The Council

I have a mixed feeling about this game after finishing it, however, the first couple of episodes were amazing. I bought this narrative adventure game before the first episode became free, I highly suggest you try out the first episode and check the performance and graphics before you decide to buy it, some people may not like the performance of this game.
You play as a young man named Louis De Richet, a member of a secret society along with his mother who has disappeared a month ago. You'll have to travel to an isolated island, which has a single massive manor. Inside, you'll meet high society people such as George Washington, Manuel Godoy, Napoleon along with others. It's up to you if you want to trust any of them or make them trust you, as you'll feel there is something very fishy about this manor and its owner.
I don't know what is the point of the items you pick as I haven't used any of them except for the talents, the journal is good, it shows each characters details along with what are their vulnerabilities and immune during the conversation. You'll get to 'confront' each character and you'll have to carefully choose your response, each response that needs an ability will cost you effort points, and to fill those points you have to search the rooms for Royal jelly or Honey. Also, there are three more abilities to use. When you succeed in a confrontation you'll get an extra trait.
Devil's thorn - Reveals vulnerabilities and immune of a person you are currently talking with, it has a timer.
Royal jelly - Restores 2 Effort Points.
Carmelite water - Use the next ability for free.
Golden elixir - Removes negative status.
The puzzles are quite difficult but I enjoyed solving them. I loved the manor's atmosphere and exploring it, but got tired of it after a couple of episodes, you are stuck in the same place going to the same rooms over and over. The soundtracks are looping, it felt like there are only three tracks in the whole game.
Pros:
+Interesting story.
+Well-done voice over.
+Good graphics and atmosphere.
+Choices and consequences.
+Confronting characters.
+Choosing between three classes (Diplomat, Occultist, Detective)
+Skills tree.
+Helpful journal.
+Has multiple endings and outcomes.
+Steam achievements.
Cons:
- No manual save.
- Unsatisfying ending.
- Mediocre character design.
- Bad animation.
- Bad game performance.
- Limited resources (especially Royal jelly and Carmelite water)
- No option to skip previously seen cutscenes.
This game has too many choices and alternative endings. For me, the downfall of it is episode 4, and episode 5 was the worst. I didn't like how the main character's personality has changed drastically, the way he accepted things made me think the developers rushed this part in a bad way.
𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑐𝘩𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑎'𝑠 𝐶𝘩𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒

Overview
The Council is a narrative adventure game with strong RPG elements set in the late 1700 Europe. Players impersonate Louis De Richet, a French young aristocrat and son of Sarah De Richet - one of the current leaders of the Golden Order, a mysterious secret society. Along with other prestigious individuals such as George Washington or Napoleon to name a few, they are all invited to attend a meeting that will shape a new world order. This already enigmatic reunion becomes even more unsettling, after a series of events plunges Louis into something unbelievable.
🟩 The Good Side
The future is Now
The Council's approach to narrative-adventure gameplay is rather unique for the genre. Along with common exploration sections, this title introduces a deep RPG-style skill system that is actively used in interactions, dialogues and verbal confrontations. Skills such as thievery, sleight of hand, logic and many more will dynamically apply to the current context. This system is further complemented by resource management, with different consumable types found in the world and usable to gain advantages. The choices, possibilities and outcomes of every chapter have lasting consequences, and are heavily determined by your skills and previous actions, with a depth not seen in almost any other game of this type.
Both gold and daggers glitter in the dark
This title offers a solid, realistic and detailed representation of late 1700 aristocracy environments, uses, costumes and practices. Each area boasts very detailed graphics with rich details, quality representations of real-world paintings and monuments. Same goes for characters, all wearing clothes in line with the time period and using vocabulary, mannerisms and behaviors consistent with their standing. In addition, the political and social environments of high courts is realistically depicted, with all the complexity of palace intrigues, plots and plans to eliminate each other's rivals or gain more power.
Ancient secrets
In addition to the deep dialogue / roleplaying system, the game offers some truly articulate puzzles that will require interpretation of multiple texts, paintings, decipher codes and remember past events - all at the same time in some cases. While skills can help making them a bit easier, they remain some of the most complex puzzles I saw in this genre for a long while.
The paths of destiny
With some 9 endings and a high number of story-changing choices in each chapter, The Council has a very good replay value which is not common for the genre. Some characters may live or die, be your allies or enemies in each playthrough, and this will lead to massively different situations each time. Once is simply not enough to see every facet of this complex story.
🟥 The Bad Side
These nobles always seem so stiff!
Animations and movement of all characters in general, always results very stiff particularly during action sequences. Sometimes models clip into their own clothes or walk and rotate in a very clunky manner. This can be quite immersion-breaking especially during dialogues or confrontations.
Rating: Excellent
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It took me around 15 hours to complete the game, while taking my time to find secrets, secondary dialogues and generally explore everything in detail. For the current price of 25€ and excellent quality, I can recommend buying for full price.
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In-Depth Breakdown
🎮 Gameplay Analysis
Gameplay is divided into Exploration, Dialogues and Character Management.
Exploration
Is performed on foot, and there are no time limits or other deadlines, you can take your time. In the first phases, your exploration range will be limited as many areas of the island and manor will be closed off. Later on, the freedom will increase, with the late-game phases allowing you to go basically anywhere without limits. While exploring there are many items, interactions and consumables to find. Some of such interactions may reveal important information (such as a letter hidden somewhere), while gathering consumables will give you advantages when you decide to use them.
Dialogues
Are the most important part of gameplay, and can be either regular conversations or Confrontations. In the first case, you will be able to discuss a variety of topics depending on the situation - and use your acquired skills to unlock topics and branches otherwise not available. Each character in the island has its own Vulnerabilities and Immunities to some of your skills, for example a master of sciences will be Immune to your Erudition skill, but might be Vulnerable to Manipulation.
Consumables will give you advantages such as more Effort Points to use skills, or allow you to see Vulnerabilities for a small time. Confrontations are special dialogues often playing a major role in the story, in them you have a limited number of Blunders (failures) allowed: choosing the right sentences and skills is fundamental to succeed, while failure is also possible and often determines a bad outcome for yourself. A few of them might even result in your death and premature ending, but this is rare.
Your skill set also allows you to exploit Opportunities, which allow you to grasp detail of people's behaviors using psychology, knowledge of etiquette and other such skills, for example. The game saves after each dialogue, transition and important event, there is no reloading so you have to live with eventual mistakes and consequences of your actions.
Character Management
Is performed at the end of each Chapter, by allocating skill points gained and by choosing Manuscripts you found to read in the wait for the next day. These manuscripts bestow free skill points to certain abilities depending on their themes, finding them can give a decisive advantage. Consumables can be used at any time, but a maximum of 5 per type can be carried, some are more rare than others and may award permanent upgrades in the case of Amber, the most rare.
Technical Breakdown
PC Specs: RTX2080Ti, Ryzen 3900X, 32GB RAM DDR4
Critical Problems
None.
Optimization
Not very good, the resource usage especially GPU-side is very high, even considering the high quality graphics.
Performance
Runs without issues in 1440p, 85Hz.
Bugs
No significant bugs to report.
Other Issues
If alt-tabbed the game GPU usage spikes to a constant 99%. Do not alt-tab.

There are a lot of reviews that are mentioning it all goes downhill in last two episodes. And while I can understand where they are coming from, I also believe they were ignoring aspects of the story that were there from the start. Let's say just that there is a good reason one of 3 specializations in the game is Occultist, the other two being Detective and Diplomat. Play without expectations where the story will lead and how it will unravel, that's the best way to really enjoy this game.
And I really believe this game is worth the time to anyone who likes adventure games, history, occult or intriguing plots. Sure, it has it's fair share of technical problems and inconsistencies, but it is also widely ambitious and different to anything else. I would rather play something like that, even though it can be infuriating at times, than technically perfect game that really doesn't make you think or challenge you.

A .... mixed bag of feelings.
A story heavy adventure game where your choices shape the way you go through the game.
What it has going for it are the visuals, setting, atmosphere, sound, voice acting. Aside from a few small glitches, everything that contributes to the narration and creation of atmosphere works well. Some of the places that you will see look really awesome.
The controls however ... are meant for consoles. It doesnt ruin the game, but you will feel a certain fatigue from it.
Gameplay-wise it seems to work, but cant help to feel some more balancing could have helped. Throughout the game you interact with things mostly through conversations, quick time events, solving puzzles and exploring the environment.
When interacting with someone or something you often need to spend action points and have the right skill unlocked. You can unlock and level these up. Some will be more useful then others, especially in the beginning. I wouldnt recommend taking the diplomatic route as I did. Some of the puzzles were also quite annoying to solve. I had issues with a lot of them, while some made sense later on, others I dont get even after looking up a walkthrough. You also cant skip dialogues and animations, which makes things very annoying if youre constantly checking things back and forth.
But all of this doesnt really matter if the story is crap. Is it crap? Well, that depends .... When I started the game I was looking forward to mature-themed, serious, logical, down to earth story. There were quite a few characters from history and that got me quite intrigued about what I was getting into. I made a mistake. About halfway through the game I became so tired of the stuff that was going on that I almost wanted to quit the game. Unnatural situations, weird reactions, developments that didnt make sense or werent realistic and the plot point of the beginning basically disappears towards the end. But then halfway through the game I decided Im just not going to care anymore and treat this as a silly adventure, just so I can finish the game. And I had a relatively good time with that. I stayed in the moment, took in what was good, ignored the bad, used a walkthrough where I was annoyed by the puzzles and it came out okay. (Mind you, the game does start out feeling quite mature and down to earth in the first episode, but it gets shaky during the second episode and during the third episode you realize thats when the developers said "screw this, just go with the flow". This is also indicative by the fact that there are no extra achievements outside of story progression starting with the second episode)
So should you try it? Well, if you are a serious guy whose into history or the like and expecting some mature quality storytelling - no. If you are in for the experience and are fine with some weird developments that make the ride intriguing, I can tell you that it is worth it, although not necessarily at full price. The gameplay and technical issues still undermine it somewhat.
All in all, just make sure you understand what youre getting into when getting this, because it will effect your enjoyment quite a lot.
6.5/10

A really good adventure game is a singular pleasure, an experience that can touch you emotionally and intellectually like none other. The emphasis on narrative and dialogue can give it such power, but only if done well. The Council is a very interesting approach to the genre, focusing heavily on branching paths and character development, without really compromising on the story. The story it tells is a wild ride on its own, though, and the flaws left by its budget and indie stature definitely color the experience in ways that compromise do. But it still manages that singular pleasure with how earnestly it approaches its subject, and with how much fiddling you can do with the mechanics as you progress.
Louis de Richet is a French gentleman and a member of the Golden Order, a secret, globe-spanning organization dabbling in both politics and the occult. In 1793, Louis’ mother and head of the Order goes missing on the private island of Lord William Mortimer, a reclusive but powerful aristocrat. Louis finds himself invited to a gathering at Mortimer’s estate, not only to find his mother but to participate in a conference between world leaders. His path takes him into the orbits of soldiers, dukes, duchesses, and even the newly-elected President of the United States, as the fate of the world plays out in this opulent manor. Only by navigating the halls of power will Louis find the answers he seeks, along with many more he never expected to uncover.
Originally an episodic release, The Council is split into five episodes of something like 17 chapters all told. During each chapter you’ll be following Louis’ part in the story as he hob-nobs with George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, and many other powerful figures. The course of the story is pretty well set for most of the game, which gives it the impression of a third-person RPG at times, but there are several significant decisions you can make at crucial junctures. Most of your control, though, is given within dialogues with the other characters, where you can use your skills to access special dialogue options, interrupt people, notice peculiarities, and bypass parts of puzzles. The stat system that governs these options is another RPG element, allowing you to level up 15 different skills like Conviction and Manipulation and Questioning for use in dialogues.
Using most of your options requires effort points, which are mainly restored via consumables found around the manor. There are several kinds of potions and tinctures, some of which provide free actions or reveal what skill options characters are vulnerable or immune to. Those are particularly useful during confrontations, where you have a limited number of chances to navigate tricky situations and which can have lasting effects on the story. You’ll have to do a bit of searching and skill use just to find items, as well as books you can read between chapters for additional skill points. There’s also a wealth of clues and items that can help you out in the story by granting you new dialogues or simplifying puzzles, so it’s very much worth searching areas thoroughly.
You’re also likely to stumble across additional stories while searching. At the end of each chapter, the game helpfully tells you what tasks you accomplished, which ones you failed, and what your other options were, and you may be surprised at what you can get done in each 45-minute section of gameplay. Talking to characters is the real meat of the gameplay, and each is a fully-realized and interesting individual to deal with. They have their own aims and secrets which you’ll be drawn into, and you’ll have to use everything you know about them to turn them to your causes. The dialogue is mostly sharp and engaging but there’s some definite weirdness in tone and delivery sometimes, hinting back to the studio’s indie European roots. I noticed the female members of the cast in particular have some disappointing arcs to their characters, even if they are central to the plot.
Honestly the plot is probably the main draw of The Council, because it starts out with some tasty intrigue and then just goes absolutely hog wild. For the first two episodes, you’ll be glad-handling with cardinals and royalty, squeezing what information you can from them while trying not to get caught up in their webs. There’s some genuinely good politicking and philosophizing throughout, but there is a turn towards those occult roots in the third episode that heralds the madness that takes place in the last two. For me it only made the game more engrossing, as I had to see just how much crazier things got by the conclusion. Some folks might not enjoy the twists it takes quite as much if the politics and history are the real draws, and I’ll admit to not loving the ending despite loving everything leading up to it. I should also mention there’s a decent bit of puzzling across the game, usually more than manageable but there are two big ones that are remarkably tricky and also rather high-stakes.
The graphics are sure to be a big draw on their own, given the remarkable detail afforded the characters and their environments. Each person is incredibly distinct and detailed down to the last wrinkle, and the estate is peppered with the opulent accouterments of 18th century luxury. That being said, the animations are a bit lacking and the lighting is not as impressive as the screenshots suggest, which lead to some otherwise amazing scenes looking rather stiff. Still, I don’t want to pick on The Council too much because it’s accomplished so much with its scope and budget. Not many adventures can keep me gripped for over a dozen hours, and the many twists and challenges to negotiate meant there was always more to look forward to. Between the wild story, interesting characters, and engrossing character progression, there’s plenty to keep you deep in the ancient intrigues here.
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The Council is a game that stays with you, and I am a bit envious of players out there who haven't started on this game and get to play it all in one go. While it works well as an episodic adventure, it certainly benefits from being played back-to-back as you'll have an easier time catching all the nuances, foreshadowing, and subtle hints.

I was going to wait much longer before writing a review!
But.. Wow! 😮
I got to have a conversation with George Washington! 😎 We belong to a late 1700's secret society order, which is just awesome! The game starts off in a massive manor filled with glorious art! Large paintings everywhere from the 1400's - 1600's such as the Crucifixion of Saint Peter, Saturn Devouring his Son and Casting the Damned into Hell.
I love it! 💝 Being into History, everything so far is just so cool. I felt like I walked into a museum or stepped back into time. Which undoubtedly is an even better feeling.
The story starts off slow, but its solid. The main character is looking for his missing mother who is the leader of the secret order. You walk around looking for clues and have conversations trying to fit the pieces all together. There's a level up system and you get to pick your skills you want to start with in the beginning. You use the skills frequently to help solve puzzles, riddles ECT. I find it to be more fun with the skill tree, it helps the game not be such a bore. 😴
I suggest try it out for yourself, the first episode is free! 😉
This is the perfect game for my beautiful raining ☔ evening.
Much happiness and enjoyment! Thank You!
- 😎💬 Will update this review after I've played more! -