Review: The Wolf Among Us – Episode One

The Wolf Among Us

Just as with Telltale’s last blockbuster title, The Walking Dead, we have another new ‘point and click’ storytelling adventure with The Wolf Among Us. It also looks like they have found a winning combination and Telltale is going to try and capitalize on it. The real question is: Can they do it again? Well, I’ll be breaking it down as the new episodes release so keep an eye out. Also, if it sounds like I am being ambiguous in my phrasing that is due to me not trying to spoil the story. You’re welcome.

The Story

If you are a fan of the Fables comic series then you most likely know the basics of the story for The Wolf Among Us. If not, then here is how it goes (so far) based on this episode. All of the fairy tale creatures, princesses, princes, and whatever other creatures have been forcibly relocated to the real world New York City. They try and keep a low profile by being ‘glamoured’ to fit in as well as keep real jobs. This is all in a hope to keep Fabletown, their community, up and running. Bigby, the reformed Big Bad Wolf, is the law in these here parts and in the mix of doing his rounds comes across a Fable who has her own issues and through unfortunate events sets Bigby on the hunt to solve a crime. Down the rabbit hole it goes…

Hated

To be honest, there wasn’t much I hated about The Wolf Among Us so far. If anything I would have to list out the graphic style as my biggest pet peeve. It may look like it is taking a comic drawn approach, but there were too many times that feel was broken by something being shiny when it didn’t need to be. Almost like some of the characters were made of plastic and it looked amazing and fit the atmosphere until a camera angle where light bounced off and it looked perfectly waxed. It felt like Telltale couldn’t decide if they wanted to go ‘comic drawn’ again or tried for a rendered look. Not game breaking in the least, but a major annoyance.

Loved

Outside of the graphics above it feels like Telltale took what they have perfected from before in other titles and shoved it all into The Wolf Among Us. The gameplay itself feels just like The Walking Dead‘s but only more responsive and requiring you as a player to actually play and not just sit back and watch. When you have to hammer a key or a button down to struggle for your life, you have too and it doesn’t feel like you need rapid fire to do so. I love having a sense of urgency mixed into the mix without sacrifice to the overall feel of the game.

Also, while we are only one episode into the The Wolf Among Us so far, the story is already engaging and I couldn’t stop playing until I got the ‘Next Time On’ screen. I am not only talking the main plot, but also all the little twists and liberties being taken with the fable and folklore characters. Like I said before, I won’t spoil anything in that regard, but it is completely worth looking up the stories behind all of the character introduced so far. In fact, I am sure that they will mention a few fables you have never even heard of unless you are a fan of the comic or a real literature buff. Loved that to no end.

Overall

We are only one episode into the five that have been announced so far and I can’t think of a real reason that you shouldn’t pick it up or a Season Pass for The Wolf Among Us. Pretty much, if you didn’t enjoy The Walking Dead from Telltale (be honest, who truly hated that game?) that would be the only real reason I would suggest you to think about picking up The Wolf Among Us. All of the ‘win’ from their last Game Of The Year with a whole bunch of fun and twists from beloved and not-so-beloved literature characters.

If for some reason you want to stay on the fence until the entire season is out, keep an eye here as we update as each new episode will be hitting. Mainly we will be focusing on any new plot points or gameplay features that are new as of that episode, so expect minor spoilers ahead.

The Wolf Among Us was developed and published by Telltale Games for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC on October 15^th, 2013. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.