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The Council - episodic narrative adventure with RPG elements set in the late 18th century

Wirdschowerdn

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Still patiently waiting for the release of Episode 5 myself before embarking on a

l0tePb.gif
 

hexer

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Just finished chapter 4 last night.
Good game although it took a totally unexpected twist and only god knows where this will end.
We shall find out soon
 

InD_ImaginE

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Pathfinder: Wrath
I played up to Chapter 3, and I would say that I am kinda disappointed with the C&C.

The game do branchs in some occasion, the problem is the consequences of choosing one branch over another is not readily apparent. This feels like just a better done Teltale formula. The path kinda converge into one big event after the branching, with the only apparent change, for now, is how people reacts around you.

I certainly hope Chapter 4 and 5 will payoff in term of my choice.

Presentation wise, studio needs to work on the eyes. Everybody has still eyes no matter what, kinda breaks presentation.

A lot of the skill checks could also be passed by managing your inventory correctly. While I complained a lot that AoD CYOA is too punishing in skill checks, the council on the other is not rewarding enough. The game would probably much much harder if consumables are more rare.

A lot of non crucial skill checks are resources sinks, this is the way the game forces you to manage resources. Smartly choosing what skill checks are necessary is big part of the game. What this game actually do better than AoD CYOA is that passing skill checks don't always mean the best result.

As I mentioned on my first impression, dialogue feels janky, transition between topic is not smooth. I do agree with Zombra that cameraworks are great. Voiceover, as I said, is hit or miss, but it comes that this is a budget title so it is acceptable.

What few puzzles are in the game are entertaining enough altho the puzzles are Christian themed. If you are not familiar with basic of the bible some sections could be hard to figure out. In praise of the game, bruteforcing the puzzles resulted in triggering next section of the game thus I missed important clue and actually failed in solving the puzzle.
 

Zombra

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Yes, I really love the sense of "failing forward" this game has. I've certainly blundered once or twice and the game is like, OK, next thing ... oh and you'll be seeing that mistake on your chapter summary too.

It also really cranks up the "missing scenes". In Ep 1 alone I passed up chances to hang out with George Washington and sleep with a sarcastic duchess who really wears that corset tight, both things I wanted to do. Even if I get every skill (which I don't plan to do first time) it's clear there will be a lot of replay.
 
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Zombra

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Yeah ... wow ... that whole section about "read and comprehend the entire first edition of the Gutenberg Bible" ... did not go well. I think I just lost the game blowing all my potions trying to make that make sense. :oops:
 

InD_ImaginE

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Yeah ... wow ... that whole section about "read and comprehend the entire first edition of the Gutenberg Bible" ... did not go well. I think I just lost the game blowing all my potions trying to make that make sense. :oops:

Just wait until the fuck you that is Chapter 3 end puzzle :lol:
 

taxalot

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Yeah ... wow ... that whole section about "read and comprehend the entire first edition of the Gutenberg Bible" ... did not go well. I think I just lost the game blowing all my potions trying to make that make sense. :oops:

Just wait until the fuck you that is Chapter 3 end puzzle :lol:

I admit I couldn't bother and walkthrough-ed my way through this one.

Episodic adventure gaming, at least to me, is "chilling on the couch with a beer and a gamepad" time as far as I'm concerned. When I want some hardcore puzzling, I play a game with... hardcore puzzles. Those things coming in without warning in The Council tend to slow down the pace.
 

Zombra

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Personally, I greatly enjoy the effort to make this a game for smart people. I felt sufficiently warned the first time I screwed up a Confrontation: no punches pulled here. The bible puzzle was annoying but I felt great getting through it at all. Of course I haven't finished Ep3 yet so I may change my tune later :oops:

BBW if you're reading this please don't make the next game something I can play on cruise control with one hand. You're better than Telltale.
 

Belegarsson

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Since ep 5 is near I decided to play ep 4 and can confirm
l0tePb.gif

but tbh I'm more annoyed with the amount of exposition than the plot twist, feel like Mortimer has just as much dialogue as Louis in this episode.
 

hexer

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Just received a 700+ MB update on Steam.
Not sure what it is, no news on it.
Maybe they're preloading EP5?
 

taxalot

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I was talking about the final episode ; I still need to finish Lamplight City before I play it. I am curious to know if the story has a FUBAR conclusion.
 

V_K

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Played through the first episode. I can certainly see what Barbarian is talking about - given that checks never require you to have a higher skill level than 1 and how plentiful consumables are, there's very little incentive to have a focused build. And with all the traits and manuscripts you get, it's all but impossible not to spread out. I've been trying to focus on my class skills, raising 4 of them to level 2, and yet at the start of episode 2 I only have 3 non-class skills left to unlock. And then it makes no sense to raise anything to level 3, because skill point costs are high, and effort-restoring jellies are pletiful.
It's a shame because I really like the base formula. It's only the second game that succeeds in mixing Adventure and RPG mechanics in an interesting way and is not Quest for Glory (Legacy: Realm of Terror being the first one). They only needed to tweak it a little bit to make it matter: make non-class skills a little more costly, and level 3 of class skills a little less costly (but also less effective) and remove half the jellies.
 

Zombra

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With all the traits and manuscripts you get, it's all but impossible not to spread out.
I deliberately tried to have a focused build (and it is cool to get certain skill checks for free). I still ended up with the Jack-of-all-Trades Trait (level 1 in every skill) by about the end of episode 2, just from reading manuscripts and scoring achievement-style skill point bonuses.
 

taxalot

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Just did it. My thoughts exactly.

They spent two months working on this ? The hell ? (especially how good Ep 2 & 3 were). You can tell something was off from Ep 4. There's clearly been production problems ; the entire final sequence in Holm's mind felt like a cheap cop-out. "Let's throw 3 quick puzzles reusing assets, code them fast, and be done with the game).

I got the bad ending. I think. I'm not sure I'll replay this anytime soon but I might in a couple of years.

My final recommendation ? Don't' avoid the game. Don't rush to it. Get the entire season for cheap ; I'd say for 10 euros max. While the first three episodes are great, the two final ones are .. um, not as good.

I still hope Big Bad Wolf gets to make more games in that universe. It looks interesting, and I will be looking forward to "sequels" should they come around (the quick and rushed way they finished the game doesn't make me too optimistic)
 

Zombra

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Development begins ?? 2017
Work on Episode 1 & 2 begins
Episode 1 finalized, releases 13 March 2018 and it is good
Work on Episode 3 begins
Cyanide bought out by Bigben Interactive 14 May 2018
Episode 2 finalized, releases 15 May 2018 and it is good
Work on Episode 4 begins, the first episode begun after the buyout
Episode 3 (the last episode designed before the buyout) releases 24 July 2018 and it is good
Work on Episode 5 begins
Episode 4 and 5 are released later and they are disappointing

God damn it, this is exactly what I was afraid of.
aliens.png
 

hexer

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Exactly, I really like the universe and hope for more games.
But starting from Ep 4 it feels like they decided to throw the entire Ep 1 - 3 plot out of the window and wrap it up ASAP.
Shame!
 

V_K

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I've yet to reach ep. 4, but I've spoiled myself the twist and playing through early episodes it does kinda look like they were planning for it from the beginning.
 

hexer

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I've yet to reach ep. 4, but I've spoiled myself the twist and playing through early episodes it does kinda look like they were planning for it from the beginning.

Yeah, I expected occultism but certainly not of that order of magnitude :)
 

taxalot

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Adding new gameplay mechanics so late into the game make absolutely no sense either. I'm buying Zombra's theory.
 

InD_ImaginE

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Pathfinder: Wrath
Eh honestly I doubt that the addition of that new mechanic is unplanned or the story is heavily changed by the developer being bought.

I do believe that the game isn't selling so well prior the final episode (the Telltale dilemma: I only buy after all episode is out) so they might need to cut corner for Episode 4 onwards because sale is not good.

I've yet to plat Episode 5, but regardless, the light RPG-Adventure-CYOA mix is nice. I just hope for more significant C&C besides final 2 - 3 choices (which the game kinda shaping out to be until episode 4), and for the game to be a tad harder. The "demon secretly influence history" and all the secret society thing is very interesting just like The Secret World. I wouldn't mid new game in the universe.
 

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