The Council Review Summary

Engaging and intricate plot: The game features an interesting and well-written storyline with many plot twists, historical figures, and a rich, coherent narrative that keeps players engaged.

Meaningful choices and consequences: Players have a wide range of choices that significantly impact the story, relationships, alliances, and outcomes, adding depth and replayability to the game.

Unique and immersive historical setting: The game is set in a fascinating and detailed historical backdrop with unique characters and a strong historical and philosophical context.

Challenging and creative puzzles: Puzzles in the game are well-designed, starting simple and becoming more challenging, requiring thinking, analysis, and sometimes historical knowledge.

Immersive atmosphere: The game offers a great atmosphere with immersive environments, atmospheric architecture, and a compelling setting that draws players in.

Confusing and illogical story: The story becomes confusing, illogical, and convoluted as it progresses. Characters behave inconsistently, and the plot can be difficult to follow, leading to a less enjoyable experience.

Difficult and confusing puzzles: Many players find the puzzles in the game to be overly difficult, non-intuitive, and sometimes frustrating. These puzzles often require specific cultural knowledge or guides to solve, making them tedious and time-consuming.

Underwhelming and rushed ending: The game's ending is frequently criticized for being disappointing, rushed, and unsatisfying. Players feel that it leaves many questions unanswered and does not provide a satisfying conclusion to the story.

Outdated and poor animations: The animations in the game are often described as stiff, dated, and lacking in quality. This can detract from the overall visual experience and immersion.

Poor technical performance: The game suffers from various technical issues, including poor optimization, low-quality textures, and bad performance. These issues can affect the overall gameplay experience.

Story-driven and choice-based gameplay: The game emphasizes a narrative-driven experience with interactive storytelling and decision-making gameplay. Players engage in a suspenseful and atmospheric environment with multiple narrative paths and consequences.

Impactful choices and consequences: Player choices significantly impact the story, with decisions having lasting consequences and affecting interactions and outcomes. The game features many alternate choices and branching storylines.

Episodic narrative adventure with RPG elements: The game combines episodic storytelling with deep RPG mechanics, including investigation, decision-making, and point-and-click puzzles. It offers a mix of adventure, RPG, and narrative-driven gameplay.

Skill system affecting dialogues and interactions: A unique skill system influences dialogue choices and interactions, allowing players to open new dialogue paths and affect investigations. This system adds depth to character interactions and plot development.

Historical and narrative-driven gameplay: The game is set in a historical context with political intrigue and occult mystery, featuring narrative-driven gameplay with investigation mechanics. Players interact with historical figures and engage in intricate plots.

FPS and performance issues: Many players report low FPS, performance issues, and lack of optimization. The game struggles to hold a stable frame rate, with frequent drops and inconsistencies.

Technical issues and bugs: There are numerous reports of technical issues, bugs, and glitches. These include clipping issues, minor glitches, and general bugginess.

Poor graphics quality: Players have noted low-quality textures, poor anti-aliasing, and overall poor graphics. There are also issues with rendering and visual bugs.

Animation problems: The game suffers from outdated and poor facial animations. Many players have pointed out issues with animations being lacking or of low quality.

Interface and resolution issues: There are reports of interface problems, resolution issues, and fullscreen scale problems.

Ideal for story-driven RPG fans: This game is highly recommended for fans of interactive stories, detective games, and RPGs with a focus on dialogue and deep lore. It features complex plots, moral choices, and the ability to influence events, making it perfect for those who enjoy narrative depth and decision-making.

Not for action or open-world seekers: This game is not suitable for those seeking dynamic action or open-world gameplay. It focuses more on narrative and puzzles rather than fast-paced action or exploration.

Great for detective and history enthusiasts: The game is recommended for fans of detective stories, political intrigue, and historical settings. It includes elements of history, politics, and mysteries, making it ideal for those who enjoy tense detective stories and historical tales with a touch of mystery and occultism.

Worth trying despite flaws: The game is recommended despite its shortcomings and flaws. Many players find it worth trying, especially for its unique gameplay and story.

Highly recommended by some: Some reviews highly recommend the game to everyone without hesitation, calling it a hidden gem and even suggesting it as a Game of the Year candidate.

Community fair range: $1.50 - $25.00.

Game completion: 17.0h.

Story completion: 15.0h.

The game starts with some fun moments but quickly becomes tedious and suffers from pacing issues, leading to a drop in enjoyment over time.

Friction: Pacing issues; Tedious puzzles; Poor voice acting; Repetitive gameplay.

Narrative Enthusiast: Focuses on story progression and social interactions. Motivation: Engaging narrative and social gameplay. Stance: buy.

Completionist: Replays the game multiple times to explore all choices and outcomes. Motivation: Achieving 100% completion and all achievements. Stance: sale.

Mechanics Comparator: Focuses on character customization and gameplay mechanics. Motivation: Exploring and comparing game mechanics. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback reveals several critical issues affecting the Steam Deck experience. Performance issues, particularly related to frame rate, are a significant concern. Additionally, bugs and glitches disrupt gameplay, and localization issues affect non-English speakers. UI/UX issues, such as small text size, also impact the overall user experience.

Linux and Proton: The game exhibits performance issues, particularly with low FPS, which detracts from the user experience. There are no specific mentions of Linux or Proton compatibility issues in the provided reviews.

External guides: The analysis of user feedback reveals that a significant number of players rely on external walkthroughs and guides to navigate complex puzzles and mechanics in the game. This dependency on external data sources highlights issues with game design and puzzle difficulty, which can lead to frustration and a diminished gaming experience.

Pricing transparency needed: Players are asking for more details regarding the pricing structure of the game.

Ukrainian localization requested: There is a demand for the game to be localized in Ukrainian to cater to a broader audience.