The Wolf Among Us Episode 4 Review

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I can tell that Telltale knows what they need to do for their interactive storytelling to work well. Over the course of The Wolf Among Us they have been slowly stripping away everything that doesn't directly add to the story they are trying to tell. The good thing is it gives each episode focus, with very little to distract the player. The bad thing is that they are in danger of stripping away too much in my opinion.

In earlier episodes there were some very interesting segments where I had to either piece together evidence or interrogate someone for information. That is mostly gone, along with pretty much any area where I am free to walk around that look at objects or talk to whoever I want to. This also removes some of the opportunities for player choice. For example, during one conversation I didn't want to ask a character where an object I needed was because I didn't want him to know that I didn't have it. During his next speaking turn he told me anyway, which felt like the writers didn't really expect me to choose the option I went with. If I fail to say the right thing to get information, the game should let me fail.

Another danger of stripping down the game is making the episodes too short. This is a little more subjective; some people like shorter episodes because they don't have a lot of time to dedicate to gaming, but I've come to expect episodes that are around two hours long.

Overall I wouldn't say this was a high point in The Wolf Among Us, and I'm hoping they bring their best for the finale.

The Wolf Among Us Episode 3 Review

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You should probably read my reviews of episodes one and two to get a sense of what the game is about and how it plays. I will focus on the story in this review because the gameplay is familiar by now.

The plot of The Wolf Among Us seems to be falling into a pattern; the majority of each episode is spent dealing with whatever shocking revelation was the cliffhanger of the previous episode, then they turn around and give us a new cliffhanger. The end of A Crooked Mile wasn't quite as shocking because they hinted at it a couple of times throughout the episode.

I have been trying to have Bigby be as good a person as possible, which has been pretty difficult up until now because violence is a pretty natural shortcut. I believe I succeeded this time, mostly due to the fact that Telltale had Snow White present for many of the scenes. She has taken on the role of the moral compass the way Clementine did in The Walking Dead. The difference is that Clementine was a moral compass because Lee wanted to teach her right and wrong, while Snow White is a moral compass because Bigby is romantically interested in her.

I can tell that I am doing a good job because there are several characters who used to be quite hostile towards Bigby who are now rather amiable. Now that I think about it there were a few people that I pissed off more. But they were people I didn't like anyway.

A Crooked Mile is the first time I have seen Telltale make a self-referential joke. Conversations in their games will often have messages that say "So-and-so will remember that" when you have backed them up or opposed them. One scene involved a character who was on painkillers and decided to have a few drinks. After a while he passed out and the game said "He won't remember this." I was laughing so hard I was too late to take a good screenshot.

Overall I think this was my favorite episode so far, especially since the end scene suggests that we are much closer to getting to the bottom of the whole thing. If you've been on the fence about The Wolf Among Us, I feel confident in recommending it now.

The Wolf Among Us Episode 2 Review

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It's been quite a while since the first episode of The Wolf Among Us came out, but I didn't mind much because the holiday season was right in the middle of that wait, and Assassin's Creed IV happened. On the other hand that cliffhanger was killing me.

This episode played quite differently from the first one. In Episode 1 the player was confronted with several binary choices that were clearly presented as important moments. Episode 2's choices were much more dynamic, taking the form of "how far are you willing to go to get the information you need?" situations. I prefer this new approach to player choice because it is less gamey and doesn't take you out of the scene to make your decision. They were pretty tough decisions too, because I was trying really hard to redeem Bigby but at the same time I really needed to solve the case. And some of the other characters pissed me off.

Another difference is that there are fewer fights in Episode 2. I suspect that this depends on the choices you make, but the way I played I only had to fight one person.

The focus of Episode 2 is gathering information and following leads, but it hardly ever had me looking around a room for clues. The information was usually gathered in conversation with other people, oftentimes in some form of interrogation. In terms of actual story, not much new happened; it was mostly piecing together what had already happened.

That said. the very end left us on another cliffhanger, one that will almost assuredly have a large impact on the story moving forward. I can't wait for Episode 3, and I hope they don't make us wait four months this time.

EDIT: you can now read my review of Episode 3.

The Wolf Among Us Episode 1 Review

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Last year Telltale Games proved to everyone that their strategy of making episodic titles based on existing franchises could work with The Walking Dead. It was certainly one of my favorite games of the year.

The Wolf Among Us is based on a slightly less well-known comic series called Fables. The premise is that the characters from the fairy tales that we grew up with left their homeland during a mass exodus and are now living among us. Specifically they live in a neighborhood of New York City called Fabletown, and the fables who can't pass as human have to use expensive spells called glamours to blend in. Because of this a lot of them have to live at The Farm, which is a community of fables located upstate away from the prying eyes of us mundies.

The player character is Bigby Wolf (formerly the Big Bad Wolf) who now works as Fabletown's sheriff. They make it clear that most of the fables either fear him or simply don't trust him, so I took the angle that he would want to prove that he had changed his ways. Unfortunately circumstances threw me into a few fights anyway.

The fights used quicktime events similar to The Walking Dead, but they seemed to go much more smoothly. There are also fewer puzzles; moreover investigating a crime scene is a lot more interesting than finding pills for a guy I thoroughly don't like.

The art direction is absolutely gorgeous. I could literally take my screenshots and make a comic book out of them. Being that it is set in the 80s everything has a slightly neon tint to it and all of the major events seem to happen at night. A little cliché, but there you go.

As with The Walking Dead the decisions you make during this episode will have consequences later on, mostly in the way you treat people. As much as I tried I think I may have done a few things that I will regret later on. This is a Telltale game after all.

EDIT: you can now read my review of Episode 2.