Last year Telltale Games brought us the critically acclaimed episodic series, The Walking Dead. Inspired by the comic book of the same name players were lead into a zombie apocalyptic world with a point-and-click gameplay style mixed with an engrossing story, fantastic characters and tough decisions to make that resulted in one of the most emotionally charged games that I’ve ever played. Therefore it’s hardly surprising that they’ve been given the reins for another comic book adaptation.
The Wolf Among Us welcomes you to Fabletown, a seedy, neon-lit area of New York City where foul-mouthed citizens called Fables have been forced to hide amongst mundies – regular people – since being driven into exile from their fairytale world. Keeping order in this world is Bigby Wolf, AKA The Big Bad Wolf, a whisky drinking, cigarette smoking, no-nonsense detective who ensures all the Fables are kept in check and their true identities hidden from the mundies.
It’s quite a bizarre premise for newcomers who are unaware of the critically acclaimed comic book, Fables, but one that quickly grabs you as you’re introduced to familiar names in unfamiliar circumstances. Snow White is now an assistant to a short-tempered mayor; Tweedledee and Tweedledum are deceitful private detectives and then there’s you, the Big Bad Wolf who had previously blown the three pigs houses down and tried to devour Red Riding Hood, acting as the sheriff much to the disgust of everyone else.
Bigby is a fantastic character and full of potential for future episodes as we learn how he is trying to move on from his previous life of brutality and to become a better person, although the citizens of Fabletown are very quick to remind him of how truly terrible he once was. Often choices you make tred the line between being the good sheriff he wants to be and the horrible wolf from his past. It’s as if the wolf is always bubbling just under the surface and ready to manifest at emotional moments you’ll be placed in throughout this first episode. This character piece could be device that will draw you into each episode as you’re left wondering what is next for Bigby.
In terms of plot it’s a classic murder mystery piece with Bigby needing to solve not only who was been murdered, but also who the victim was. This leads to the point-and-click style playing out more like a detective trying to put together leads, discovering clues and using your powers of observation to suss out if what you’re investigating is all as it seems or if something is amiss. Although vital information is highlighted, you do have the option to turn this feature off and in effect turn the game into hard mode. Either works well here, but it’s the storytelling that you’ll be hooked into, not necessarily the searching for items to click on. What Telltale does well here is give the player a feeling of satisfaction as you unravel a suspect’s lie piece by piece, leading to the truth. It won’t take a lot of brainpower, but you’ll need to concentrate and connect the few dots for yourself to know the correct questions to ask.
If you think all this pointing and clicking isn’t for you, then I have good news. There are also some fantastic action sequences and although they take the form of Quick Time Events (QTE), these are far more polished than we have seen in The Walking Dead. You’ll find yourself fighting in small apartments, giving chase over suspended walkways and needing to dodge objects thrown at you. You’ll even find yourself with multiple choices in mid-battle that could lead to different results. It’s a great mix-up from the slow paced investigations and one that really gets your heart pumping as the scene plays out.
While a lot of elements have been tightened up from The Walking Dead, there are still a few niggling issues that have made the jump into this new title. Mainly a few frame rate drops during scenes. I can only assume this is down to the game trying to figure out what choices you have made and the direction it is going as a consequence to your choices. There’s also a few vocal glitches where a response doesn’t make sense in the context of the conversation taking place, which really stands out in a game that is very narrative heavy. These aren’t big problems, but can cause the occasional freeze up and take away some immersion from the story. Hopefully future episodes will fix this, but it could just be the nature of this type of game.
If you enjoyed The Walking Dead then you should consider The Wolf Among Us a must buy. The zombie survival setting may have been swapped for a detective noire, but the familiar gameplay and fantastic storytelling is still here. There are very few big decisions to make in this introductory episode, but those you make will play on your mind. Should I have gone there before instead of going here? Should I have chased this suspect instead of that suspect? Why did I threaten a toad? I can’t wait to reveal their full impact in future episodes. Although this episode should only take you 2-3 hours to finish, it seems well worth it for the cost of the season pass. Which is around £9.99 on XBLA (slightly more at £15.99 on PSN), giving you access to all 5 episodes once they’re released. If those future episodes are anything like this debut, it’s safe to say Telltale have another smash-hit on their hands.
The Wolf Among Us is available now on Xbox 360 and PC. PlayStation 3 owners can download it from October 15th. Mac OS users will have to wait while an “unforeseen issue” is fixed in the next few days while iOS and PS Vita owners will have to wait until a release date has been confirmed.