The Wolf Among Us Review: Immersive

What if every fairy-tale story that you read as a child was actually true — picture that the Big Bad Wolf is “kinda” friends with one of the Three Little Pigs, and they hang out in the same apartment or house next to yours, quietly basking in the memories of their literary glory days over drinks and cigarettes. While not a likely scenario, it is an interesting one presented by Telltale Games new series “The Wolf Among Us.”

“The Wolf Among Us” is Telltale Games adaption of Bill Willingham’s “Fables” comic book series. As with the recent adaptation of “The Walking Dead,” Telltale provides an adventure that allows the player to choose his own path in-game, and adapts accordingly to the behavior of the player. Receiving generally positive praise from gamers, it was only natural that in the time between the arrival of Season 2 of the Walking Dead videogame that TellTale would continue to spin new tales and adventures for fans.

In the middle of a seedy, neon plagued, 80s-esque New York City, there is a unremarkable apartment building filled with a plethora of what would appear to be equally unremarkable people. However, under the surface, behind what turns out to be their mere magical mirage lies some of the most famous and infamous creatures of the fairy-tale realm, from Beauty and the Beast to Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Visually, The Wolf Among Us is extraordinarily good at immersing players into a genuinely believable environment, despite the fact that it is made in the style of a comic book, which evokes an environmental style that is reminiscent of “A Scanner Darkly.”

The fairy-tale characters of the Fables comic series have been digitally translated into remarkably believable characters – ironically, despite their pasts as fairytale stories. Protected by Sheriff Bigby Wolf (read:The Big Bad Wolf), most of them manage mediocre and mundane lives comparable to most regular folk – Beauty and the Beast are a plagued with marital problems and bill-paying issues, as one example of this, and Little Red Riding Hood’s savior, the lumberjack, has devolved into a shadow of his former self, now an alcoholic man who has made a family out of patrons at the local bar.

It can safely be said without spoiling the plot that although following in the well paved path of The Walking Dead, this title is far more cerebral than previous games in Telltale’s library. While you are still making choices that progress the story, the game forces players to question their choices far more than The Walking Dead has done in episodic content before 400 Days, which was much more blunt with the effects that certain comments and actions would have on particular in-game characters. “The Wolf Among Us” makes you realize that Bigby Wolf is not just trying to survive in a world that has now chalked his existence down to a mere fictional storybook tale – he is the unlikely law enforcer of numerous magical creatures and as such has numerous tasks to balance, from investigating crimes to helping those who have fallen victim to it – while also enforcing the law and attempting to forgo the “Big Bad” title he had so dutifully earned in his past adventures with Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs.

“The Wolf Among Us” shows promise as a great new addition to Telltale’s repertoire of powerful story-driven tales. One might hope that the end result does not criminally force players into a single ending in the same fashion that other so-called player choice games have frequently done in the past. Despite this, it seems to be preparing to take gamers on a pretty interesting ride.