The Council - Episode 2: Hide and Seek Reviews
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.
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.
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.
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
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 Council Episode 2: Hide and Seek is a step back being a short gap episode that leaves you wishing more was shown.
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.
After the strong start with The Mad Ones, I can't help but feel disappointed with Hide and Seek.
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.
A disappointing and buggy second chapter which sidelines much of what made the first episode enjoyable.
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.
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.
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.
Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studios have delivered it’s own brand of murder mystery investigation in The Council.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.