Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games
Rrp: £18.99
Released: 11th October 2013
Available on Steam
Welcome to the World of Fable! Where the folk from your childhood fairytales live and work besides the normal population. The Wolf Among Us is Telltale’s follow up the phenomenal success of The Walking Dead’s first season. This time though you’re trading in zombies for fables and survival for mystery. The fable folk left their homeland and have resettled in New York City, of course city life can be difficult and the fables don’t always get on. That’s where you come in, you are Bigby and as the Sheriff of Fabletown it’s your job to keep the peace.
TellTale have kept to formula with the control scheme keeping it exactly the same as the one used in their Walking Dead series. Because The Wolf Among Us started release before TellTale finished the second season of The Walking Dead it has more in common, style wise with the second season than the first, or rather the other way around. One feature of which I’m not sure is included in the Walking Dead series is the ability to pause the action on screen (even the timed choices) with the space bar. This feature seems to be missing on the control pad however as no button seems to do enter the pause mode.
The word ‘cinematic’ gets thrown around a lot within the games industry, usually it’s used incorrectly as a way to try and excuse a lesser frame rate. In the case of this game I really do think it’s a cinematic experience, the way the story is structured and the shots are done show the type artistry that is usually reserved for the silver screen
To go with this cinematic feel the voice acting is spot on, not one character feels like they haven’t been voiced correctly. The only thing that drew me out of the experience was hearing the voice of Clementine (I’ll let you guess which character has her voice), but that’s only because I recognised the voice not any fault on the acting.
The world of the Wolf Among Us is rich and detailed, you get a sense there is a real back story behind each of the characters, beyond the fairytale’s we all know. This game really makes me want to read the Fable series.
It’s also refreshing to go from survival horror to a more mystery laden setting, it really works well with the aesthetic of the game and point and click style of play.
As I mentioned in my Walking Dead season 2 review, TellTale seem to have used The Wolf Among Us to improve their style. Animations are fluid and rarely, if ever, seem to suffer from errors. This in conjunction with the comic book art style makes the whole game feel more… Solid, for lack of a better term. I also think the writing in this title is superior to both of the Walking Dead series, I’m also sure many people are going to disagree with me on that opinion.
This is a game for those who love a strong narrative and a good mystery. If I have a complaint about the game it’s that this title was far more QTE laden than both Walking Dead titles. If you liked the Walking Dead, point and clicks or even just a good story this game is well worth your time.
