The Council - Ep. 4: Burning Bridges

Given the sad and disheartening news about Telltale's closing, there has been a lot of talk this week about the future of episodic games and their relevance as a whole. The good news is that The Council is still chugging along with the season finale in sight. Unfortunately, the bad news is that the fourth episode, Burning Bridges, is a bit of a muddled mess that desperately hopes the big story revelations will make up for the lame puzzles and short runtime.

When we last checked in with Louis de Richet, he had just uncovered a mountain of secrets about the mysterious society led by Lord Mortimer. He also found his mother, who was very much alive and well, despite missing a hand and looking a bit bruised. Together, they cracked the code and unearthed the island's hidden crypt, perfectly setting us up for a penultimate episode full of twists and turns.

Burning Bridges picks up right where the last game left off, forcing Louis to spend most of the day investigating the mansion for clues in order to find the real Longinus lance. As you should already expect by now, things become complicated as the famous dinner guests get in the way and force Louis into their own drama. And all that is before the host of this particular party drops the biggest bombshell of the season. In fact, it's so big that it ends up overshadowing pretty much everything that came before it.

The truth is, this is an episode full of answers. I know I said that about the last episode, but it turns out that it was just an appetizer for what we get here. It's also an episode that opens up the scope of this series in some interesting ways, especially from a gameplay perspective. Louis is given a special "gift," if you will, that completely changes how he interacts with the people around him. It's the kind of thing I wish they would have incorporated much earlier in the season, though I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited to see how it's used in the final episode.

The problem is that the big revelation not only overshadows the rest of the story threads, but also the rest of the game. The puzzles in this episode are especially weak, to the point where I had almost completely forgotten one of them while writing this review. The scavenger hunt at the start turns out to be a real slog where you have to carefully search all of the same rooms you've visited countless times before in the previous three episodes. That means the paintings, books and sculptures; anything that could hint at the right answer.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

There is a more compelling puzzle later on, though it has its own set of issues. Unfortunately, the real problem is that most of this game is made up of conversations that are only here to push the story along. And while I'm certainly interested to see where the story goes, I wish that it wasn't at the expense of everything else. This installment is surprisingly short and light on content, even when compared to the other episodes. I don't know if it was side-stories or optional puzzles, but I couldn't shake the feeling that this episode was missing something.

The one thing I like about this episode is that it finally gives us a new location to explore. The problem is that the cool looking crypt is only a tiny part of this game. The rest is spent exploring all the same rooms and talking to all the same people. The repetition of this one single location is starting to set in, and it's to the point now where I'm beginning to resent having to search for the same types of things in the same rooms in every episode. I'm excited when I see something new dangled out in front of me, but understandably disappointed when it's nothing more than a tease.

But even if this episode didn't quite deliver in the way I was hoping, it still offers us a compelling new ability that could really shake things up in the final episode. It also leaves me more positive about the season as a whole. I just wish it didn't have to come at the expense of the puzzles and side-quests.