jewel!
9/10

Might be one of the most underrated games ever, the story is incredible!

+Awesome story
+Lots of characters
+Intrigue is everywhere
+Decent voice acting
+Famous historical figures
+You feel the impact of choices you made
+Good atmosphere and map design
+Multiple endings
+Smart puzzles, unlike just go get the key and open the door
-Some puzzles are very hard (or I am not smart enough :) I had to check 1 or 2 of them from the guides