The Council Episode 2: Hide and Seek Review

<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p><strong>WARNING&colon; Episode 1 spoilers inbound&period; Do not read without finishing episode 1&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Council&colon; Hide and Seek<&sol;em> marks a shift in priorities&period; Whereas <em>The Mad Ones<&sol;em> centered mostly around conversations&comma; <em>Hide and Seek<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s 2-3 hour playtime primarily consists of puzzle solving&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s more cerebral and mechanically involving&comma; but far less replayable and enjoyable due to its rigid nature&period; Once you&&num;8217&semi;ve encountered every puzzle&&num;8217&semi;s solution&comma; subsequent playthroughs feel more like appetizers for episode 3 than substantial experiences&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;138416" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-138416" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-138416" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;16183318&sol;2e74c26d-256d-4ab9-ab9b-4d9173b745921-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-138416" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Council&comma; Focus Home Interactive<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h3>Do you like puzzles&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>With three major puzzles&comma; <em>The Council&colon; Hide and Seek<&sol;em> certainly shows how high strung the development studio&&num;8217&semi;s creativity can be&period; Each puzzle&comma; rooted in religion&comma; mythology&comma; or historical European politics&comma; is technically well-crafted&period; The level of information thrust at the player further reinforces Big Bad Wolf&&num;8217&semi;s attention to detail&period; Players with little knowledge of the presented material will struggle more than those that know their stuff&period; They&&num;8217&semi;ll have a leg-up in character progression&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Two of the three major puzzles imbue positive or negative character traits depending on how few attempts are made before reaching the solution&period; Puzzles require a higher level of scrutiny than anything <em>The Mad Ones<&sol;em> offered&period; Unfortunately&comma; because puzzles are this episode&&num;8217&semi;s bread and butter&comma; additional playthroughs are inherently less exciting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Conversations&comma; one of the first episode&&num;8217&semi;s most compelling elements&comma; take a backseat to these borderline obtuse puzzles&period; Due to <em>Hide and Seek<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s sleuthing nature&comma; the different class&&num;8217&semi; abilities take on a passive role&period; Rarely do Louis&&num;8217&semi; skills open up narrative-branching opportunities&period; Rather&comma; they exist to provide additional information about miscellaneous items strewn about the environments&period; With the Linguistics skill&comma; Louis can examine strange writings on a piece of Obsidian&period; With the Occultism skill&comma; Louis can perform a Tarot card reading&period; They&&num;8217&semi;re neat world-building nuggets of information&comma; but pale next to the last episode&&num;8217&semi;s use-cases&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Did Episode 1 Matter&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>My first save file saw Louis finally greeted by Lord Mortimer after sleeping with Emily the night before&period; The second save file ended with Louis drugged up by Elizabeth in her room&period; Does <em>Hide and Seek<&sol;em> meaningfully follow through on both endings&quest; Without delving too deeply into spoiler territory&comma; this episode&&num;8217&semi;s opening is radically altered depending on <em>The Mad Ones<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi; ending&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first save file involved lord Mortimer entrusting Louis with a detective&&num;8217&semi;s role after one of his guests has been found dead&period; The following segment grants players access to every guest&&num;8217&semi;s room&period; Louis can rummage through their spaces for clues and question every suspect before arriving at a conclusion for Mortimer&period; The investigation outshines everything past that&comma; as it contains the core essence of what makes <em>The Council<&sol;em> a charming and compelling adventure story&period; Its mix of environmental storytelling and conversations struck the same balance that made <em>The Mad Ones<&sol;em> such a glorious dumpster fire&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>My Second Save File<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>My second save file removed the investigation entirely&period; Louis found himself as one of the prime suspects of that same character&&num;8217&semi;s disappearance&period; After succeeding in the confrontation and clearing my name&comma; the rest of the core experience except the ending remained largely the same&period; As expected after <em>The Mad Ones<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi; conclusion&comma; <em>Hide and Seek<&sol;em> also ends on two different notes for both of my playthroughs&comma; indicating <em>The Council<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s commitment to a personal narrative&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s a shame&comma; then&comma; that the heavily reliant puzzle-solving nature offers few opportunities for the story to continue to diverge&period; Contextually&comma; following Sarah&&num;8217&semi;s paper-trail makes perfect sense&period; Episode 2 is the slow rising action&comma; leading up to what feels like it may end up being a chunky and climactic third episode&period; Episode 3&&num;8217&semi;s actual direction remains to be seen&comma; but <em>Hide and Seek<&sol;em> is an inoffensive stepping stone toward a larger narrative revelation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;138418" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-138418" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-138418" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;16184344&sol;a9b0c6db-4a6c-460a-b400-6ab1eb5734221-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-138418" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Council&comma; Focus Home Interactive<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h3>Remember The Council&&num;8217&semi;s Tech&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em>The Council<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s well-documented technical issues hit a new low this time around&period; At one point during my playthrough&comma; I walked through a locked door and ran around a void of endless white&period; After passing through that door&comma; the game&&num;8217&semi;s clipping stopped functioning properly&period; I could walk through every single wall and solid object on the second floor&period; Not a single thing stopped Louis until I interacted with a staircase to the first floor&period; After the loading screen&comma; solid objects actually halted Louis&&num;8217&semi; movement&period; Imagine that&period; The framerate is still a mess with no updates doing anything for the game&&num;8217&semi;s performance&period; It still feels like a Windows &&num;8217&semi;95 slideshow&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Conclusion<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em>The Council&colon; Hide and Seek<&sol;em> is a middle of the road follow up to an ambitious first act&period; It still has heart&comma; but falters after episode 1&&num;8217&semi;s intriguing start&period; The opening differs greatly depending on the last episode&&num;8217&semi;s ending&period; An hour-long chunk missing entirely based on player actions is noteworthy&comma; though few opportunities exist to engage with characters and directly impact more significant plot threads within this episode&period; <em>Hide and Seek<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s central puzzle solving focus is its greatest weakness&period; It prevents future playthroughs from feeling as exciting as the first episode&period; With that said&comma; the two endings I arrived at were different enough to leave me hopeful for Episode 3&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;