The Wolf Among Us, Telltale’s adaption of the wildly popular Vertigo comic “Fables”, started just like its source material: with a murder that rocked the community of Fabletown, the hidden borough in New York City housing refugees from a fairytale world that was conquered by a ruthless adversary. Just as the murder in “Fables” #1 led to something much more (or arguably much less), the killings in Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us don’t just lead to some events that had been mentioned off-panel in the comics, but to the very creation of Fabletown as we know it.
Check out our spoiler-free review below!
“Fables” already has a gigantic cast of fairytale characters which leads to Wolf Among Us scrounging for scraps when it comes to new characters to use. Though favorites like Snow White and Bluebeard (voiced by Dave Fennoy AKA Lee from The Walking Dead) have a large presence, the majority of the game revolves around entirely new characters to the “Fables” canon like Georgie Porgie, Grendel, and Faith, among many others. It’s not exactly an A-list roster in the way The Big Bad Wolf, Prince Charming, or even Flycatcher are, but that’s the point. Life and death in Fabletown revolves around every Fable’s popularity. Snow White can take a bullet to the brain and walk it off because every little girl (and a couple boys) want to grow up to be her, while characters like Donkeyskin… well, they don’t exactly last long. Without the safety net that notoriety allows the more popular Fables, the lower-tier characters are left to fend for themselves. And with an incompetent government run by a still in-power Ichabod Crane, they’re going to turn to some crooked resources.
As Bigby Wolf, the pseudo-reformed Big Bad Wolf, you investigate the violence that’s sprung up from this new Fable underground. Though Bigby’s the obvious choice for the player character here for many surface reasons (after all, he is the arguable main character in the comics) there’s a lot of mileage to be found in his dual role as government watchdog and literal feral Dog that’s killed like a million Fables. Your every move is an intrusion on the very fragile balance the Fables have set up to survive which leads to every character not trusting you, be it because of your role in the government that failed to help them or because you ate their cousin a couple centuries back. Either way, everything you say is a step in that could lead you closer to the truth or land you in a brawl with Grendel from “Beowulf”.
Here’s where the majority of Wolf Among Us finds its gameplay; not in the fighting, but in the dialogue. Though it’s ostensibly a point-and-click game, Wolf Among Us has very few puzzles in the traditional sense. While there are short bits of walking around and investigating scenes, a large portion of the game is found in the dialogue options where, in a short span of time, you have to choose what to say and use your skills in character study to determine what’s not going to get you a slap in the face and what might get you closer to the killer. Unlike other games built on choice such as Fallout or Mass Effect, there’s no obvious indication of what choices are “good” and which are “bad”. Your karma is entirely up to you and decisions that might seem right to you may not work for other characters. Hell, it’s when you learn to just shut up and let other characters talk themselves out that you avoid some of the game’s more unnecessary altercations.
Still, you’re undoubtedly going to end up saying something unfortunate since you can’t think out your answers in the short time Telltale gives you, and that leads to a much more realistic sense of decision making. It’s not like when you can decide whether or not to save a potentially dangerous species by leaving the dialogue menu open to go write a pros and cons list while an entire lab explodes around you in Mass Effect. The urgent timing creates a tension that lasts throughout Telltales’ games and makes each episode an immersive experience that refuses to be backed away from.
The tension carries over into the fight scenes which are comprised of quick-time events. Though many other games with quick-time events just throw them in to make a game feel more cinematic, the fights in Wolf Among Us give an already cinematic game more choice. Throw this brawler onto the couch or the bare frame of a bed? Spare another person’s life or rip their guts out? Will you jump onto the car you’re chasing, even though an unmarked one might actually have the man you’re after? Small choices like these give a greater sense of control in a game that’s honestly less game and more interactive movie. Also, the aforementioned timer that comes with all your actions gives all your fights the urgency of a bar brawl, even when they’ve gone beyond actual bar fighting and into some truly epic battles that wouldn’t feel as epic without the player’s input.
Continued belowI’m going to keep it vague here because it’s a great moment I’d hate to spoil, but the final boss battle is exciting not because of what you’re witnessing but because it feels like you’re the one performing these actions, which isn’t something that could be said for other games that shove quick-time events down players throats.
While I’ve been praising innovation of Wolf Among Us‘s gameplay, I should really make it clear that it’s not perfect. Walking around crime scenes can feel very clumsy, as can the cursor, and the save system that carries over data from one episode to the other can be wonky at best. It’s better than in Walking Dead where I had to replay the entirety of season one to have my choices set in stone for season two,; though, actually that ended up showing me how these types of games aren’t great when it comes to replay value — you can certainly make different choices, but they don’t change the game entirely as many events still occur with or without your involvement. In my play through the courtroom argument that comprises a large chunk of the final episode was saved at the last minute of Wolf Among Us by a deus ex machina which probably barged into the room no matter what.
For a game built on choices, The Wolf Among Us hardly seems to have many, that matter but given that this is a prequel to a wildly popular comic and not a side-story with entirely new characters like Walking Dead or Tales From The Borderlands, it’s not a huge surprise. Snow White has to become Deputy Mayor, Bigby has to become a better hero during the comics series, and of course whoever’s hurting the citizens of Fabletown has to be brought to justice.
That said, it’s not like Telltales didn’t know that coming in. They’re arguably one of, if not the, smartest game developers today as shown by the real conflict. Your choices don’t matter when it comes to Bigby’s investigation; you have to stop the killer’s reign of terror before “Fables” #1 no matter what. Instead, your choices influence how you perform the investigation and what type of character Bigby is. Will he be a misunderstood crusader of justice, a noir detective out for revenge, or a wolf wearing a man’s skin? That choice is yours.
The world of Wolf Among Us isn’t the same as the comics. It’s a noir dive ridden with neon lights and grime that’s beautifully captured by the game’s cel-shading style. In it, you ultimately have little control, and often you feel like a pawn being shuffled amongst Fabletown’s big players, which can feel ridiculously unfair; kind of like — and I really don’t want to sound plenteous here but here we go — life. We’re often faced with situations in which we have little power to actively change the outcome, and yet we do create change, often through our unconscious actions. The Wolf Among Us doesn’t offer simple binary choices like “Save city” or “Burn it to the ground,” but instead the choices we’re given affect the only thing we really change change: ourselves.
The Wolf Among Us isn’t just a thrilling noir story filled with shocking twists and epic fights that also revolves around themes of deception, police brutality, and classism. I mean, it definitely is, but it’s also a revealing look at power, how much we all really have and over what.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – I wouldn’t recommend The Wolf Among Us to any gamer really looking to rip into Fabletown – you might want to check out Sonic Unleashed or something, I don’t know many werewolf games – but I’d definitely say it’s an excellent experience for anyone who likes “Fables” or superb storytelling in video games. Does it feel like an unfair game devoid of choice at times? Maybe. Personally, I feel like The Wolf Among Us is further proof that Telltale is the smartest game developer around.
