Set in the 18th century, Big Bad Wolf has brought us a unique adventure RPG. This is not a game relaying on spells and attacks, but rather what type of tactics and what type of knowledge skills you will use. The Council offers more in game options that other developers in this genre have never used.
As the main character Louis de Richet, players get to participate in a conspiracy lore setting with numerous different characters. Upon searching for his mother that has gone missing, Louis find more than he intended. He finds a secret society where every member is a well known person from around the world. In this game, George Washington and Napoleon sit at the same table. Louis must use his detective skills and other resources to determine where his mother went and who she really was.
Unlike other games of this nature, The Council has added features such as a skill tree and a leveling system. Add on to this the ability to use detective skill like Sherlock Holmes and you’ve got a game that no one has seen before. Louis de Richet must use his knowledge on puzzles and use his detective skills to determine where his mother may be. Some of the abilities include manipulation, persuasion and deception. Each ability has its own sub-screen for easy access when pondering what the next choice should be.
The Council offers a decent graphical background and a semi-open world environment. While the game guides players to their next objective for most of the time, the story pulls players in enough to ignore these little things. Some minor bugs have been reported so far but this is only the first episode in a series of five so there is hope for fixes as the rest of the game becomes available. One of the poorer pieces to this exciting game is the voice acting done for our English character. Hopefully we can get a fix to this later.
During confrontations and conversations with the different characters there are a lot of decisions that will need made. Some decisions will happen quickly and force the player to pick what their next task will be. Each of these decisions however will affect the rest of the game all the way to the final chapter. It’s easy to start the game over if necessary but the developers warned players that there is no save feature. Whatever choice you make, you’re stuck with it until the very end of the game. Every choice determines how the ending will play out and this can be terrifying.
For anyone that loves history, lore and a good mystery, The Council should be hard to stop playing. The type of game means that players will replay it multiple times. Averaging about 3 hours, The Council has received positive reviews on their first episode. Although the cost is set at $29.99 and some people think this is a bit steep, the developers are setting this price for people and including all of the episodes as they are released so it evens out.
The Council is available now on PC, PS4 and Xbox
