The Council - Episode 2: Hide and Seek Reviews
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.
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.
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.
A disappointing and buggy second chapter which sidelines much of what made the first episode enjoyable.
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.
After the strong start with The Mad Ones, I can't help but feel disappointed with Hide and Seek.
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.
The Council Episode 2: Hide and Seek is a step back being a short gap episode that leaves you wishing more was shown.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.