QCF: The Wolf Among Us-Episode 2

t the conclusion of the first episode of The Wolf Among Us, Sheriff Bigby Wolf was utterly shocked at the grisly scene waiting on his front doorstep. The sirens of police vehicles rotating and swirling around his expressionless face, his eyes however telling a tale larger than the storybooks of their origins. The heroes and villains of some of the most well-known fairytales were actually real, and living amongst normal human beings in New York City. Unfortunately for these refugees, the real world begins to overtake their way of life, leading to crime and unfortunate circumstances. Several sleepless nights have passed since the incident, and now Bigby must block out the haunting visions of what had been lost and begin to find answers.  His search will not be easy, as his anger begins to bubble to the surface all while strings are still being pulled in the background that will affect everyone in the Woodlands.

Players of the first episode have been anxiously awaiting this follow up chapter, waiting for the outcome of their initial play through.  Choices and decisions carry over into the next installment, as is expected from the previous games released by Telltale Games. The “Previously On” segment that begins the episode is a nice reminder and brings the player back into the experience. Unfortunately for some the wait for the second episode was longer than expected, so this may be a crash course on which decisions were made and the consequences to follow. As the story begins to unfold, it begins to become clear that several people among the world of Fables are not exactly as they seem. Wolf will find himself engaging in an interrogation, and the player must decide on whether to use Bigby’s newly found kindness to persuade the suspect or resort to the tactics he is all too well known for. Several times throughout the game the player will be presented with this option, further shaping how the Sheriff will behave and decide on important moments in the story. Even fairytale characters have their demons, and it seems that no one is as pure as they seem.

The mechanics of the game are familiar from the first offering, however the pacing is much slower than what was seen in the story of Faith. Where the first episode had several fight scenes and more action, Smoke and Mirrors instead takes on much more of the noire gameplay. The one fight scene that will ultimately transpire still has the quick time event controls, which seem to be pretty forgiving and easy to pull off. No complaints here, since the action moments of Telltale Games have continued to improve and no longer brings the experience down or leads to frustration. Some may argue that this makes the game less of a game and more of just dialogue options. However it is because of this that the title begins to become more of an adventure game, with finding clues and attempting to talk through situations to find the best approach. If players just want to smash objects and have drag out brawls, there are moments for that as well. The game really lends itself to several attempts, to see what would change and how the spider web of events will connect together.

One area that was disappointing however was the frequent introductions of characters throughout this second episode. Although the Book of Fables does assist in explaining the backstory of new characters as they are introduced into the story, it was still difficult to know how each character played a role in the murders that were continuing to occur. Perhaps this will be addressed in future chapters, where more detective work will be required to find the pattern. It was just a bit confusing at times to know who was a Fable, a normal human or someone using a glamour. The other disappointment is that the events played out at the end of the first episode paint a different picture of the events that actually do take place in Smoke and Mirrors. With almost four months between episodes, it seemed like even Telltale may have forgot what was going on. At one point it even seemed as if voice actors had mysteriously changed as well. Hopefully the wait for next passage of this fairytale will not be as lengthy, the cliffhangers of each part makes it all the more difficult.

The Wolf Among Us continues to build upon the consequences of each split second decision and builds a drama that continues to shock and push boundaries of traditional adventure games. It is a gritty tale of what is right and wrong and the paper-thin line that separates the two. Even though this installment is very brief compared to the first episode, the game continues to fascinate and makes it so much harder to put the bookmark down in anticipation of the next tale.