The Council - Episode 5: Checkmate (DLC)

The Council - Episode 5: Checkmate is the conclusion to Big Bad Wolf's episodic narrative RPG set in 1793, where you play as Louis de Richet, a secret society operative tangled up with historical figures like Napoleon and George Washington on a remote island estate. This fifth and final episode is not a standalone experience. You need the full run of episodes behind you for any of it to land, and the game assumes you have strong opinions about every alliance and betrayal you made since episode one. If that sounds like a commitment, it is. But for players who stuck with the series, this is where the threads either come together or frustrate. What makes The Council interesting as an RPG is its skill-based dialogue system. Rather than charisma checks or dialogue wheels, you spend Effort Points to trigger class-specific abilities during confrontations: the Diplomat, the Occultist, and the Scholar each unlock different conversational moves, immunities, and vulnerabilities. By episode five your build is essentially locked in, and Checkmate designs its key confrontations around that. There are moments where a fully invested Occultist reads a room completely differently than a Scholar would, and those differences feel earned rather than cosmetic. If you min-maxed poorly in early episodes, you may hit some walls here, which is a fair consequence of a system that takes your choices seriously. The writing quality is uneven across the series, and Checkmate inherits both the highs and the lows. The historical figure dialogue occasionally tips into stiff exposition, and there are pacing problems in the middle sections where the mystery stalls before its big reveals. That said, the final act delivers genuine dramatic payoff. The resolution of Louis's search for his mother - which sounds like a simple premise but accumulates real emotional weight over five episodes - lands with more sincerity than you might expect from a game this mechanically unusual. The branching here is not just cosmetic. Certain endings are only reachable depending on decisions made episodes earlier, and replaying to see alternate outcomes is genuinely worth the time. For RPG players who prioritize narrative over combat, The Council sits in an interesting niche. It is closer to a choice-heavy visual novel with stats than it is to an action RPG, and Checkmate does not change that formula. The "battles" are verbal sparring matches. The loot is information. If you came here for swords, this is not your game. If you came here for a period drama where your character build shapes what you even understand about the plot, there is very little else doing exactly this. The Metacritic score of 67 is a reasonable reflection of the series' inconsistencies, but it undersells what works for the right audience. The 84% positive Steam user score is a better signal - these are people who bought in and finished, which is exactly the filter that matters for an episodic conclusion. Checkmate is not the place to start. It is the place to finish, and as finales go, it respects what you put in. Monika, Scout Team