Try your luck at the creepiest party of the year in The Council

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The episodic narrative adventure The Council begins in the year 1793, when a secret society whose members include Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, and you, Louis de Richet, holds a meeting on a private island off the shores of England. But it's not just a friendly meet-and-greet. The whole thing is highly competitive, as each member jockeys for a position over the others. Complicating matters further, your mom was recently on the island and has since gone missing.

The setup sounds an awful lot like a Telltale take on The Seventh Guest, but the gameplay will be about more than just choosing from a list of preset conditions. Players will need to understand the "psychological vulnerabilities and immunities" of the other party guests in order to properly take them on, and the outcomes of interactions can leave physical or mental scars that can hinder—or, possibly, help—in future encounters.

"Solve issues with diplomacy, delve into occultism to expand your historical and scientific knowledge, or play detective and see what others do not perceive. Your skills will have uses that extend far beyond your conversations with fellow guests," publisher Focus Home Interactive said. "With 15 diverse skills to use and invest in, players are free to uncover The Council's mysteries how they see fit, with wildly varying consequences depending on their methods."

The first episode of The Council, called The Mad Ones, will be out in February, and I really hope it's good.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.