Consortium

« CONSORTIUM is a short adventure but with a lot of flexibility in how you can play it and with your choices and actions leading to very different stories. With fairly limited, and entirely optional combat, this is definitely a game for those looking for a good story rather than action. »

« Consortium is an ingeniously subversive gem, containing enough backstory to fill a Triple-A trilogy while focusing exclusively on an airship crew in distress. The execution is a little clunky at times, but Consortium still has the charm and depth to encourage multiple playthroughs as we wait for the sequel. »

« It’s over far too soon, but you’d be hard pressed to find many better small scope narrative role playing experiences than Consortium, and it certainly leaves you wanting more. »

« This dialogue based RPG has fallen into the trap of its own ambition. One can only hope that the potential next installment might be able to avoid it. [Issue #239] »

« As great as it would be to hold up Consortium as the next great evolution of adventure/RPG, it's not, though it is a valiant attempt that deserves praise. »

« Much more than just a homage, Consortium might be rough around the edges but the dialogue system and freedom of choice rivals that of any other game. »

« The sci-fi meta-narrative, as well as the conspiracy-laced in-world narrative, are both interesting and this was the first time in a while a game has made me do some real detective work. »

« Consortium is a peculiar game: it delivers a deep universe tailored on the decisions of the player, and shows an original meta-narrative side. On the other hand, the game is glitchy as hell, the FPS sections are not so good, and the story ends just when it gets really interesting. »

« The technical state of look of the game is too bad for me to really enjoy, also if you are not a bad sci-fi fan, you wont enjoy it. »

« As a first chapter to a larger story this game is just about perfect. "Murder on the Deus Ex Express" played out in real time. Game is short. Around 4 hrs. However, you'll play through it at least 3 times. Requires multiple play-throughs before you have a hope of solving it. If you love a game that makes you think instead of fight then this is a game for you. If you ever tried to play Deus Ex using conversation and stealth instead of just killing everything, then you owe it to yourself to give this game a try. However, if you think CoD:Ghosts was good, then stay away from this one - you're not smart enough to enjoy it. »

« Consortium is unlike any game I've played before, and I mean that in the best way possible. It is one of those games that impacts you and keeps you thinking about it long after you play it. In this game, you don't play as another person but you play as yourself controlling an unknowing real-life person from an alternate version of reality set in the year 2024. It's a story-driven sci-fi rpg with fps elements. How the story unfolds is dependent on how you choose to play. The game is very similar to the Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Mass Effect's (to name the big ones) take on plot progression by interacting with NPCs through a conversation tree. The conversation tree is the core game mechanic and it is done really well. Fully voiced conversations have many possible choices and feels very natural. The voice acting is great and the character development is superb. The graphics are very cartooney and I honestly think the shadow textures are some of the worst I've seen, ever. Performance isn't where it should be, either. Despite these issues, Consortium is still one of the most immersive games I have played in a long time. That says a lot. I was very impressed at how encompassing the world is and the backstory is super fleshed-out. The shooting mechanics are also sub-par. I only had to use my weapon once in my story, but your story will most definitely be different and you may choose to use your weapon more. Don't get this game if you are looking for a shooter, that isn't what this game is about. The story is pretty short in length, but rich with substance and a high replayabilty value. All-around I have really enjoyed this game. The story is captivating and impactful. I want to give it 10/10 but I have to take off something for the gun mechanics and performance issues. For what this game set out to do, I think has gone beyond. I really hope the sequel gets funded because I really want to finish the story. »

« Consortium is a game that fails to live up to the sum of its parts. Inter dimensional Games has created a game made up of two basic systems: a fairly complex set of first person shooter mechanics and a fairly complex branching dialogue based RPG. The game simply does not seem to have had enough time or money to fully realize the potential of either system. The combat is utilized all of 3 times in the game, 2 of which take place in a virtual reality training simulation complete with wireframe environments. Though there is a complicated limb and vital organ damage system, it doesn't play much of a factor in actual combat. It's over-designed. The dialogue system is where the games true potential comes to fruition, more than serviceable indie voice acting combines with a well thought out dialogue system with about as many options as a fallout game, along with an alignment system that promised future consequences. Unfortunately the story was so incredibly short, (it only took me 3 hours on my first try) that there is no payoff at all, the game ends on a cliffhanger setting up for a direct sequel. Consortium was a nice dialogue driven ARPG which showed narrative promise, but its short length and overly complex combat system holds it back from being anything other than an average and fairly unrewarding experience. »

« A sci fi RPG. Thought the game sounded interesting, but it's not, this game is boring as it's just wandering around a ship talking to everyone and hardly knowing what you're doing. A game with a tiny bit of action and a lot of endless talking. It would be wrong to class it as a fps as there is hardly any shooting. The graphics are basic looking and sometimes a bit buggy and weird as NPC eyes seem to look in weird direction or clip and there doesn't seem to be much gameplay unless you are prepared to continually reload saves to see the different paths you can take. And relaoding is very slow. The game is also buggy, I went back in the cabin and am now stuck in there, can't get out. The door was open but acted like an invisible barrier, no matter how many times I opened and closed the door. Had to reload a previous save. Also characters speech timing is terrible making it hard hard to hear what anyone is saying as you'll be talking to one character and then some other character will come speak at the same time and over each other, I had the knight, Wade and rook 25 all speaking at the same time, making it a garbled mess. The game is confusing at times. I don't know where Iam going or where something is. And not sure what to do sometimes with mission objectives. I ended up confronted with a traitor and not being able to harm the person in anyway and just die. The game is also very short, only taking 3 to 4 hours.(thank god) The game is medicore and boring as well as buggy. »

« Potentially interesting. Too bad it's riddled with bugs, like disappearing subtitles (and in a story-driven game it's something extremely bad) and the savegames get deleted if you had an older version and patch it. And those aren't tolerable flaws. Also, the game raises lots of questions and don't answer them... they will *eventually* be answered in a potential sequel. I think there is a gem hidden beneath the bugs, but it's too hard to find and I can't recommend a game so buggy and unpolished. »

« It's an interesting / unique scenario and nice graphics. Unfortunately with a lot of issues, so I stopped playing after about 1h. Can't judge anything after that. Issues: - All characters look the same and have the same name (except numbers and faces). I have no idea who said what. Not sure how I'm supposed to solve a murder mystery here. - Quite abstract user interface with useless "tips" like "Use the recycle feature to RECYCLE". WTF?? Some kind of weird inventory feature where I have to dispose energy to store more stuff? I don't know what this game tries to tell me. - Quite unbalanced simulator mission. Far more enemies than ammo. In the end I simply walked out, ignoring dead civilians and enemies. That's the point that I decided that this was a was of time. - Game takes very long to load. Perhaps this would be really fun if I studied it hard for a few hours and made notes. But I'll simply play something else instead. »

« This game is incredibly, and unlike anything else I've found on Steam. The branching storyline and investigations really keep you engaged, and the multiple paths in the game means nothing can be taken for granted (e.g., did your comments at Time X influence Time Y? What happens if you don't uncover the truth?"). Give this game a shot. »