The Council has surprised me in more ways than one. Your choices do matter most of the time, there are clearly different endings. Even though the story is comprehensible based on what I’ve picked, there is also enough to learn more about if I went with different choices. The story was engaging to follow based on the voice actors, writing and wanting to find out would happen next. However, I’m not sure I’m happy with the direction of the story the further I got and the twists that followed. Although the game is clearly mostly focused on the story/dialogues, there is still more gameplay than expected for this type of game. There are skills points, traits, items, some exploration and puzzles. Most of them are fun and they enhance the game. I enjoyed exploring the mansion and getting more access to areas with every episode.

The game’s strongest point is the choices you make and how you can manipulate others depending on your needs. I gotta say, the game made me feel dirty with how I was trying to convince others and willing to do anything to achieve an objective. The graphics might not be the best I’ve seen, but they’re still very pleasing on the eyes. The voice actors did a great job, they made the story. The achievements were very doable. There are 2-3 you have to keep in mind on your first run, you can play the game blindly aside from those and get the rest through chapter select after completing the game.

I disliked some of the puzzles though. A lot of them require too much effort or you need the right skill or enough points to solve them more easily. Honestly, it felt like some were just in the way, I just wanted to continue with the story. I didn’t hesitate to use online guides. I normally love puzzle games, not sure why these did not feel rewarding. Other than that, no complaints with the rest of the game. I enjoyed playing the Council and figuring the mystery. It took me around 16 hours to get all the achievements (rest was afk). It’s definitely worth playing for fans who enjoy these type of story games. The game is on sale often but even the normal price of €15 for all the 5 episodes is fair.

A very good game in the adventure genre and with choices that impact the game. The themes of morality and means to an end were thought-provoking. If your pc can support the game, it's a worthwhile experience, and draws you in the story, I used geforce to run in through a server and that way it ran smoothly!