The Council - Episode 5: Checkmate Reviews

The Council - Episode 5: Checkmate is ranked in the 14th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Cubed3
Top Critic
6 / 10
Sep 26, 2019

Big Bad Wolf does their best to pull out a satisfying ending that is totally dependent on Louis' decisions leading up to this point. Some endings are good, and some endings are poorly constructed, and whichever Louis gets can make or break the story that Big Bad Wolf is trying to tell.

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3 / 10.0
Jul 20, 2019

That's it. The Council is over. I am now writing the last words about this godforsaken series ever. I think there are two parts of my life: pre- and post-Council. I am not the same man I was when I started playing these games. It's time for me to move on. Sayonara, The Council.

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72 / 100
Jan 11, 2019

The Council – Episode 5: Checkmate serves as an excellent last episode for the Louis de Richett's story. Although the narrative of this episode is interesting, the technical problems linger throughout the whole story and here it would not be any different. The Council is that game which deserves to be played more than once due to its different endings based on your choices through the episodes.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

RPG Fan
Top Critic
70%
Jan 1, 2019

While The Council's meager finale is indicative of its inability to meet the lofty expectations it set for itself early on, there's still a lot to like for fans of the genre. Your acceptance and enjoyment of the story's twists and shoddy lore will determine just how much you like it, though.

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3 / 5.0
Jan 1, 2019

When The Council debuted with The Mad Ones in March 2018, there was limitless potential behind the episodic title.

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5 / 10.0
Dec 31, 2018

The Council's final episode fails to deliver a satisfying ending, nor a strong episode to a season that desperately needed it.

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XGN.nl
Top Critic
6 / 10.0
Dec 25, 2018

The final episode of The Council differs from the other episodes in tone and length and is kind of a let down. It is too short and there are too many abrupt changes in Checkmate to conclude it in a satisfying way.

Review in Dutch | Read full review

GameMAG
Top Critic
8 / 10
Dec 22, 2018

The Council - Episode 5: Checkmate is the perfect ending to a nice story with an interesting characters, unexpected development of events and a sharp ending. Of course, this is not the best adventure of the year, but definitely one of the most exciting on the market.

Review in Russian | Read full review

8 / 10.0
Dec 19, 2018

The fifth episode of The Council as the last episode of this series delivered an acceptable ending for this game. in this game all the choices made by the player matters and make an important role in formation of story and game's different endings. The Council is a great example for the games in its genre that give the players the right to choose and it's the player who determines the way story unfolds with they choices that are given to him.

Review in Persian | Read full review

Wccftech
Top Critic
6 / 10.0
Dec 14, 2018

The Council began strong, but for whatever reason as become weaker with more or less each entry. This finale feels like the death rattle of an interesting, albeit failed experiment.

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4 / 10
Dec 13, 2018

A rushed, muddled, bug-ridden mess of a point-and-click. The Council dropped off a cliff in its penultimate episode and ends with a limp, unsatisfying thud in its finale.

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Dec 13, 2018

In some ways that's definitely still true, and with any luck we will see this series inspire other studios to go deeper. Sadly, those developers will also come away with a clear example of how not to close out a storyline.

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Unscored
Dec 11, 2018

As an entire series, The Council is worth playing, but the conclusion could have had so much more to explore.

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GameSpew
Top Critic
6 / 10.0
Dec 6, 2018

The Council had a great deal of potential, but ultimately, the final package ended up being rather disappointing.

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85 / 100
Dec 6, 2018

The Council Episode 5: Checkmate ends the series on a high note, manifesting all decisions you've made since the beginning for one last run. Right until the end, the consequences of your choices can lead to one of the multiple endings. The constant load times, stoic animations, and game breaking issues can disrupt the experience but The Council Episode 5: Checkmate has provided a solid ending to this journey.

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8.7 / 10.0
Dec 6, 2018

The Council: Episode 5:- Checkmate has returned back to the outstanding quality of the first episode. I feel the game was nicely brought to an end via the various pathways you can go down, each resulting in a similar yet different final conclusion. All of your actions up until this point will be brought to your attention and you’ll be made aware that the game has been watching what you’ve been doing, but the situation won’t change as much as you may hope it would. Regardless, I feel a lot of info and exposition was placed within this episode, as the last episode rushed in some new mechanics to prepare you, and overall it felt like a satisfying end to a nine-month journey.

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7 / 10
Dec 4, 2018

Although not lacking in some weaknesses, principally due to sluggish editing and acting, Checkmate is a decent conclusion to the journey of Louis de Richet on the ominous island of Lord Mortimer. More fast-paced than the previous episodes, these last chapters are also more fascinating since the demonic realm is involved.

Review in French | Read full review

6.5 / 10.0
Dec 4, 2018

When looking at the episode alone, The Council: Episode 5 - Checkmate is fairly weak. Its brevity feels rather unfulfilling, and that feeling is only reinforced by some of the abruptness of the decisions made here. When looking at this episode as the conclusion of the season, the abrupt changes aren't enough to cancel out the intriguing story that has developed over the course of the season. Despite the low score given to this episode, the game as a whole lives up to the promise of being different and interesting, and there is hope for the development team's next effort (whatever it may be).

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3.5 / 10.0
Dec 4, 2018

The Council Episode 5: Checkmate was a terrible way to end this series and it makes all your choices essentially useless.

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Ofisil
Top Critic
5 / 10
Dec 2, 2018

In many ways, it's not Checkmate's fault that it's not that enjoyable. The blame certainly goes to the previous chapters of The Council, which failed in being engrossing enough for anyone to care for what happens next. That being said, this doesn't get a free pass, as it doesn't fix any of its problems.

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