My Rating: [rating=4]

The Wolf Among Us is a graphic adventure game developed by Telltale Games. It is based on the comic series Fables written by Bill Willingham, which features characters and creatures from fairytales, legends, and popular stories . The “Fables”, as they call themselves, now live in Fabletown somewhere in New York City. In order to blend in with other people, non-human fables need to use Glamour to hide their true appearances. Season 1 is 5 episodes long.

Setting

The setting is 1980s Manhattan. Its dark fantasy slash noir genre, boosted by part gritty, part neon graphics and suspenseful enigmatic soundtrack, easily stands on its own. The ‘game ambiance’ (I don’t know if it’s right to call it like that) made me feel the need to unearth existing mysteries by following my intuition and searching for clues.

Plot

The game is set as a prequel to the comics. Bigby (the Big Bad Wolf) became sheriff of the town and works at the Business Office. He reports to Mayor Ichabod Crane. Snow White works as Crane’s assistant and all together, they solve cases and mysteries. In Episode 1, Bigby saves Faith (a prostitute) from the Woodsman then finds out the next day that the same girl was murdered. His investigation leads him to a new string of secrets, conspiracies, and dangers involving other Fables.

Gameplay

It’s a point-and-click, “interactive” type of adventure game and it’s much more fun when played on an iPad, for the simplest reason that you get to swipe your fingers on the screen during fight scenes. You also get to make decisions (A LOT), where your every choice will determine how your story plays out. Choose well because every decision has a parallel consequence.

My husband introduced me to Telltale Games the first time he played its more popular game series, The Walking Dead. He’s also the one who downloaded the [free] first episode and purchased episodes 2 to 5. I got interested because I love fairy tales and the theme is quite similar to the TV series Once Upon A Time, of which I’m a fan. There would be a Game of Thrones series to be launched this year and I’m totally excited!

I thought about Bigby as a hero, somehow thirsty of redemption from his past undesirable actions, so I TRIED to make him conceal his dark side. But of course there are a few instances that I got too carried away and gave the antagonists what they deserved. So here goes — a summary of how my first attempt on the game turned out.

Spoilers Ahead!

• I accused Crane of not caring about Snow White. I didn’t even think of him as a dirty old perv who’s secretly obsessed with Snow.
• I forced the murder suspect (can’t remember if its Dee or Dum) to talk and punched him, but I spared Tweedle Dum’s life during the first Bloody Mary incident.
• I kept Beauty’s secret. Hey, it’s not a good idea to meddle with another couples’ concerns.
• I gently persuaded Georgie to give me info during the Pudding N’ Pie scene, but I left him to die in the end. He deserves to suffer, LOL.
• I did not burn Greenleaf’s tree. In fact, I offered her a job.
• I attempted to remove Nerissa’s ribbon out of curiosity.
• I offered Flycatcher a job. He seemed to be a nice guy (a little shady though) but I included him on my suspect list.
• I sent Colin to the farm. Rules are rules, buddy.
• Did not send Toad to the farm (even gave him money to buy glamour) yet the big move was inevitable.
• I negotiated with the Crooked Man first when I should have torn him into pieces when I had the chance.
• Prince Lawrence died. I should have went to his place first before going to Toad’s.
• Brought back the Crooked Man alive and gave him a trial. I guess I should have thrown him down the Witching Well.. along with Bluebeard.
• Been extra nice, caring, and loving to Snow White. She’s Bigby’s love interest after all. I cursed when I thought she died in Episode 1.

The twist in the ending is too much for my brain to handle. Well, my theory is that Faith is glamoured as Nerissa and she’s the one who plotted the whole thing to get Bigby’s attention. Having said that, the one who’s dead is Nerissa glamoured as Faith (that explains her head.) I’m still not sure because there are plot holes to my theory. I need to play the game again to double-check evidences and to reveal more angles to the story.

Did you like the game? What do you think of what has been revealed in the end?

The Wolf Among Us
http://www.telltalegames.com/thewolfamongus/
https://www.facebook.com/TheWolfAmongUs

Published: 2014-07-25 15:13:42