A Review of Telltale Game's "The Wolf Among Us"
"The Wolf Among Us" is an interactive and episodic game developed and published by Telltale Games, the geniuses behind the hugely successful "The Walking Dead: a Telltale Series" games.
Set as a prequel to the "Fables" comic book series by Bill Willingham, the game transports us into the year of 1986 inside of a small community melded within modern-day Manhattan where fairy tale fables live in hiding among humans concealing their true identities with purchasable magic called "glamour" that gives them a human-like appearance. Without this magic, the fables are forced to be relocated away from their law-abiding friends and families to a rural community known as "The Farm". We play as "Bigby Wolf" otherwise known as the big bad wolf, now reformed and working as the sheriff of Fabletown, tasked with hiding the community from the wider world and enforcing its laws. His reputation is tarnished from his history with both little red riding hood and the three little pigs, and you have a major influence on what becomes of it, as the game places you in Bigby's shoes tasked with making quick decisions that will influence your character and the story in major ways. Will you remain with the reputation of the big bad wolf or abide by the laws and salvage your character while you attempt to put a stop to a string of murders happening in Fabletown?
If you've had the chance to experience other games in the Telltale series as of late (The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Tales from the Borderlands, etc.), this game is no different in its mechanics. The game plays itself out as a TV show in an episodic format where you make quick choices mostly regarding responses in conversations between yourself and other characters that shape and influence how characters respond to you and how the story plays itself out to its eventual conclusion. It's not a formula for those opposed to big narratives and frequent cut scenes, but if you enjoy a well-crafted story with a good amount of replayability, it can be a lot of fun.
The game forces you to think on the fly as a bar of time quickly depletes at the top of your screen as you're choosing a decision, and with the decisions that are being made having an impact on the characters perceptions and on the story itself, things can get a little tense. I often found myself responding in silence due to not being able to choose quick enough which often led to negative consequences as my story played out. The speed of these options can force you to make hasty decisions you don't necessarily want to make but it also serves the game in a positive manner by keeping you on your toes, and pushing you to weigh options and results at a pace where your gut instincts become a huge part of the story that is shaped and the results that are reaped from your decisions.
Aside from just the basic conversations to be had in the game, you spend time interrogating suspects, searching around for clues, and even taking part in intense fight scenes that play out with timed button prompts that involve a good amount of environmental mechanics making for some crazy and enjoyable moments. During these chaotic moments, characters can lose control and basically "unleash their inner beast". It's a great idea that really affects moments in the game. I found myself going back to redo fight scenes in an attempt to get through them unscathed and keep Bigby's reputation unmarred by the wolf within.
Intertwined in the dialogue of the game is a rich story of traditional fairy tales from your childhood with their modern day twists in the way the characters carry their tales into their modern day world. There is some innocence lost as tales are muddied by seedy reality and continue past their pages of "Happily Ever After" into the actual after. If Beauty and the Beast was your cup of tea, you're going to see a few chips in the glass (see what I did there?). Georgie Porgie has become a pimp and now runs a notorious strip club "The Pudding & Pie". And you and the woodsman have an interesting friend and fiend relationship.
Once I had played through the first episode and got used to how the dialogue and game play works, I found "The Wolf Among Us" to be a highly enjoyable experience. Its easy to put down, pick back up, and carry on formula is a joy to play, but the real treasure is watching the story unfold to my will the way I want utilizing my decisions and getting to do it all again with new and different choices. The characters are loveable no matter their intentions, good or evil, and I found myself not wanting to fight or kill other fables but reason with them instead and get through things peacefully. Each episode is also packed full of achievements or trophies (depending on your platform), so for achievement hunters out there like myself, it's well worth playing to stack up that gamerscore!
All in all, I think "The Wolf Among Us" is another big win for the crew at Telltale Games and a game to definitely be proud of. It is currently free on XBox One's Games with Gold program and you'd be a fool not to claim it! I hope you've enjoyed my review of this epic title, now get out there and go save Fabletown!