The Wolf Among Us - Review
When Telltale games announced that the next game they would be making would be based of a DC Vertigo comic series, my reaction was one of, cool a new game. Having no knowledge of the comic series, I went into the game hoping that I could be welcomed in, did Telltale manage to deliver?
The characters that inhabit the world are those taken from classic fairy tales, after a war forced them from their own world, they settled in ours, taking up residence in New York City. The citizens are forced to use magic known as Glamour’s in order to appear human and those that can’t afford to buy them, or refuse are sent to the farm. Through the five episodes, you will be lied to, mislead and outright hated as you play as Bigby Wolf, aka The Big Bad Wolf. Bigby has been tasked with looking after the inhabitants of this new land and keeping humans or mundies as they are called from getting to close to the world.
The game starts off with Bigby attending a dispute, after a callout from Mr Toad, Toad himself is not using a glamour and this is where your first choice happens. You can choose to let Toad go with a warning or threaten to send him to the farm. As it is with the recent round of Telltale titles, characters remember what you say or don’t say to them, so the choice you make here will also impact how Toad helps or hinders you in the future. After that encounter, Bigby heads upstairs to the disturbance and locates a women being beaten by the Woodsman, yep that same Woodsman from Little Red Riding Hood. Your actions from this point on will change everything going forward and that is where the fun comes from.
As you progress through the game, you will encounter other fairy tale characters such as Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum and a host of others. Some of the characters won’t react too kindly to you, because of who you are and others based on choices you have made, making the decisions even more important. The story kicks into full gear when Snow White comes to collect you from your apartment but won’t tell you why. She takes you down to the front of the Woodlands, the name for the building where you live, and shows you the head of the girl you saved from the Woodsman.
The game will take you to various locations as your investigation as you attempt to locate the killer. Each episode brings forth new allies and enemies, as well as locations. With the new spaces to explore, your level of knowledge about the game world and its characters will increase based on how much you explore. The game world is not all that interactive sadly, with only elements that are important to the story open to inspection. While the reason behind this is very understandable, it is a shame to see such a rich world being left unexplored for the most part.
The game is retaining that same stylised look that Telltale mastered with The Walking Dead Game, however in parts of the game small little blemishes become quite noticeable due to how well the rest of the world is visualised. In fact those few issues are really the only drawback I can point out to the presentation of the game. Each of the performances are amazing, with Bigby, Snow and the Tweedles standing out in my mind. As you move around the city, when you are outside, the sounds of New York do bounce around, but they don’t intrude on the atmosphere.
The game controls as well as previous Telltale games, I just wish that the PC version supported controllers as well. If you have not yet experienced this fantastic title, you are doing yourselves a disservice because it is amazing.
The Score
9.5
Review code provided by Telltale Games
The Pros
+Fantastic story
+Characters have depth and make you want to care
The Cons
-You don't like new takes on well known characters
-The lack of control options is a little weird
