The Council - Episode 2: Hide and Seek
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Top Critic
I really don't have much else to say. Episode 2 of The Council somehow manages to be worse than the first, despite adding some great puzzle design onto the already impressive narrative gameplay. I suppose if you've plunked down the price for the whole season you may as well play through it, and in that case, I'll see you when the third episode releases and I have to build up the courage to enter into this world that is becoming increasingly less interesting.
Top Critic
The Council's second episode doesn't manage to hit the highs of the first, which could be down to it being smaller in scale in comparison. Hide & Seek's murder mystery does bring you in and advances the overall plot in a big way, but at the same time it feels like more could have been made of it.
Top Critic
The Council: Episode 2 - Hide and Seek shifts the focus from balanced gameplay of the first part to investigations and puzzles, and pushing political intrigues and communication with famous historical figures to the third place. Variability in the beginning of Hide and Seek impressed us, but ending was weaker than expected.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Top Critic
"Hide and Seek" confirms The Council is more than a one-hit wonder.
Top Critic
The Council Episode Two brings a lot to the excellent first episode, but some of its experiments don't pay out like they should have. The story is on point, but the puzzles needed a little more work.
Top Critic
Despite a small handful of flaws, The Council Episode Two: Hide and Seek places an exclamation point on one of the cleverest narrative adventure games on the market.
Top Critic
The Council Episode 2: Hide and Seek does a terrific job of building more intrigue for its fascinating story.
Top Critic
Despite its intriguing plot and characters, Hide and Seek sadly suffers from a lack of pace. The repetitive dialogues fail to arouse the interest of the player, who'd also be annoyed by the recurrent loading times.
Review in French | Read full review
Top Critic
The Council – Episode 2: Hide and Seek does bring more interesting characters and puzzles into the mix, and I am definitely curious to see where The Council's plot as a whole goes from here. Sadly, Hide and Seek is ultimately a poor follow up to The Mad Ones, resulting in a short, technically flawed, and an overall disappointing episode that has killed some the anticipation I had for future episodes of The Council.
Top Critic
The overarching story of The Council remains as eerily enjoyable as before, but the tedious puzzles that drive Hide & Seek ignore what made the first chapter such a delight to play through.
Top Critic
After the strong start with The Mad Ones, I can't help but feel disappointed with Hide and Seek.
Top Critic
Top Critic
A disappointing and buggy second chapter which sidelines much of what made the first episode enjoyable.
Top Critic
The Council - Episode 2: Hide and Seek pushes the narrative forward but focuses on Louis exploring the island and solving large-scale environmental puzzles. With that said, the same performance issues and slowdown that plagued the first episode returns. The voice acting tends to be all over the place, even shifting quality during a single conversation. The branching paths provide a different experience, but overall the episode is quite short and once again ends on a cliffhanger.
Top Critic
The best parts of The Council, namely the skill and Social Influence systems, are still strong. The slower pace and mediocre puzzles of Episode Two degrade the experience a bit, though.
Top Critic
With three more episodes to come, it wasn't a surprise to discover that The Council: Episode 2 - Hide and Seek was more transitionary by design. It has its fair share of minor revelations to make, but, continuing to be hampered by the same technical issues, it's important the next episode needs to up the ante and correct some missteps before my interest in the whole spectacle falls apart.
Top Critic
Hide and Seek, second of five episodes of The Council, tells a better story and creates more suspance. Some game moments are frustrating and many technical issues are still there: in two months, the frame rate is worse and the game remained the same.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Top Critic
The Council's second episode, Hide and Seek, seems to do everything wrong. The puzzles are obtuse and don't make use of the game's RPG elements, the plot's forward momentum is totally killed, and it's way too short.
Top Critic
Hide and Seek is a frustrating experience through and through, mainly for the potential that is wasted due to technical issues and other minor problems.
Top Critic
I lapped up all the skulking, whispering skullduggery and a few of the plot twists caught me by surprise. I can't wait for more.
