I have just finished my first playthrough of this, which still feels like reviewing a normal game youve only played half of. I certainly made it to the credits but Consortium is a game that is dense as opposed to long.
I should probably start with describing what kind of game Consortium is, which is rather challenging to do. Its a sort of Immersive Sim? Its more of a conversational RPG mystery with some token combat elements. It reminds me a bit of Warren Spector's Idea for the "One City Block RPG" in a good way, if perhaps its doesnt quite reach the the level of a Deus Ex game.
I had to laugh listening to a contemporary review of Consortium comparing it to Mass Effect of all things and yeah okay its certainly more akin to ME than Tetris but its still kind of far of. You are essentially a security guard for a Corporation running a fleet of big spaceship like Planes on a futuristic earth (well, actually you are a player playing the role of those things but the meta stuff gets kind of hard to explain). Numerous intrigues ensue and your choices in dialogue and actions affect the course of the unfolding mystery.
Whilst Deus Ex but in a Ship is a good starting point I honestly kept thinking about the Forgotten City for most of it. Its a conversational adventure where you are a stranger from a different time period trying to get to the bottom of a mystery, there is a pretty tacked on combat element, you can tell people about your special situation and they areact accordingly and it gets really meta towards the end. Sure its not a timeloop cause you can quicksave (and yeah thats even explained in context) but it works like one in pretty much every other way.
Ill really have to replay to see just how much it diverges based on choices (and to catch the damned traitor cause I didnt have a clue) but I was really engaged for most of it. It helps that its short and constantly developing, if perhaps some dialogue/situations could get slightly repetitive. Overall though, if you liked the Forgotten City and Immersive sims, you could do a lot worse than Consortium
Edit : Yep, it really does diverge a lot. Its the advantage of narrowing the scope that you can make things all the more impactful
Post Script November 2023
Welp, a few months ago Consortium got delisted from Steam. Id still be upset if it were due to some licensing issue or the dev going bankrupt or something, but no, its cause they are remaking the game for Unreal Engine 5! Ffs. The game's whole charm comes from being a janky source engine oddity, and now all those edges are going to be sanded off to make the game be like every other goddamned game of its ilk released today. Even if I respected that exercise, how dare they try to erase the original? Fuck you. Also weren't you supposed to be working on the abandoned sequel : the tower? What a joke. Anyways fuck the devs, if you want to play consortium just torrent it or get a steam key for the OG
I should probably start with describing what kind of game Consortium is, which is rather challenging to do. Its a sort of Immersive Sim? Its more of a conversational RPG mystery with some token combat elements. It reminds me a bit of Warren Spector's Idea for the "One City Block RPG" in a good way, if perhaps its doesnt quite reach the the level of a Deus Ex game.
I had to laugh listening to a contemporary review of Consortium comparing it to Mass Effect of all things and yeah okay its certainly more akin to ME than Tetris but its still kind of far of. You are essentially a security guard for a Corporation running a fleet of big spaceship like Planes on a futuristic earth (well, actually you are a player playing the role of those things but the meta stuff gets kind of hard to explain). Numerous intrigues ensue and your choices in dialogue and actions affect the course of the unfolding mystery.
Whilst Deus Ex but in a Ship is a good starting point I honestly kept thinking about the Forgotten City for most of it. Its a conversational adventure where you are a stranger from a different time period trying to get to the bottom of a mystery, there is a pretty tacked on combat element, you can tell people about your special situation and they areact accordingly and it gets really meta towards the end. Sure its not a timeloop cause you can quicksave (and yeah thats even explained in context) but it works like one in pretty much every other way.
Ill really have to replay to see just how much it diverges based on choices (and to catch the damned traitor cause I didnt have a clue) but I was really engaged for most of it. It helps that its short and constantly developing, if perhaps some dialogue/situations could get slightly repetitive. Overall though, if you liked the Forgotten City and Immersive sims, you could do a lot worse than Consortium
Edit : Yep, it really does diverge a lot. Its the advantage of narrowing the scope that you can make things all the more impactful
Post Script November 2023
Welp, a few months ago Consortium got delisted from Steam. Id still be upset if it were due to some licensing issue or the dev going bankrupt or something, but no, its cause they are remaking the game for Unreal Engine 5! Ffs. The game's whole charm comes from being a janky source engine oddity, and now all those edges are going to be sanded off to make the game be like every other goddamned game of its ilk released today. Even if I respected that exercise, how dare they try to erase the original? Fuck you. Also weren't you supposed to be working on the abandoned sequel : the tower? What a joke. Anyways fuck the devs, if you want to play consortium just torrent it or get a steam key for the OG
4 Comments
@FallenGrace NP, always good to see people play these overlooked gems. You probably know more about that kickstarter than me, but The Tower did get sort of released in an incomplete state as early access. The last update was years ago but the dev haa said after the studio is done with a VR project theyll be "all hands on deck to complete The Tower". Im not getting my hopes up, but who knows.
Ah, a shame to hear about what happened with the original game and the sequel. I played this back in the day and was hyped for the upcoming Consortium: The Tower before I gradually forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me this was still in my library, definitely agree with your one city block sentiment. There wasn't really anything like Consortium at the time in terms of immersive sims/rpgs and I don't think there is anything like it to this day in the indie sphere? There's so much potential for a small yet dense clockwork loop games and I'm a sucker for the few we get.
@Arus yeah, its a damn shame. Im not too sure, I think maybe shadows of doubt is trying to do something like it? Though thats more of a procedural detective game (and early access so it might run poorly) Definitely agree. I have a morbid curiosity in playing the Tower, but right now it feels irresponsible to give them money after how that whole thing turned out, idk
FallenGrace
1 year ago