Thankfully The Council: Episode 1: The Mad Ones isn't about your neighbours having a shit fit in the streets after the bin men 'forgot' to empty their bins again, rather it's a story driven adventure game set in the 1790's, in which you take the role of Louis de Richet, the son and heir apparent of Sarah de Richet, head of the Golden Order secret society, who has seemingly disappeared on the private island of Lord William Alexander Mortimer. Fortunately you find yourself in possesion of an invitaion to one of his lavish parties, which is an excellent oppurtunity to investigate and grill the guests, which include famous faces from history such as Napoleon and George Washington.
On first glance The Council: Episode 1: The Mad Ones could be wiritten off as just as just another dialogue based Telltale type game (developers of the Walking Dead series, amongst others), but the French team of Big Bad Wolf have sought to do something more involved, interesting and altogether adult.
As the game begins you'll be asked to pick your class, a diplomat use etiquette, lingusitics and diplomacy (duh) to investigate. An occultist is the master of fibs but also a base understanding of science and the arts, whereas the detective can see through folks ruses and has a better eye for things you may miss when exploring.
Though the exploring is well handled, and there are some puzzles there to be had, the real meat is in the conversations. These are almost like boss battles, people can have vulnerabilities to flattery, yet others may be totally immune to it, causing you to lose double effort points, which are currency you strategically use to press home your line of questioning. Run out and you may not be able to come out on top of the conversation.
The atmosphere throughout The Council: Episode 1: The Mad Ones is excellent, with the stylised graphics and lighting working together to convey an oppulent but sinister mood, which suits the game perfectly. The only real niggle I have is that some of the voice acting can feel a little miscast and rather clunky at times, however there are some real star turns that elevate it as a whole, so it's not the game breaker it could have been.
Overall The Council: Episode 1: The Mad Ones is a really interesting and worthy experiment, it sucked me in with it's narrative and held my attention to the end, now I'm eagerly awaiting the next chapter, so if you can hurry up a bit Big Bad Wolf, that would be great.
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