Steam Review of The Council (2018)
I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with The Council. Having played many choices matter games, I truly enjoyed seeing a game that innovated on the formula. The Council allows you to pick 1 of 3 classes to customize the experience and what skills you may initially be more proficient in. I enjoyed that you could still put points into skills under the other classes. It simply takes longer to reach max level within those skills. It provides another layer of complexity and changes the way you may approach puzzles as well as conversations. The use of vulnerabilities and immunities within conversations was another pleasant surprise. Each character you encounter has both strengths and weaknesses that can be discovered through exploration and interactions with that character. By exploiting weaknesses you can gain effort points (which are used to unlock dialog options, the more proficient you are in a logic skill for example, the less expensive it is to use that option). Instead of just "good choice or bad choice" I felt the game took time to justify why these characters had these strengths and immunities so you could make more informed choices that would affect how the game plays out, especially near the end. I would heavily recommend that you take time to thoroughly explore all areas, even if the objective does not necessarily ask you to go there. There are many encounters and locations that are open to you which you may not realize if you do not deviate from the path, when the game lets you that is. Overall, it is quite linear but depending on how thoroughly you complete puzzles and explore, you may find that things play out quite differently as you may be missing information, or have found another way to complete an objective that someone who made another choice might have missed. After completing each section the game informs you as to your successes, failures, and alternative paths which may help inform your next playthrough which is another helpful addition! The Council's only downfall is perhaps at the technical level. Character designs can look a tad wonky and some textures glitchy or unpolished. For a game that focuses so much on conversations and interaction with these characters I found it distracting that the subtitles were sometimes completely different from what the character had said, or contained glaring grammatical and spelling errors that broke immersion. Overall, a great experience for those that enjoy choices matter games and may be looking for a game that shakes up the formula. I truly hope this is a taste of what is to come for the genre!