The Wolf Among Us (Spoilers)

Hello and welcome to ToriJ's Video Game Reviews. Today we'll be looking at another popular game by Telltale based on the Fables comic books created by Bill Willingham: The Wolf Among Us!

You play as Bigby, formerly known as the Big Bad Wolf, who has been appointed sheriff of Fabletown where all the fables have come to start a new life for themselves.

Bigby comes across a murder of one of the fables and begins an investigation that gets crazier, and crazier with each new episode. If it's anything like Phoenix Wright's cases I'm going to need a drink.

  Nice wallpaper.

As usual the most you have to do is click on text boxes, fulfill quick time events, and explore areas to advance the plot.

Since I'm playing on the computer this time around it's less about pressing the right button and more about hovering the mouse over the right text box. At least they're in text boxes and not just rows of text on top of one another.

The artwork is beautiful and does its best to capture the comic book world it's inspired from. Since I haven't actually sat down and read a single Fables comic I can't really comment any further than that.

  Should I kick it down? I should kick it down, I'm sure Beauty won't mind.

Moving around is as restrictive as you can expect. There are even fewer walking around moments than in The Walking Dead games. Makes sense since you're not running away from walkers or crazy people.

There are plenty of times where you can just punch a person, and I'd be lying if I said that didn't feel good. Some times it's unavoidable and you end up in a fight with that person regardless, but some times it's actually a result of your own choices.

This game makes it pretty easy to want to punch someone, stomp on them, or rip off their head in front of an entire community. Not that I have any experience with that.

In the first episode you meet a woman named Faith, a prostitute that's fallen on hard times. Times would become even tougher because later the same night you find her head delivered to your doorstep and the mystery begins. You go from lead to lead trying to solve it and can even name who you suspect. I named the Pimp at first, made the most since.

But doesn't there seem to be something missing from this investigation? Something that's kind of important? Evidence! You're never able to find any evidence linking to the actual murders. They even say as much near the end. You have to rely on a single witness' testimony to lock the guy up.

Maybe that was part of the point to make you wonder if the guy was really guilty or not, but damn. You'd think during an investigation there'd be some time set aside to actually finding something more reliable than people's stories.

People aren't the most reliable of sources. They can lie, or their memory can be crap. Hell, your witness basically DOES lie to you in the end. No wonder Bigby drinks.

The characters are awesome and I love the tie ins with all the different fables. From the little things like Huff and Puff cigarettes and Georgie's tattoo, to bigger things like the relationship between Bloody Mary and the Magic Mirror.

Bigby is just a guy with a dark past trying to do what's right and having one wrong thing after another happen to him. Hardly anyone will give this guy a break. If I had a nickel for every time someone picked a fight with him I'd need a bigger coin purse.

Snow is a pretty good supporting character to Bigby and shows you can be a strong woman without having to run around and beat people up. A rarity these days. That's a pretty big departure from how she was in her original fairytale.

Some of the voices are recognizable if you played The Walking Dead first. Melissa Hutchison (the voice actor for Clementine) pulls double duty as Toad Jr. and Beauty using her Season 1 Clem voice for Toad and Season 2 voice for Beauty. I kept expecting Beauty to say, “Still not bitten!” whenever she was together with Beast.

Dave Fennoy (voice for Lee) also plays Bluebeard in this. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with companies hiring on the same voice actors for other roles, it's just a little daunting hearing the same voices for vastly different characters.

To Fennoy's credit, he changes his voice just enough to where he does sound like a different character with some familiarity. But Hutchison? That voice just doesn't work coming out of those characters mouths.

Another favorite of mine is Nerissa, formerly known as The Little Mermaid. I may be a bit bias in this area because I always liked The Little Mermaid, but they really do do a good job bringing this character to life.

When you first meet her she's in nothing but her underwear and it's the most natural piece of nudity I've ever seen in a game. It's the only piece of nudity I've ever seen in a game.

Nerissa starts out as just a woman just trying to get by and turns out to be the mastermind behind the whole thing. She pretended to be Faith, made sure Bigby found the real Faith, and saw to it that the Crooked Man was locked away. That's badass! But enough about the good guys (though I guess that's debatable) let's talk about villains.

Bloody Mary. Not since Carver have I utterly despised a villain as much as Bloody Mary. From the very first moment I saw this character I wanted nothing more than to rip her fucking head off, and because of this she's a brilliant villain.

This woman could give Ramsay Snow from Game of Thrones a run for his money. She's batshit insane and doesn't give two shits about anything. She's just waiting for an excuse to be let off her leash.

The Crooked Man is more your subtle, manipulative villain who works through pawns to keep his hands clean. A man who takes advantage of people to meet his own ends. He nearly talks his way out of guilt near the game's climax. Assuming you bring him back alive, that is. Man do they give you SO many chances to kill him.

What more can I say? The Wolf Among Us is a great game and it's easy to see why so many fans are hoping for a sequel.

If you love all things Telltale, or point and click adventures, or if you're familiar with the comics at all, then this may very well be the game for you.

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