CONSORTIUM Remastered

I can't in good faith recommend this. I love the original Consortium as a brilliant piece of innovative storytelling. To this day, there's almost nothing else like it, but it still feels like a game from 10 years ago. If the original were still available, I would just recommend that before this. It looks slightly better thanks to higher resolution and it has less bugs, but it's still jank. Wonky animations, plastic-y models, poor lighting, and the same short length with an unfinished narrative. It's a hard sell when the sequel, The Tower, is STILL UNFINISHED. The Tower was supposed to come out in 2019. It's been rotting in Early Access. Why are remastering this game for no good reason? Also, why is the VR version a separate, MORE EXPENSIVE, product when it's the same damn game? This is borderline theft. It's still a good experimental project with a phenomenal soundtrack by the legendary Jeremy Soule. The voice acting and dialogue are still great. The branching narrative is ingenious with endless replayability. I love the background details like eavesdropping on characters having a private affair. The background chatter that adds depth to the small cast of memorable characters. This is a game that does a lot with a little. You DO NOT need a large open world to make a more immersive environment. This is the design philosophy games like Deus Ex, Thief, Ultima Underworld, and System Shock mastered to perfection in a way larger studios like Arkane have failed at. I said what I said. It's just too short. You can beat it in about 3-4 hours and not get to see all of the game's mechanics fully realized as a result. It feels like a Chapter 1 of a larger game cause it kinda is. It's unlikely the Consortium universe will ever be fully realized at this rate. If you still want to take the plunge, you have been warned.

Whoever decided to devote time and money into remaking consortium instead of focusing on the Tower and Whispers From the Rift or even making a completely new project might have doomed this entire company. This was a bad idea, no one wanted this and no one bought it. I do not mind how the game looks but if you try to sell a ''''""'remaster'''''' then you should know that the average consumer expects characters that do not look like Half Life 2 mods. Please for the love of God just finish the game you already sold to people (The Tower), the game you have been testing for years (Whispers from The Rift) and make a new game already.

You are the security detail/commander on the UN's Air Force One. There's terrorists, a murder mystery, negotiations, and at least one conspiracy. All of this happens within 4 hours of playtime. A mess? Yeah. Janky? Definitely. Unique? Absolutely. Worth playing? If you like narrative experiments. The biggest strength of Consortium is also its biggest weakness: the people behind it just really, REALLY wanted it to exist. It's bursting with passion, unique ideas and original worldbuilding, to the point that maybe it's worth playing just because there's nothing else like it. It's also it's poorly marketed, unbalanced, unfocused, weirdly paced, and falls in love with itself a little too much. So what do you do in Consortium? You participate in what is essentially an interactive play, kinda like that Facade game from a while ago. An event happens, you go to that event, you can handle it in a few different ways, and the game reacts to that. Sounds good, until you realize Consortium is full of contradictions: It's action-packed and full of events, but you're always reactive. There are choices, but only about two actually have an impact on the greater plot. There's a murder mystery, but it has no hard evidence and can be solved almost instantly. There's a conspiracy, but it's so vague it might as well just be sequel bait. There's a whole combat system with stealth, lethal and non-lethal rounds, but it's almost entirely optional. There are over a dozen named, voiced characters, all with detailed character profiles, but about 5 of them actually matter in the grand scheme of things. Character writing is sharp, the lore is excruciatingly long. It also doesn't help the game is about as stable as a warplane - it crashes, it has animation bugs, character scripts run simultaneously, its UI is dreadful, and generally it needed less programmers and writers and more actual designers. It's JANK. But you can play it fully. Again, Consortium exists because 6 guys really wanted it to. And I'm happy it does. It's the sort of thing only indies with a dream could make, and I'm here for it. Now we just gotta hope these guys actually get a producer and make the bloody sequel.

The game itself is flawed gem. But the Remaster does fix several issues with the OG game. But by god there's such an interesting fourth wall breaking ARG driven meta-narrative. Not everything is at it seems and all this game needs is just one of those obnoxious theory crafting You Tubers to do a video on the universe and meta narrative and this game's popularity will explode. My only major complaint at this point is that the game hypes you up for The Tower. The sequel game that carries over your choices. And that game is still in early access and whilst The Tower received an update last week at the time of writing this. That game is still in early access and unfinished. And we had a several year long period with very few to no updates about The Tower. Allegedly to focus all resources on the remaster of the OG and the VR version. Still, I want more from this universe and I know it has the potential for big success.

If I had to headline this review I'd say "Consortium does a lot of things well, and a lot of things it shouldn't do poorly" - this is a lukewarm recommendation. Consortium is a peculiar game, and quite small and contained and short. Meant to be replayed a few times to experiment with different outcomes. It's more like an interactive adventure book IMO where decisions affect these outcomes, and personal relationships can have a sway on things as well - but not massively so. The nicest touch of this game is the ability to speak replies to the NPCs - once you get past the cringe factor of talking to the computer screen, it can actually at times, feel quite fluid in conversations. However, you sort of have to 'tune in' a bit to what the game is trying to do a lot of the time- many times I had situations where I missed a story beat or have overlapping conversations with people which sort of derails some parts of the story's continuity. The story itself is not the best - its confusing, and there seems to be a lot of lore / backstory that I didn't feel was explained very well. All the voice acting is pretty good though. Spoiler; [spoiler]The game also breaks the 4th wall, and I'm a fan of this sort of thing when its done well, but Consortium doesn't do a fabulous job sadly.[/spoiler] Finally, I have to mention gunplay. Feels totally out of place, janky and poorly implemented. I'd rather just a selection of 'lethal, non-lethal, other' rather than jankily fighting or trying to subdue enemies in those sequences - I think it ruins the game. Over I'd say this is an interesting game... its 'tame' but worth playing if its cheap and you like games where decisions matter and like to experiment with different playthroughs - but don't expect a polished experience just because this is a remaster. The main benefit I saw from the original was the loading times.

I played the original version about eight years ago, and it captivated me back then just as much as it does now. There`s something about it that hits all the right notes with me. It feels like an interactive story with a touch of immersive sim, it has a fascinating lore, fun interactions, and even though the graphics are a bit dated in some ways, it`s still very pleasant to look at. I just wish more people knew about this game. The devs created something special, and they deserve more appreciation.

Bugs, texture drops, dialogue often off. There are so many games that wasting time on this is pointless. Better spend your time looking for games.

This game is part of a trilogy. They are still working on it but it's my guess that the trilogy may never be finished. The story is really good and there are some interesting secrets. It will leave you wanting more, in both a good and bad way. But the worst part is the entire last half hour of the game is like an advertisement for the other games, which don't exist. This doesn't feel like a finished story on its own.

Nice to see a team care enough about their game to remaster it. Fun little mystery game with a sci-fi setting. Some interesting elements like voice interaction if you choose and decent story telling. Graphics look a lot better than the OG and the rebuild looks nice. Overall fun time. Worth having for a little fun IMO. Maybe they will step up work on the new one, a type of sequel it seems, would be interesting to check out.

Ugly and boring. Removed from account.