The Wolf Among Us Episode 5: Cry Wolf Review

Written By: Tyler
Platform Played On: PC

Rating: 9/10
Verdict: Season 1 of The Wolf Among Us concludes like it should, like a good TV show would, even if the watch-more-than-you-play aspect of the game might be off-putting to some people.

Here we are: after months and months we have the final episode in the first season of The Wolf Among Us, the Telltale Games series based on the acclaimed "Fables" comic book series. You play as Bigby, the Big Bad Wolf, and what started as an investigation into the murder of Faith has snowballed into something that threatens the very well-being of Fabletown. I have no intention of giving away key plot points in this review, so don't worry.

If you've been following my reviews for every other game in this series, outside of four which I actually forgot to play until two days ago, you'll know that I basically say the same thing about every new installment, which is this: amazing story, but these games will never get 10s out of me because of the core gameplay mechanics, which are simplistic at best.

Is someone going to tell him that there's something wrong with his left eye?

Let's talk about the good first, though, because this has consistently been one of the best told and most interesting story in games since they started. From the very beginning, Telltale Games have done a wonderful job keeping up a story with lots of twists and turns that, outside of a hiccup or two, has moved along at a brisk and brilliant pace. The very premise of The Wolf Among Us is one I'm in love with, despite not giving myself to the comics (yet). I absolutely love seeing the dark versions of all the fables we grew up on thrust into these situations.

The weakest link the series was episode four, which didn't hit as hard as it should. We are normally given a great cliffhanger to keep us clamoring for more, but episode four left us cold. It's not that I didn't want to continue, because I knew that episode five would start off with a bang do to the circumstances that episode four left us in. It wasn't even a terrible ending, but it felt more like a bridge to a cliffhanger rather than a true cliffhanger. It just wasn't a great place to stop.

However, episode five rectifies that by being the best in the series, which any season finale should aspire to do. The action is quick and intense right from the beginning. There are a lot of scenes that build tension tremendously. Episode four was a little light on letting you control the action, even by The Wolf Among Us standards, but episode five fixes that too. It has some of the most exciting action in the entire series, and it's extremely satisfying.

Speaking of satisfying, it also has the best scene in the series so far. After all this build, we are treated to something that was a long time coming and it lived up to the hype. Obviously I won't spoil any of it, and I hate being so vague because I just want to gush, but I'll let you experience the entire episode for yourself if you haven't already.

Just a regular night.

This episode pulled at my heartstrings more than any episode before it, and it's nice to see that even at the very end they left us with a choice and a plot point that makes us scratch our head and ponder it until season two starts. 

It's true, that even when you're playing this series you're not really playing, and it's with that that I level the same criticism I always have: more gameplay is needed. I'm a very open-minded gamer, and I have praised tons of games with the gameplay is light. I loved Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain, and I haven't given The Wolf Among Us lower than an 8 on any of the episodes. 

However I will always feel that the core element of video games that make them special, and superior to all other art forms, is that they are interactive in the purest sense of the word. Before we had great graphics and advanced technology, we had the ability to control the action on the screen, regardless of how simplistic it was. 

I know that this is what Telltale Games does, and in this case I praise their ability to craft an engaging and intelligent story, but the gameplay consists mostly of some quick-time events and making dialogue choices. The fights allow you to click on the screen to interact with objects, but these are clearly laid out and the choices are minimal. It's better than nothing but it's not the most compelling thing ever. 

Admittedly, there's a great deal of choices to be made, so the game does a pretty good job of keeping you busy with that. Your choices do matter, and because of this I often second guessed my choices and thought as hard as I could about them in the limited time frame that I had to make them. I think more games should have the depth in dialogue that this series has. I want to feel like I've impacted things with the decisions I make, and The Wolf Among Us has done a great job of giving me that feeling of accomplishment throughout the entire season.

Still, it's hard for me to shake that feeling that with a little more gameplay I'd be immersed in the experience. It doesn't have to be much because each episode is short, but it would be appreciated. I have enough faith in them that they could have created a conventionally fun game while retaining the elements that make this series special. I don't think they'd ruin it with crappy game mechanics.

Everything else is the game is handled well. The visuals, as always, feel like a comic book and the little touches breathe life into the characters and the city. Outside of a few wonky parts, like cars moving incredibly awkwardly, they did a good job with this. 

As a whole, this season has been very rewarding even with the hang-ups of minimal gameplay -- though I am aware that some people aren't bothered by this at all -- because we have very capable people behind the story, which is where a game like this has to shine. Fortunately for us, it does. If you haven't played it yet, pick it up now and play through it because even all the episodes together would end up being less than fifteen hours. Give yourself to it, appreciate what it's offering.