The Wolf Among Us is the Best Quicktime Event You'll Ever Play - Review

The Wolf Among Us…

I love a game that tells a good story. After several recommendations by friends and my personal investigation into the game, i decided to rent The Wolf Among Us in order to see what the hype was about.

The Wolf Among Us is an episodic narrative from TellTale Games, based on the comic series: Fables. There are five episodes of The Wolf Among Us in total, available both separately or as a complete package.

Story

The Wolf Among Us is all about the story.

TellTale is notorious for rich stories and great world building, both of which are evident in this game.

You play as Bigby Wolf (The big bad wolf), who is acting as the sheriff of Fabletown. Fabletown is a small community in New York City populated by characters from famous fairy tales. Via magical cloaking devices called “glamours,” the characters are able to disguise themselves and blend in with the rest of the human world.  

After a few odd incidents between some residents of Fabletown, Bigby is put on the trail of a murderer who poses a threat to everyone in the city.

There’s not much more I can say without entering spoiler territory, which would be high treason for a game with such an emphasis on story.

All you need to know is that TWAU will have you on the edge of your seat.

Gameplay

Most of The Wolf Among Us plays just like a quicktime event. As Bigby investigates the murder case, he will encounter other Fables and be prompted to participate in conversation.

During this time, you the player has a limited time to choose what Bigby says and does. If you don’t decide what to say in a certain amount of time, Bigby will remain silent.

Every choice you make has a lasting impact. Characters will remember how you treated them, and maybe even use what you did against you.  

Occasionally, Bigby will slip into what I call “Investigation Mode.” During this time you are free to explore a space and find clues.

Then there are “action sequences,” during which you will need to react quickly to button prompts in order for Bigby to fight or defend himself.

While these sequences are thrilling (and pretty much the only gameplay mechanic I enjoyed) , they are also frustrating, especially since if you miss too many button prompts, Bigby can die…

Overall I didn’t love TWAU’s gameplay. Most of the time I was bored and only pressing forward because I wanted to see what would happen next. Still, this game is not meant to have an emphasis on gameplay. If you look past the flaws in gameplay, you will see that TellTale chose the right way to tell the story they wanted and make an enjoyable game.

Controls

Based on what I’ve said thus far, you can probably predict that TWAU’s controls are not too complicated: four action buttons for picking dialogue, and the triggers for attacks.

The only problem I had with controls occurred during Investigation Mode.  

Because you cannot control/rotate the camera, exploring a confined space as Bigby sometimes resulted in a lack of what i can best describe as depth perception. Because of this, i was constantly getting stuck behind chairs, desks, etc.

This issue is pretty minor, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

Graphics

I played The Wolf Among Us on my PS3, so graphics were inevitably going to be worse than the current-gen versions.

The art style of The Wolf Among Us is very “comic-booky,” so it keeps true to the source material.

Upon startup of the game, it usually ran slow and very choppy. I would constantly drop frames. However, these problems always sorted themselves out after a couple of minutes, and then the game ran very smoothly.

Especially since Wolverine
and Bigby are essentially
the same character...

Conclusion

If you want to experience a great story (as well as know what everyone is talking about), I highly suggest you pick up TWAU. At the very least you could pick up Episode 1 (for $5, I think), and then if you don’t like it you can stop.

I give The Wolf Among Us an 8.5/10. The plot is great, but the gameplay just wasn’t rich enough for me.

Even so, I am anxiously awaiting Season 2 of The Wolf Among Us.

Final Thought: I think I’d rather watch a movie adaptation of this game, starring Hugh Jackman as Bigby Wolf. Let me know what you think of that idea.