Dark Game Review: The Council (PC)

Dark Game Review: The Council (PC)

Review by Casey Douglass

Recent years have brought gamers some fantastic episodic adventure games, but for me Big Bad Wolf’s The Council has to be the darkest I’ve encountered, both in the characters’ deeds, and in the game’s aesthetics. I’m a big fan of Dennis Wheatley, particularly his Duke de Richleau character, the intelligent occultist gentleman who always has some piece of arcane knowledge that will get the characters out of trouble. The Council felt very “de Richleauian” to me, and about half an hour into the story, I knew that I felt at home.

The player character is Louis de Richet, a young man who in 1793, is invited to the island of Lord Mortimer, a powerful and mysterious figure who seems to know pretty much everyone mighty and powerful. Louis’ mother is also on the island, but she has gone missing, with no one knowing where she is. Both she and her son are members of a secret society, a society that wields its own power across the world. As Louis, you must find out what happened to your mother, deal with the intrigues of your host and his powerful guests, and also grow as a person in your knowledge and abilities.

The Council is a third person narrative adventure game. As you walk around Lord Mortimer’s island, you can interact with the characters and various other objects in a number of ways. When speaking to a character, you will often see a variety of conversation options to choose from. Some won’t be available to you, because Louis might be lacking the ability to use them at that time. As you complete tasks in the game, and collect various manuscripts, you can boost Louis’ abilities in a number of areas, from occult knowledge, to detective abilities such as logic and agility. If you have enough Effort Points and the correct ability unlocked, you can use that particular tactic during the conversation.

There are a variety of items to collect in the game world, from the hard to see collector’s coins, to useful potions that restore Effort Points or highlight other things, such as someone’s vulnerabilities for a short time. Getting information out of your conversational partners, and their trust, is key to achieving your aims in The Council, so anything that boosts your abilities in this area is a welcome thing. Even with the variety and number of pick-ups, things are still scarce enough to mean that you will likely have some conversations the old fashioned way, that is, without extra help. If you overuse certain potions or make a blunder, your character can be hindered by a de-buff that makes certain actions more costly. But hey, wouldn’t you know it, finding and drinking some Golden Elixir will remove any negative status effects, so things are golden in more ways than one.

The conversations are where The Council truly shines. Each character has their own personality, complete with vulnerabilities and immunities to particular manners of approach. Trying to manipulate someone who is immune to manipulation isn’t going to end well. Conversations are used to probe and test, the dancing around the subject at hand just as valuable as finding out what that character knows. There are times when you will have to lie, others where brutal, risky honesty might win the day. Slapping Napoleon Bonaparte to end a risky “what are you doing?” conversation chain is just one of the ways that you can deal with the challenges Louis faces. As the description on the game’s Steam Store page says, failing an encounter isn’t game over, but it will have consequences later.

As the characters are so central to The Council, it is no surprise to see that they are presented in
lovely detail, particularly their faces. I must admit that Duchess Emily Hillsborrow was my absolute favourite because she was dark, sarcastic, and seemed to channel Eva Green, both in look and attitude. Her particular elements of the main story were some of the most interesting too, a couple of “reveals” genuinely twisting things to a new level. All of the characters were fun though, out for themselves, scheming and duplicitous. The location too, a grand mansion with room after room of obscure relics, mystical artwork and books of knowledge, was a pleasure to explore. The blue-sky view from the guest room was a particular highlight, and later, the hidden places that aren’t visible unless you know their secret entrances.

The game gives Louis a fair few environmental puzzles to solve, from decoding the cryptic clues needed to open a combination lock, to using books and artwork to deduce how to find a rare artefact. The puzzles were for the most part very enjoyable. I did get stuck on a couple of them, but given enough time I was able to get to the bottom of things. This proved very satisfying, as the game made me feel like I had actually earned my progression. A couple of puzzles near the end of the game were a bit tedious however, but still relatively fun. I must admit that the game certainly gets great mileage out of its mansion location, but traversing the corridors and various rooms never seems to take too long, which is a fine balance to achieve.

My first play-through of The Council lasted around 12 hours, and the ending I achieved was so dark that I couldn’t help but smile. Before playing, I had seen a number of people say that they loved the game until the final episode or two, when things slipped a little. For my play-through, I don’t really recognise this. The story is layered, and as you play and reveal more and more of what is going on, the things you previously thought you understood sometimes shift, or sometimes solidify. I didn’t feel the rug was pulled out from under me, nor was I confused about what was going on. The only reason I can see for the comments of the people who didn’t like the way it went is that it somehow confounded their expectations of what the game would be like. Go into The Council with occult-detective in mind and I don’t think you'll be disappointed. I wasn’t.

I really want to play The Council again, taking the other options that I either messed up or ignored the first time. This is also something that is very rare for me, as when it comes to “your decisions have consequences” narrative games, I nearly always only play once, get my own version of the story, and move on. This is mainly because I like feeling that my outcome happened, and replaying over and over to get “all the endings” just lessens the impact of that first enjoyable jaunt through the game.

The Council has planted the urge in me to learn more about its world and characters, and to try and “better” the first ending I got. There is something about its dark mansion, masked servants and conversational combat that is trying to drag me straight back in, and I know it is a call I will answer soon. That being said, I am reasonably sure that my next attempt at the game will be my last, as thinking ahead with the knowledge I already have, the amount of repetition in a third play-through would be too tedious for me to fancy. Still, two journeys through the story will likely equal around 20 hours of play time, in a game world with characters I enjoy interacting with, so I’m more than happy enough with that.

If you know that you enjoy the Telltale or Life is Strange episodic adventure variety of game, but fancy something more layered, dark and RPG-esque, I highly recommend that you pick up The Council.

Game Title: The Council

Developer: Big Bad Wolf

Publisher: Focus Home Interactive

RRP: £25.99 (on Steam)

Available on: PC, Xbox One and PS4.

PEGI Rating: 16+

Dark Film Review – Perfect Sense (2011)

Review Written By Casey Douglass

I find myself in a little bit of a quandary. I really want to talk about Perfect Sense in-depth but on the other hand, I don’t want to provide lots of spoilers for a film that really truly rewards a first viewing in ignorance. I’ve decided to reign myself in and only treat this like a normal review, rather than a deep analysis. Maybe I will write that later, seems like a shame to waste the 5 sides of A4 I covered with notes.

Perfect Sense follows the story of Susan (Eva Green) and Michael (Ewan McGregor), two unhappy people that find each other just as the world starts going to shit. Michael is a chef, Susan is an epidemiologist. He works in a restaurant near Susan’s home, she works in a lab trying to get to the bottom of a strange condition that is beginning to manifest in people. Both have baggage, both have their jobs affected as globally, things go from bad to worse. They find though, that they have each other, and dare I say it, this makes them happy, some of the time.

To say much more than that would be too spoilerific sadly. While the film is a love story, it is one with a difference, one that doesn’t gloss over everything with a Disneyesque sheen of dreams being fulfilled and two lovers eating apple pie as the rain hits their window. Perfect Sense is a film about two self-labelled arseholes finding each other and growing into each other as society slowly goes down the drain. Even the very opening moments of the film give a great illustration of the tone: a voice-over saying “There is darkness, there is light...” and then we see Susan spit over the edge of a bridge. The film doesn’t stand on ceremony that’s for sure. The viewer gets to spend time with both characters separately, but this slowly changes as they first interact via shouting through open windows and generally gravitating into each other’s lives.

The score of the film is a melodic affair, piano and violin creating a variety of moods, although most are tinged with melancholy and sadness. The other auditory aspects of the film are just as strong, sounds expanding to muffle conversation at times, or vanishing into a hissing drone at others. Again, I can’t really go too in-depth about why this makes such an impact but on seeing the film, you will hopefully appreciate it as much as I do.

Visually, the scenes are shot with a variety of camera techniques, many of the scenes given a frenetic quality by fast moving hand-cams or cameras fixed to bikes. This sense of energy certainly adds to the frenzy of the people seen on screen, whether happy, sad or rioting. The film is also not short of some very striking images, that taken as a still, would look amazing on the wall. My particular favourite is Susan locked in her car watching a rider-less police horse amble past.

What I like most about Perfect Sense though, is the relationship between Susan and Michael. It’s not neat, it’s not fairytale, but it comes across as real, and that’s the most any film can hope for. The broader situation certainly puts a strain on their interactions, both helping each other or at times, being cruel, but there is also humour in the film, which is much needed as otherwise it would have felt a little relentless. Most of the humour comes from the couple, smirking or playing games but the other light relief comes in the form of James (Ewen Bremner), another chef in Michael’s kitchen who always has plenty to say, be it conspiracy theories or inviting people to sniff his finger.

The first time I watched Perfect Sense, it felt like a sledgehammer had hit me in the chest. Few films have gripped me as tightly as the happenings in this film. In part, this is due to the nature of the disease that is affecting the world, tapping into a variety of my own phobias and fears, but also, it is because it is a love story for the disaffected, the darker-natured, more twisted viewer that thinks love is something that always happens to other people or that if it does happen, it’s more trouble than it’s worth. While the love story in Perfect Sense is far from idyllic, it made me genuinely feel that even a few weeks of what Susan and Michael had is something that would be well worth experiencing.

If you haven’t seen Perfect Sense and like darker films, do yourself a favour and watch it when the opportunity arises. In some ways, it’s scarier than most horror films. A big claim I know but one that was personally true for me at least.

As far as a rating, I give Perfect Sense an easy 5/5, no doubt about it.

You can watch the Perfect Sense trailer below:

Perfect Sense Images © Copyright Arrow Films

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The Mixed Blessings of Celebrity Crushes

Written By Casey Douglass

 

Have you got one? One celebrity that seems to light up your life? Maybe you have a handful, a menagerie that rotate around depending on who might be in a current film or TV series? Either way, I seem to have three. At times, they bring escape, solace or pleasant dreams. At other times, they can bring feelings of depression, hopelessness and loneliness. The media seems to portray crushes at only the extremes, the screaming fans passing out at concerts with tears on heir cheeks or the psycho stalker that might break into someone’s home. Most people will almost certainly sit somewhere in the middle, quietly spending the odd minute, film or TV episode lost in wistful thoughts about their crush.

Image © Copyright 20th Century Fox

My first proper celebrity crush was Gillian Anderson, watching her as Dana Scully in the X-Files. I was drawn to her amazing portrayal of strong emotions, particularly in the scenes where Scully was ill with her cancer. She has carried that same talent to other roles, her characters usually strong- willed women that seem quite stern a lot of the time but when they show emotion, it is a revelation. It can be seen in her portrayal of Stella Gibson in The Fall and as Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier in Hannibal. Typing that now has just helped me a see a thread to my next celebrity crush. Isn’t it nice when writing is therapeutic as well as satisfying!

Image © Copyright Contender Films

I first saw Eva Green in Bond film Casino Royale as Vesper Lynd and I have to admit that she didn’t particularly register with me. I think the next film I watched her in was Franklyn, the strange and twisted otherworldly drama about unhappy people and their beliefs. In that, Eva played two characters, Emilia and Sally, both showing various sides of her acting ability. Emilia was dark, troubled and creative and I think this character resonated with me in a number of ways, especially in the manic way Eva played her. I have since seen Eva Green in quite a few films and TV shows: 300: Rise of an Empire as the dangerous Artemisia, Sin City 2 as the clothes shy Ava and I am currently enjoying her talents in Penny Dreadful as the troubled Vanessa Ives. When one of Eva’s characters smiles, which seems to be rare, I can’t help smiling back. Eva has that stern-faced quality that I mentioned above, but I always feel her characters are more chaotic and troubled, like a shaken can of fizzy drink, calm on the outside but ready to explode with lots of energy. Ooh, another thread just emerged to the third and final of my celebrity crushes.

Image © Copyright Century Media Records

Cristina Scabbia is an Italian singer from heavy-metal band Lacuna Coil. With Cristina, it was her voice that first tweaked my heart. She is not one to shy from singing at a great range, the low and the high all equally strong and her voice is the stand out thing for me above the metal riffs of the band. Unlike the characters Gillian and Eva portray, Cristina seems an optimistic bundle of energy, bouncing around the stage and painting pictures with her words. Some of that no doubt comes from her being a singer rather than an actress so it is hard to compare, but I wouldn’t be able to call her stern-faced and believe it. When Lacuna Coil came to Norwich, her performance was even more amazing in person. She is also a great person to follow on social media, always tweeting and sharing on Facebook.

So there we have it, the three women I have never met that manage to enchant me and warrant the term “crush”. At times, with my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I can get very low indeed. Having these crushes can sometimes be very helpful, a way to brighten my day even though I know they are just based on 99% fantasy and maybe only 1% of knowing the real person being swooned over. I went through a stage where I had an elaborate fantasy about my writing involving Gillian Anderson, all played out with a play list created from music artists like Chase and Status, Tinie Tempa and Inner Party System on my iPod. It became my escape from my shitty illness, frustrations and other issues, even though I knew that it was probably not helping anything either.

On the other hand, these kinds of crush can just serve to make you feel even more lonely or low. I had a time where I couldn’t stand to listen to that aforementioned play list because it just made the difference between my reality and my fantasy too painful to bear. I have had times where I have bought films featuring Gillian or Eva and then taken months to watch them because I don’t want the bitter-sweet feelings they will probably cause in me. When I saw Lacuna Coil live, I was on a high while being there but was in a hell of a funk for days afterwards, struggling to listen to their Cd's for maybe a month afterwards. This is the downside, and even being aware of what is going on doesn't always immunise you to the downward swing in mood.

I hope that the above doesn't make me sound like an obsessed loser or pathetic dreamer. It’s just really me thinking over what I get out of having celebrities that I can pine over. As you can see above, it’s certainly a mixed bag when it comes to the pros and cons. The thing is, I couldn’t change it if I wanted to. I use my feelings about these people who I know next to nothing about as a guide as to how I am in myself. If I find myself withdrawing from things and thinking about them more, chances are I need to address something in myself. If I don’t think of them much at all, I am probably more engaged with the “real” things in my life. Maybe that’s the most valuable thing I get out of the situation, seeing myself in a celebrity enhanced mirror and knowing what the reflected images mean.

Thank you for reading.

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Dark Review - Penny Dreadful

Review of Penny Dreadful Episode One

By Casey Douglass

 

Image ©Showtime

Are you afraid of spiders? If so you might find the first episode of new TV series Penny Dreadful a little squirm inducing. They don’t feature in a large way but just enough to provide some creeping menace. Spiders aren’t the only sinister thing to skitter their way into view though.

Penny Dreadful is a new series from Showtime and Sky Atlantic based on the old 19^th century cheap and morbidly cheerful penny dreadfuls. These escapist books featured near-the-knuckle fiction that appealed to people seeking cheap and probably blasphemous thrills. Penny Dreadful as a series draws on this concept and drags in some well known horror characters such as Victor Frankenstein.

Image ©Showtime

The first thing that hits you when watching is the care and detail that has gone into the clothing and sets. Everything has a fantastic Gothic vibe and conspires to make sure that the Sun knows it really isn’t welcome. I know I know, it’s all about the story in the end. Thankfully Penny Dreadful, as far as the first episode at least, delivers on this front.

After seeing a woman brutally attacked, we see the psychically gifted Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) approaching sharpshooter Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) with an offer of some dirty work. Ethan then meets explorer Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) and is given his first taste of the other sinister world that is so close to our own.

Image ©Showtime

Eva Green is the stand-out performance for me. I think she portrays complicated characters so well and she really nails the hard faced Vanessa. There is one moment where she is asked for a smile and it’s such the briefest of things that makes her expression shift into another aspect of the character’s personality.

Part of the fun of the episode was trying to suss out what each character brought to the table and, with the vague knowledge that they could be some great literary superstar, I found myself looking for clues. The episode ends with a nice reveal that confirms one such suspicion was correct.

Image ©Showtime

The actually otherworldly stuff is done very well and much of the episode takes place at a brooding tentative pace. When there is a bit of action it is quite frenetic and often pretty gory, which all lends itself to the overall feel of the thing.

It’s hard to judge a series on one episode, but if the successive ones are at all like this one, I think Penny Dreadful will do very well. I certainly intend to keep watching at least.

You can check out the Penny Dreadful website here.

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Dark Review - 300: Rise of an Empire

Review of 300: Rise of an Empire

By Casey Douglass

 

Image © Warner Bros. Pictures

I came to the first 300 film (2007) oblivious to both the background history it is loosely based on and the graphic novel by Frank Miller. While I now know some of the history, I have yet to pick up the novel, but none of this really matters. Like its predecessor, 300: Rise of an Empire is extremely enjoyable in its own right.

Its story runs parallel to the events happening in the first film, some starting a little before it, others carrying on from where the original ended. I really liked this as it was a great chance to find out some of the back story of Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and other key players in the conflict.

Image © Warner Bros. Pictures

300: Rise of an Empire focusses on the travails of Thermistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) and his naval strategy genius whilst his fellow countrymen are defending the Hot Gates with King Leonidas. Basically, 300: Rise of an Empire is the first film but at sea on big ships. In my opinion, that is a good thing!

What I did find surprising was that Xerxes was not in the film a great deal. I don’t know why I thought he might, as thinking back he hardly stole the show in the first. Maybe it was just a hope that he would get his hands dirty this time. He had a flashback which did give some great insight into his path to becoming “a god” but the Persian side of the show was very much run be Eva Green’s Artemisia, commander of the Persian fleet. 

Image © Warner Bros. Pictures

I’m also not a great lover of naval warfare. Too much sea and choppy waves just bores me as a rule but I did find the ship to ship combat as riveting as the land based face-offs in the first film. That is the crux of the matter really. Both films are built around stand-off, clash, victory, clash, slight defeat, escalation, bigger clash, until they culminate in some grand-standing finale that would need some kind of mathematical savant to calculate the number of dead and the pints of blood spilt. That is what I watch them for! To get those goosebumps when brutal shit happens and to enjoy the chaos of battle in the safest way possible through a cinema screen.

Image © Warner Bros. Pictures

Talking of screens, I was lucky enough to watch the film in IMAX 3D and it was excellent. There were some scenes blatantly designed for the 3D, like the swing of Xerxe's massive axe but for the most part the 3D was functional without being distracting. I think I value IMAX for the extra size and the sound quality. I always feel like my trouser cuffs are flapping around when the bass hits in our local screen. If a film won’t move you in an IMAX, it never will.

I give 300: Rise of an Empire 5/5, purely because it gave me what I myself wanted. A shitstorm wrapped in the dressings of comic style brutality and with a tremendous soundtrack that accompanies the action like the trumpets of hell.

IMDb

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Dark Review - Franklyn

Franklyn Review

By Casey Douglass

Written and Directed by : Gerald McMorrow
Starring : Eva Green , Ryan Phillippe , Sam Riley , Bernard Hill

Reality is a fickle thing. No sooner do you think that you have it pinned down, then something comes along that makes you question it, or some bright spark tells you that there are many realities, and everyone’s reality is unique to them. Well if that is true, in my reality, there is no place for line-dancing, Justin Bieber or four quid popcorn at the cinema. However, whatever reality you reside in, Franklyn is a film that plays with this kind of brain twisting issue with great skill.


The film is set in two superimposed realities, the more mundane and rainy high-rises of London, and the fantastic vistas of Meanwhile city. It follows the story of four people who wend their way through the winding streets, all suffering with great feelings of loss and sorrow, and all clinging to some manner of psychological crutch to help them live through the pain. The four are entwined from the very start of the film, the tangled threads of their solitary lives pulling tighter together as the film progresses.

One of the characters is firmly entrenched in Meanwhile city, Jonathan Preest (Phillipe). He walks the streets a persecuted man as he is the only inhabitant of Meanwhile city who has neither faith nor religion. Meanwhile is chock-full of all kinds of religions, from the familiar to the more extremely farcical. There is one based on the manual for a washing machine and another based on the noble art of the manicure. The Ministry (read as the people in charge) is forever on his tail as he tries to find and kill the head of a shadowy organisation called Duplex Ride, an individual that is ironically known as the Individual. This shows one of the many philosophical questions laced throughout the film. A lone guy with no religion in a city of faithful sheep, wanting to kill the one guy known as the Individual. The whole film is littered with clever thought-provoking devices like this. As far as character realisation, Phillipe plays Preest with suitable menace, his lines snarled out through a face (when not wearing Preest’s mask) that he manages to keep reasonably emotionless, yet still somehow conveying threat.

The other three characters are more firmly in London, although each has at least one aspect of their life that could be seen as a bit “Meanwhilish”.


Emilia (Green) is an art student who frequently orchestrates her own suicide attempts as a means to reach out for something, some kind of loving contact or resolution to her internal struggles. Eva Green plays her so well; she is a master of mercurial emotions sliding across her features, all somehow ending in a look of trapped sadness. Eva Green also plays another character in the film who is the mirror opposite of Emilia. This character is light and airy and all of the things Emilia is not.

Milo (Sam Riley) is suffering from rejection as he is jolted at the altar on the day of his wedding rehearsal. Cue lots of forlorn thousand yard stares and kicked puppy expressions from Riley as he plunges into the feelings aroused by everything falling away from him, taking sanctuary in his friends and the familiar.

The final character is Peter Essa (Hill), a man of religion and curator of a church. He is searching for his son, in more ways than one, and his crutch is his unwavering faith in God. Hill plays Essa very well, making him come across as humble and put upon by the world. He is also good at getting some of Essa’s naivety to shine through when dealing with some of the harsh realities of what is going on.
The stories of these four flirt with each other throughout the film, often visiting somewhere in Meanwhile city as a passenger with Preest, then some time later seeing the corresponding part of London with one of the others. In this way the film imparts meaning that otherwise might be lost. It does leave a fair few head scratching moments that aren’t explained though, which I like very much.

One scene sees Milo follow someone he thinks he knows into the basement level of a building. He hears children laughing and playing, yet when he walks into the room, it is full of old men playing dominoes. I am not sure what that means; maybe it was Meanwhile intruding on London. Who knows. There is also a strange cleaner who all three of the London-based characters talk to at one point or another. He seems to know what is going on, and his words prod them onto different paths. This isn’t really explained at the end of the film, you are just left to draw your own conclusions, which again, I quite like.

The threads of each tale come together quite spectacularly at the end of the film, where for good or ill, some things are resolved and others don’t really end very well.

The film itself is shot very well. Meanwhile city is a true metropolis with ram packed buildings reaching for the sky, large statues and figure heads looming over them in a sort of Gothic splendour. The characters are all shot with a slightly different colour palette which lends their scenes deeper emotion and novelty, and the score is suitably orchestral, varying from the grand theme of Meanwhile city to the quiet mundanity of urban London. Each element plays with the others to produce something that just feels very right.

It is a truly great film, one that hasn’t had nearly enough coverage in my opinion. I managed to miss this at the cinema, and it is rare to see it on Blu-ray or Dvd in shops nowadays. It is a little easier to purchase online but not by much. I think this is a great shame. I can only wonder if it sells any better in Meanwhile city.

Rating: 5/5

IMDb

Also available to read here on Generic Movie Blog UK.

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