Tech Talk Game Review: The Wolf Among Us

Did you ever have one of those books where you always wanted to see it in other mediums? This is one of mine.

Title:

The Wolf Among Us

Genre

RPG

Platform

PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, PC, Xbox One

" Fables Telltale Logo" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

Story

This is based off of the comic book Fables -- what Once Upon A Time blatantly ripped off, badly. In an apartment complex in Downtown New York resides a community of "fables."  They're literally out of the myths and legends of Grimm's fairy tales. Only one man in all of Fabletown is tough enough to keep them all in line, the Sheriff, Bigby Wolf. But Bigby only wears a human guise, hiding the animal within.

But now, Fabletown has a problem: women are starting to die in Fabletown, and it's up to Bigby to find the murderer before he strikes at his ulimate victim.

Mechanics

You don't get more basic than this. Most of the character interactions are in dialogue options. There are always four (the default being to remain silent). You can walk the grid like in any crime scene, making observation and finding evidence along the way. When it comes to fighting, they're all QTEs (Quicktime Events that prompt you to hit a button or move a stick in the right way).  That's it.

Gameplay

As Bigby investigates, he'll come up against every lowlife in the Fable community, including Grendel, the Huntsman, and the toughs Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum.

The game is simple and straightforward, an investigation where you have to put together many of the clues yourself, and do it quickly, picking the right answer out from a multiple choice in the right amount of time.

Music/Graphics

The music is smooth and atmospheric. It compliments the heavy-noir style of the game seemlessly.

The art style is indeed beautiful.  It's nicely artistic, and lends the game a very noir-element to it.  Really, it feels like playing a Raymond Chandler novel...only with Fables characters

Morals/Appropriateness

And this is where my recommendation hits a wall. The first two victims in the mystery are prostitutes.  The murderer is a serial killer. A journey to find the pimp leads to a topless bar.

Oh, yeah, and there are four-letter words all over the place, but that's barely an issue at this point, is it?

Community/Multiplayer

None.

Addiction Danger

I found the story captivating, and couldn't wait to see what happened next.  Though I found the episodic nature of the game to help curb playing time to about 2-3 hours. It helped a lot.

Problems/Ending Comments

My Rating: 8/10, for gameplay; 10/10 for story, but it's rated R.

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Copyright 2015 John Konecsni

Copyright 2015 John Konecsni.
Art: "Fables Telltale Logo" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.