The Council - Episode 1: The Mad Ones Reviews
The Council features a compelling mix of iterative mechanics and narrative-driven gameplay to create a truly unique experience. Its first episode, The Mad Ones, has its shining moments, but something feels missing from the final product.
The first episode of The Council shows some interesting ideas that could change the way future adventures will entertain fan of this particular genre. We hope that the guys at Big Bad Wolf could keep the freshness of these ideas during the whole season, and we can't wait to try the second chapter in the coming weeks.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Mad Ones raises a lot of questions and leaves us on a heck of a cliffhanger, but even without that, it sets up an exciting enough premise to leave me on tenterhooks for the next episode. I can't wait to see what else Big Bad Wolf has up its sleeve.
The Council – Episode 1: The Mad Ones sets up this story nicely, providing a solid edifice of characters, lore, and finally a multiple conclusion that have me interested in the next episode.
The first episode of The Council is very promising and offers plenty of great and innovative gameplay mechanics. There are some technical issues and story is a little slow, but overall, it's a good start.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
The Council is probably the best example of how to do a narrative, choice-based story which actually changes based on your actions and personality. The implementation of an experience system which allows for you to pick and choose which traits to obtain and upgrade offers a lot of depth and originality into a genre which has become stale with the 'interactive storybook' titles out there. The story is interesting, the events that happen will keep you questioning and the promise of finding out new things based on playing the game differently each time really adds to the replayability of this masterpiece. Don't be put off by the issue with the lipsyncing or the lacklustre accents, the narrative is great, the atmosphere is perfect and the mystery and suspense is up there with the best of games!
A strong start for the latest in a long wave of episodic narrative adventure games, The Council sets its stall out from the beginning as something unique, inventive and deserving of your attention.
The Council successfully innovates on what has frankly become a bit of a tired genre in my opinion, but more importantly, how they have innovated works well and is enjoyable and adds value.
The Council is a beautiful, diverse and complex game. although fundamentally it can be categorized as an interactive adventure game, its use of other complex mechanics and Role-playing elements make it stand out among its peers. the mysterious story that takes place during the French revolution and involves a fascinating story about a secret council manages to convey a truly joyful atmosphere.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Episode 1 of the Council AKA The Mad Ones sets out to subvert the status quo of narrative based adventures but stumbles on some of the basics.
The illusion of choice is something games often struggle with, and The Council’s first episode is no different. Rather than relying solely on its narrative and mechanics to create an “atmosphere”, it pressures the player into thinking that every decision is extremely important. Thus, creating often unnecessarily stressful situations. Let’s hope the next episodes can fix that.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Episode 1 of The Council offers just the first taste of an intriguing narrative, wonderfully tied with an original approach to the narrative-adventure genre.
The Council offers gamers a tension filled journey purely fueled by character interactions and mysterious circumstances. Best of all is the evolved gameplay mechanics from what we're used to for an episodic endeavor. I truly felt that I had control of every situation from an ability standpoint and a cleverness one. Wrap up an amazing RPG progression mechanic into a great looking voyage on a mysterious island and you have an incredible start to a game. The seeds of a secret society's leader gone missing have been expertly laid and I can't wait until Episode 2 comes about. Here's hoping this first one isn't the end of where the title shines.
The Council is the next evolution of episodic storytelling and you will struggle to look at its competitors the same way after it.
I am hugely excited about the promise of The Council and can’t wait for the next four episodes. I hope it continues to surprise and intrigue me as much as The Mad Ones has, and the hints delivered so far begin to ramp up to a great conclusion.
The first episode of The Council presents a promising world and perhaps some very dynamic experiences.