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.

Killin' Prostitutes, Blaming Old Men: The Wolf Among Us Episode 3 - A Crooked Mile Review

Written By: Tyler
Platform Played On: PC

"The Big Bad Wolf?" More like "The Big Emo Wolf!" Ha! Don't hurt me Bigby.

Rating: 8.5/10
Verdict: The Wolf Among Us: Episode 3 is a return to stronger storytelling, like the first episode, but the lack of real gameplay will always be an issue for me in this type of game.

Since I have a terrible memory, I don't know what I said in my reviews for the previous episodes. They're all very similar so I'm sure I'll say similar things each episode... hell, I've probably said something like this before.

In Episode 3, you are still Bigby and you are still on the prowl. Like any good murder mystery, the plot thickened and now you've gotten a different lead. At the end of Episode 2, Bigby found a picture that he thinks proves Crane is the guy who murdered Lily... a woman that should be praised for her valiant services (she's a prostitute).

The pros and cons of The Wolf Among Us are on display once again, only this is a return to stronger storytelling than Episode 2, which I felt was still great but a bit of a letdown after the first. This series lives and dies by its plot and how it's told, and I have to admit that despite the little flaws, I have become engulfed by the twists and turns that this series brings.

Sometimes the voice acting is a little sub-par, and the mouths don't always line up to what is being said, but if you look past that minor issue there's a lot to like here. Episode 3 moved at a brisker pace than Episode 2, and it tried to add a sense of urgency to the proceedings by having a timer. It's not a big thing, but it's nice that they put it in there.

The plot is always intriguing, and even if the choices don't drastically alter the events, they still make a bit of difference and make you think about what you're saying. Will you be understanding as Bigby? Or will you go all-in, all the time, showing people why you're the Big Bad Wolf (despite him claiming he has changed). In fact, that whole sentiment looms over your actions as Bigby, constantly gnawing away at you.

Maybe you want to be a mixture of both. Maybe you want to be nice to Snow White because you want Bigby to get with her, which I'm guilty of. The point is, regardless of what choices you make, something interesting always happens afterward. These are great interactive movies, and the premise of Fables is always going to be interesting. Luckily, Telltale has done a good job with it.

Though it didn't have the cliffhanger that the first episode had, it probably had a better narrative. If that's all you want from a game, you can rate this higher than an 8.5. However, a game is still a game to me, and if a game doesn't have compelling gameplay, I hesitate to give it an extremely high mark. Episode 3 simplifies the detective elements even more than the first episode did, and because of that it's a weaker conventional game.

The gameplay still amounts to watching it, making a couple choices, and then walking around a room looking at everything that is clearly indicated. When I did end up getting in a fight, I was able to choose a couple different things to do while in the heat of combat. The series has done this since episode one, and I appreciate it, but it's nothing new at this point. What made this particular fight the most memorable moment of the series for me was the build up and the aftermath (which I made possible by my choices). It is moments like that that The Wolf Among Us is at its best.

But don't get it twisted: The Wolf Among Us is one of the best video game stories going right now. A lot of larger games pale in comparison. This isn't a series that you can turn into a first-person shooter, nor do I want it to be another addition to that stale genre, but it's an adventure game with very little adventure so adding more elements of that -- like fleshing out the detective parts -- would be welcomed by me.

All My Friends Are Dead! My Review For The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 -- Smoke & Mirrors (Not Cody Rhodes)

Written By: Tyler

Brazzers.

Rating: 8/10

Verdict: Episode 2 doesn’t pack the same punch as the first episode. I don’t know if it’s just the way I played the first episode or not, but this one seemed lighter on action, and it was certainly shorter. But it still delivers on a fantastic story. It’s just a little lesser in all ways than the fantastic first episode.

            Snow White is dead – that’s what we found out at the end of Episode 1. Smoke & Mirrors picks off where that one left off, with Bigby (the Big Bad Wolf) once again on the prowl to find who killed her. It’s become a more personal journey for him because of his clear feelings for Mrs. White, but are things what they seem?

                Of course they aren’t. What would be the fun in that?

Telltale hasn’t made a name for themselves making games like everyone else. You will spend most of your time making choices about how the story progresses, with occasional action scenes depending on what you say to people. You will walk around whenever the game allows you to control your character and investigate crime scenes. I enjoy these types of games, but I can’t play them all the time because the lack of control over your character is noticeable.

I’m not saying that you have no control. Indeed, Telltale has done a wonderful job once again of making your choices matter. Want to go the aggressive route with a pimp? Go for it and see what happens. Maybe you want to handle things with a little finesse and understanding. Or maybe you want to mix and match those elements like I did… admit it, some people deserve to be punched. Anybody who gravitates towards these games are coming for the narrative, and the things I liked about the first one apply here as well. Namely, I haven’t read the actual comic books but the idea of the fables we know and love being put into a different context appeals to me. When fables aren’t Disneyfied, they’re generally pretty dark anyway, but The Wolf Among Us takes it a couple steps farther, with familiar characters showing up in, er, compromising situations.

For the most part the story telling is on point, but there was one particular moment that baffled me because I don’t understand why a particular character showed up given the knowledge I had of the characters involved in the situation. It led to the most thrilling part of this episode, but it seemed shoehorned in. That was the only part I had a problem with, however, and the rest of the story was fluid and flowed well, with a particularly emotional encounter early in the episode with TJ, Toad’s son. I don’t think Smoke & Mirrors ended with the same oomph that Faith did, but it was still a pretty surprising end and the final shot was a thing of beauty. Telltale are very good at this kind of thing.

It helps that the artwork is gorgeous. I imagine this is something I’ll say in my review for every single episode as they’re released, but it is spot on with its comic book look and feel. The game stutters a bit which is strange because it’s not exactly Crysis and the lack of polish sometimes shines through. It got incredibly choppy when it was recapping what happened in the previous episode and when it teased Episode 3. This is a minor problem, ultimately, but it's there.

In terms of the actual gameplay, the fight scenes do feel satisfying. You move your mouse over certain things in the environment or on the person you’re fighting and once you click it you hit the person with it/throw them into it/smash it… whatever. I didn’t run into a lot of fights this time around but the one I did was pretty quick but throwing him against the wall felt good. It is also heavy on Quick Time Events which I know is controversial in the gaming community. So proceed with caution.

The actual investigation scenes are nothing awe-inspiring, but they get the job done. You can’t really leave until you discover what you need to, but it does allow you to connect the evidence yourself. It was easy, because I’m notoriously stupid and even I was a successful detective. Since it’s not an adventure game where you can revisit places you’ve already been, the “puzzles” – if you can even call them that – in these crime scenes are really just there to push the plot forward.

The main problem is the length. We’ve waited a long time for the second episode and it ended in an hour and a half. It was a good hour and a half, but it was still an hour and a half. But if you put it into perspective, you pay $25 and you get five episodes, as they’re released, and that amounts to over ten hours so it’s not really a bad deal. It just seems like it when you wait this long for a game that ends up being so ridiculously short. There is replay value there though, if you wanted to make other choices.

The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 – Smoke & Mirrors is certainly representative of its title, and it’s filled with a great cast of characters. These types of games aren’t for everybody, but for anyone who wants a great, on-going story, it’s hard to find anything better currently.

'Cause I Gotta Have Faith-a-Faith-a-Faith... The Wolf Among Us Episode 1 - Faith Review

Written By: Tyler Selig

Rating: 8.5/10

Verdict: Episode 1- Faith treats us to a compelling story and an incredible first episode, where the choices you make matter.

"Where is it? Where is my Lorde CD?"

I am going to start this off by throwing out a blasphemy. I have never played The Walking Dead. My reasons are ignorant, but I never played it, so I had no idea what I was getting into in The Wolf Among Us. I heard great things about the developers and The Walking Dead, but I avoided videos and articles about the game. I went in mostly blind.

                I also never read Fables. It has always been one of those comic book series that I put on my “To Read” list, but haven’t gotten around to actually checking that one off.

                You play as Bigby, who is the Big Bad Wolf, only now he is a Sheriff. He has put all the bad things he did in the past behind him and is now trying to help people out. The game starts with you meeting Faith, a prostitute who eventually meets an untimely death. So of course, Bigby wants to know what happened to here, and the rest of Episode 1 consists of you putting on your detective hat to solve the case. From that point on, you meet a compelling cast of characters from fables of all sorts, and each interaction is intriguing.

                The main draw of The Wolf Among Us is the decision making, and it succeeded in making me feel like every question I was asked was important. Whether it’s being aggressive, or saying nothing, I thought hard – in the small amount of time it gave me, which is important because it forces you to make hard choices on the fly – about every decision I made. I was always at the edge of my seat in anticipation of how what I decided would impact the world around me and my relationships with other characters.

                An adventure game with a focus on decision making could end badly if you don’t feel that how you react is important in some way. If you can’t guess it from what I said above, Faith gets it right in a big bad way. Ultimately there is a story arc that the game will follow, but how you go about your business will change things to some degree.

                Since the first episode falls within the hardboiled detective genre, it only feels right that the game is sufficiently dark. From the way characters talk to one another, to the moody comic book visuals, and to the music which admittedly ended up subtly drawing me into the situation rather than bringing attention to itself, TellTale has done everything they could to make you believe in the world you’re inhabiting for this short period of time (though there are more episodes on the way).

                Like Beyond: Two Souls (review coming in the near future), the game is pretty heavy on making you watch, outside of some periods where you can walk around in a limited area. However, the story never fails to be interesting and the questions you get asked making you keep your hands on the controller or keyboard and mouse, because you only have a set period of time to answer most of them. So you’re always involved.
               There are slight technical problems, frame-rate hiccups during transitions for example, but they really aren’t a big deal and I can’t understand anybody making a big deal out of them. Still, as a reviewer, I feel it is my duty to at least point it out.
               Sometimes they throw in fight scenes and these are a blast, despite the fact that you don’t actually move Bigby. Fight scenes consist mostly of QTEs… move left, move right, press up, down, press a button repeatedly. I’m not big into the whole QTE movement, but Episode 1 makes fights action packed by allowing you to move your cursor to objects that are highlighted. What this means is that you could be fighting someone and you have a choice to hit them with a glass, shove them into a wall, etc. This little touch does make you feel more engrossed in the actions on screen.

                Faith is a wonderful first episode, and it ends with such a heart-wrenching scene that I can’t wait to play the next one. Fans of this genre take heed, because this is something to keep an eye on.