The Council - Episode 2: Hide and Seek Reviews
The Council - Episode 2: Hide and Seek is a fantastic narrative continuation from the first episode.
Overall, I did enjoy Hide and Seek and I can’t wait to see how Episode 3 plays out, but it needs to keep its foot on the gas now. The stabilisers have to come off and the story really needs to open up. Because while Hide and Seek does some interesting and exciting new things for the genre, some of that initial momentum has definitely been lost.
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
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.
I have to hand it to Big Bad Wolf. They know what they are doing. After having finished Episode 1 of The Council, The Mad Ones, I was left with a high anticipation for the next entry and I was not disappointed. Starting off the morning right after where we left Louis and finishing on a cliffhanger, Episode 2 picks back up and showcases that this is not simply a one trick pony.
A disappointing and buggy second chapter which sidelines much of what made the first episode enjoyable.
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
Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studios have delivered it’s own brand of murder mystery investigation in The Council.
This episode still feels somewhat of a run up to get the story and mechanics going, but if you enjoyed the first episode there is reason to continue, just don’t expect things to progress too much yet.
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.
The Council ' Episode 2: Hide and Seek can stimulate the player's curiosity throughout the whole episode. It has a bit more of investigation, dialogues and objects which add even more content to the story. Despite some technical problems, it is still worth exploring the island in the next episodes.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The puzzles, while not all of them were hard, they were intriguing and fun. As a person who loves mythology, I thoroughly enjoyed the maze puzzle. There are plenty of things I would have done differently but the fun of the game is to progress even when you fail. I'm looking forward to the next episode when it releases. How did yours end? Did you enjoy any of the puzzles? Let me know that and your thoughts on this episode down below.
Episode two, Hide and Seek, has me deeply involved in its dark and foreboding world, and just like last time, I'm eagerly awaiting the next episode.
"Hide and Seek" confirms The Council is more than a one-hit wonder.
Not only will Episode 2: Hide and Seek not turn the heads of those who didn't like the first part of The Council, but it will probably disappoint the ones that did, as it takes a couple of steps backward. The journey through the realm of mystery thrillers it offers remains a somewhat engrossing one, but it surely needs to think a lot about its next step if it is to succeed.
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.
After such a strong start it’s difficult not to be a little mift with Hide and Seek, an episode that seemed to have disregarded everything that made its predecessor so enjoyable. Instead of in-depth and revealing confrontation, I was given almost meaningless exposition and mindless chatter, and before I could say “cool, a juicy murder!” it was back to overly complicated puzzles within an already tiresome story.
The Council got off the starting line strong, but has now stumbled over the first hurdle. The question now becomes whether or not the adventure of Louis de Richet can recover as the series continues.
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.
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.