Nearly four months have passed since Telltale allowed us to visit Fabletown in Episode 1 – Faith. For any other company, releasing episodic content this way would be fine. However this is Telltale Games. A developer who has built their name on this release model and it’s a little too long in my eyes. It’s not long enough a break that I’ve forgotten what happened in the first episode, but it is long enough for some of my excitement to have lessened somewhat. It also didn’t help that on the release of The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 – Smoke and Mirrors that many of us Xbox 360 owners who immediately purchased the season pass, simply couldn’t play the next episode until Telltale sent us a code to unlock it. These unforeseen circumstances slightly soured my expectations beforehand, but leave it to Telltale to deliver a story so packed and thought-provoking that I had soon forgotten those delays.
This second instalment expands on the Fable’s world, as the anti-hero of Bigby Wolf continues to investigate a murder, only this time the gameplay largely takes the form of detective work. There’s only one short action scene this time around and if judged against the first episode then this certainly could feel like it lacks a punch, leaving the player a little left out as you sit back, watch cut scenes and occasionally make a choice or answer a question, but for me it marked a gear change. Slowing the pace down to allow the player to investigate the world, question suspects and try and begin piecing together clues. The purpose here is to expand on the story and while doing so introduce a wealth of new characters.
If you had any doubt that your previous choices had any impact in the game, then the first few minutes of Episode 2 will immediately eliminate that doubt. At the end of Episode 1 your final choice was to arrest one of two characters who were trying to escape; the Woodsman or TweedleDee. Your chosen suspect starts Episode 2 being interrogated by the debuting Blue Beard. Telltale are showing us here that your choices do matter, who you choose will have an impact on the game and story you’ll play. Both characters have separate story lines, different excuses and relationships with the other characters. It’s who you choose, and how you choose to behave with them that really shape this world however you want it.
For example, in my original play throughs of Episode 1 I took a dislike to the Woodsman and trusted Tweedledee. Therefore I continued that here in Episode 2. Using aggression on my Woodsman’s play through but changing it up and being more understanding with Tweedledee. While the result may be the same regardless of the choices I made, it still feels great knowing I have a choice of how to arrive at that end result.
The pressure on the player here isn’t only based on what Bigbys relationship with everybody around him is, it’s also on how you want your version of Bigby to be portrayed. Do you continue to be the bad-ass loner, or do you try to gain more friends than enemies in the hope some of them may help you out in the long run. This is something Telltale did well with their Walking Dead series and it’s a fantastic vehicle to introduce the player to early into Episode 2.
Without spoiling too much of the plot for Smoke and Mirrors, it does a great job of explaining some of the unanswered question from Faith whilst still able to provide more twists and turns for future episodes to unravel. The new characters introduced are still just as varied and unique to the world, such as the snot-nosed pimp Georgie Porgie and the aforementioned Blue Beard. They also expand on some of the bit part characters like Beauty and the Beast.
Now you may notice I’ve been very positive about Episode 2, but unfortunately the game isn’t perfect and this is where I must become a little more negative than I’d like to, being that I loved every second I spent with Smoke and Mirrors. Unfortunately there are a few issues that let the overall experience down. Firstly would be the games relatively short length. My first play through was over in under 2 hours. For a game we’d been waiting for nearly 4 months, it was simply too short a game to justify the delay, especially when compared with the first episode which took a little longer, but was much more action oriented. Another issue I had, and it’s a theme in Telltale Games, was the graphical issues. Frequently the framerate seems to drop for reasons unknown to me. It could be during a cut scene or while simply walking around a room to investigate an item. This is pretty jarring and can lead to a bit of frustration as you just want the game to work.
Some instances you’ll go from one cutscene to another seamlessly, on another you’ll notice a jump in the models animation where I guess your prior choice may have kicked in, and starting a different cutscene where the character didn’t start in the same position they ended in previously. While these aren’t major issues, they are ones that could, and should be fixed in a game so heavily based on narrative.
Graphical issues and game length aside Episode Two is still a brilliant instalment. The 2 hours of gameplay will be over before you know it, but you’ll certainly feel like you’ve learned a lot more about Fabletown and it’s wonderfully crafted characters. The teaser for episode 3 looks like the action will pick up again. We can only hope this time we won’t have to wait 4 months to play it.
The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 – Smoke And Mirrors is out now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC with an iOS and PS Vita date yet to be confirmed.
You can also see our review of Episode 1 here.