Taming The Wolf Among Us‏

I recently found The Wolf Among Us for a low, low price of $20 on Amazon and figured I'd bite the bullet. Given the great track record of Telltale Games and the universal acclaim of The Walking Dead, I figured a new series would bring a refreshing take in the vein of what a Telltale Games game is known for. Boy was I right.

You end up taking the role of Bigby Wolf (a play on words for Big Bad Wolf), a "Fable" that left his story to live in Fabletown, New York. You, among other Fables, have escaped their stories to live there as well, and Bigby’s role is that of sheriff, serving and protecting his fellow kind.  Since many Fables aren’t human, they are required to use “glamours” to make them look human. This oddly enough ends up tying most of the story together, among which include Fable murders or deaths.

I won’t spoil the story since it would be a shame for you to not play through The Wolf Among Us. The game is fairly short (I clocked in about 10 hours) but the great ensemble cast keeps you continuously interested. What sets The Wolf Among Us apart from The Walking Dead is its pacing and art style. Also, it’s set in the 80s; the last awesome decade known to man.

Unlike The Walking Dead, you will see much more action via quick time events (QTEs). Don’t groan: these are probably some of the best QTEs I’ve ever seen. Basically, the QTEs are more interesting because they use more buttons. That sounds stupid, I know, but it gave much more variation and was less monotonous than The Walking Dead’s QTEs. Even if you didn’t complete a QTE on time, it’s no big deal because the cinematic keeps going for the most part. What this leaves you with are some great, action-filled fight scenes.

Another thing that sets The Wolf Among Us apart from The Walking Dead is Bigby Wolf, the protagonist. He feels more like a no-nonsense sheriff and I felt like being more of a bad cop than a good cop throughout my playthrough. Instead of trying to please everyone like Lee did in The Walking Dead season 1, I had people play by my rules with Bigby Wolf. I made a lot of choices that didn’t result in the best outcome, but I stuck with my gut feelings and tried to play as how I thought Bigby would’ve reacted.

Of course, compared to The Walking Dead, the game feels less somber in its tone, but the game isn’t always super serious and has its funny moments. Expect a fairly dark game that still manages to be funny.

Speaking of dark, the game manages to look like a great neo-noir with its choice of color and heavy use of black. It sort of reminds me of Sin City; both very stylish crime-dramas with excellent choice of color and use of black (and also, both comic books). I couldn’t help but stop and look in awe at how good looking the game is. I’m a total sucker for great presentation, and The Wolf Among Us is no slump in this category.

Seriously.

I mean.

Look at it.

Yeah.

Final Thoughts

If you have $20 to spend and 10 or so hours to burn, buy this game! I can’t stress this enough. It’s well worth your time to experience yet another good, but very different effort by Telltale Games. It won’t make you cry like The Walking Dead, but its definitely got some great twists and turns, accompanied by the badassery of Bigby Wolf.