Telltale has been at the adventure game development for quite some time while now, and with each game, they’ve steadily improving or learning new things to enrich later titles. Their latest effort is based on the comic series Fables, and much like The Walking Dead before it, this game is an Adventure game with a large focus on a cinematic narrative presentation. This adaption of the comic is called The Wolf Among Us.

The Wolf Among Us is a text adventure in the same vein as Telltale’s previous game, The Walking Dead. You are still making character responses to various dialogue exchanges, which then will eventually alter how other scenes play out in later chapters. But there also seems to be decisions that the player has to make that will significantly alter the outcome of the game’s conclusion in the fifth episode. At least that’s how it appears. The game seems to heavily suggest this because I made a decision which had a character killed off. That character might have played a major role if I picked the other option. The fact that the game is actually pointing out a clear choice to me was something that wasn’t even explored fully in The Walking Dead, being more of a subtle mechanic. Only time can tell though, as other episodes will be released over the course of the next year.

As for the story, the game takes place somewhere in New York, in a community called Fabletown, where all of the characters from fable stories all live together following a war in their world that saw them be exiled. Now they are all trying to make it in this world, and blend in with “mundy’s”, a nickname for normal humans for being ‘mundane’. And non-humans who don’t have the natural ability to conceal their true forms have to purchase ‘glamour’ spells to blend in. Problem is, it’s hard to make a living for many Fables, and they often turn to crime and will sometimes kill each other: And that where the protagonists role comes in. You play as Sheriff ‘Big Bad’ Bigby Wolf. The same one from Red Riding Hood, and other wolf related fables. Because of his sordid past many of the Fables do not trust him, despite his earnest desire to show them that he is reformed. Although they often push him to his limits and sometimes his inner beast slips out a bit. The game quickly becomes a murder mystery that needs to be solved, as there is a Fable serial killer on the loose.

The game’s art direction also uses cell shading like The Walking Dead, only this time it has been refined, and it uses interesting shading and coloring choices to better give off the impression that you are inside a comic book. The music is also very well done, and never feels out of place with the action on screen. Voice work also is of a good caliber. Quick Time events return as well, but they are easier to identify to what buttons are associated to their prompts, with the exception of the Left and Right Triggers if you are playing with an Xbox 360 controller on your PC. This is because the prompts are still animated and attached to whatever object in the scenes they are associated with. Since they move around it can sometimes be hard to see. Also, some parts of the game feel like even failing a prompt won’t lead to game overs or even alter the current path of the story. The game will just have something slightly different happen and continue. But as far as I can tell, those are really the only real negatives to the game. The Wolf Among Us should be on the radars of adventure game players and people who liked The Walking Dead.

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