Title: The Wolf Among UsFormat: PSN(reviewed), PC, XBLA, Mac
Release Date: October 11, 2013
Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
Price: $4.99
ESRB Rating: M
The Wolf Among Us is Telltale Games' latest choose your own adventure, and if Episode 1 tells us anything about the future of this tale, it'll be a wonderful ride. No pun intended.
Story and Presentation: The story of the Wolf Among Us revolves around the comic, Fables by Bill Willingham, and it brings the childhood stories we've all heard and read into a much more mature setting. You play as Bigby Wolf, or the Big Bad Wolf in a another life, as you try and keep order among the other Fables in Fabletown. After a series of murders and odd occurances that take place, the narrative instantly becomes an engaging and intriguing one that will make you constantly beg for more. Just like in true Telltale fashion, the story is told through cool comic book style visuals that can really impress you. Although it's not that much of a drastic difference between this and the Walking Dead game in terms of visuals, there's still a lot of graphical improvements that you'll notice while playing it. If you're not familiar with the comic book, the characters always drop subtle hints as to who they are and what story they were originally featured in. Characters like one of the pigs whose house was blown down by the big bad wolf subtly drops Huffn' and Puffn' in a conversation with Bigby. Other characters you'll notice outright, but I won't spoil any more surprises for you. There are a lot of familiar voices from the Walking Dead that makes a return, and I'm sure you'll be able to connect the dots as soon as you hear each character. The voice acting is strong across the board, and the soundtrack is just good. Telltale has always delivered on all fronts of game's presentation, and The Wolf Among Us is no slouch in that category.
Core Gameplay: When you compare the gameplay in Wolf Among Us to The Walking Dead, there are a lot of similarities, but there are a ton of more improvements. You're not just tapping X or triangle anymore, there are a lot more button prompts that make action heavy encounters a bit more hectic than before. It came off as a little clunky during my first encounter with a certain fable, but I got used to the much more expanded control mechanics pretty quickly, so it wasn't a frustrating process at all. Seeing as how this is a Telltale game, I didn't expect a heavy dose of gameplay, and the first episode of The Wolf Among Us wasn't a long one in that respect. It took me a little over two hours to finish the first episode, but of course there's a lot of incentive to go back through and choose different choices you didn't select before. That's half of the fun with these types of games, the choices are minuscule as other games either, so it will be worth playing through again to see a different side of the narrative you didn't see before. The game still features conversational options with a timer that adds constant tension during heated encounters. In the end, Telltale wants to tell a great story, and they accomplish just that, even with the simplistic gameplay.
Final Thoughts:If the first episode gives any indication on the four remaining episodes, then I can't wait for to experience the rest of Bigby's story. Any fan of the Walking Dead will come to appreciate a new, fresher narrative to experience, and it's a good one.
S&S Rating: 8.5/10 @whatsPlay
