Is this wolf full of hot air or is there some substance to Telltale’s new series?
For those who have played The Walking Dead episodic series from Telltale, The Wolf Among Us will feel very familiar. It has the same interface, player choices that impact the overall story and the odd quicktime event thrown in for good measure. TWD was one of my favourite games of last year, but can Telltale strike gold once again based on a series from the Fables comics?
You play as Bigby Wolf, a sheriff in Fabletown which is full of classical characters such as Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and Mr Toad to name a few. The fabled characters are made into human form with a spell called Glamour to be a part of society in modern-day Manhattan or be taken to a rural community called The Farm. You begin by being called to a disturbance at Mr Toad’s inn as The Woodsman is beating up a hooker who later ends up murdered outside Bigby’s apartment.
Fabled characters are hard to kill; The Woodsman gets an axe in the head and still picks himself up and carries on. The game opens up now to a Whodunit situation where Bigby and Snow White team up to solve the mystery to little avail. Trails end up going cold and the choices you make will change the outcome of whatever comes in future episodes. It’s a gripping episode from start to finish, although I found it a bit on the short side…it did leave me wanting more and that’s what Telltale are great at doing.
The art style is brilliant and despite a few framerate issues, it holds up really well visually. The voice-acting is great too with some funny one-liners to dramatic ones that feel believable. The choices you make are clever and will definitely impact future episodes, for that I am sure. I personally can’t wait to see how, but we’ve seen Telltale do this with TWD and its pay off was well worth it.
The Verdict
Despite being a short episode, Episode 1 “Faith” hooked me in from start to finish and introduced me to the Fables universe. It has a great story, memorable characters and some tough decisions to make. I can’t wait to see what Episode 2 brings…
