QCF: The Wolf Among Us-Episode 4

f you’re surprised that our review for the fourth episode of The Wolf Among Us has appeared so soon after the last, you are not the only one. In only about a month we now find ourselves heading towards the final episode, having been let in on what is really going on in Fabletown as well as the identity of whoever has been causing so much trouble. With the ghastly images of Bigby’s last encounter still fresh in his mind, he is only able to lick his wounds and attempt to track down the person responsible for lambasting his body with silver bullets and leaving him for dead.

So does the fourth episode in this dark fairytale give us all the answers in such a short period of time? The question really is are those answers enough for what is about to happen to the Sheriff and the rest of the Fables?

As with many of our reviews of episodic games, we will avoid going into spoiler territory as we discuss the events surrounding the latest installment. However it does help to know certain key figures that are now being identified in the game as the potential source of the murders and abundance of crime that is being committed. Bigby and Snow have found out that Crane was attempting to find the person responsible for the murders he was accused of perpetrating, by using the Magic Mirror to identify their hide out. It is then revealed that the Crooked Man was the man behind everything, using his crew to enforce his will upon the town.

Bigby soon finds out that Crooked Man owns the town, and that if a war is coming he will be ready for anything. Unfortunately not the same can be said about Bigby, as Snow attempts to apply her authority as the acting Deputy Mayor to “put a leash” as it was described on Bigby. After several appearances from the big bad wolf resulted in a few lost limbs and corpses, she pleads with the sheriff to show restraint and to play things by the book. At this point in the story, it really does not feel like doing things on the straight and narrow really will do any good however for her sake we attempted to do just that. That sense of trying to be good when the natural instinct is to lash out and resort to violence has always been the draw of Bigby’s character during this series. Unfortunately for our play through, this current episode just did not seem to be a good example of the consequences that will occur if one decision is made over the other.

Our version of Bigby going through the previous episodes has been the former terrorizing wolf attempting to show humanity while everyone else takes turns using him as a punching bag. Regardless of how much he attempted to turn the other cheek, there was always the moment where someone would go too far and Bigby would have to teach them a lesson. But In Sheep’s Clothing never really has that sense of the scales tipping in one direction or the other. Whether he was trying to gain the trust of Nerissa, and asking her about what kind of control The Crooked Man has over her and the other dancers or when he needs to make a decision on a friend who is not willing to go back to the Farm it never felt like the “good” option ever led to a satisfying resolution. It always ended up leading to an undecided conversation that would have to be tabled for a later time. Perhaps that is the point of A Wolf Among Us, Bigby really is not able to be a human. The only thing that ever makes sense in the game or for Bigby is when he is ripping into someone’s flesh or taking ridiculous amounts of punishment and still getting back up.

Another drawback for this penultimate episode is the length. Normally we would play through an episode for anywhere between two to three hours. This time around, the play through clocked in at a little over an hour. It seemed like as soon as the episode was beginning, Bigby was staring down at a room full of potential enemies, as he struck his lighter to a cigarette and the scene faded to black. We are unsure about if this was due to the short turnaround for the newest chapter or if things are being held back for the finale, but the play through had very little to it overall. Many questions were answered, but it just felt like there was not much there to actually solve or piece together. The previous episode, The Crooked Mile featured several moments of attempting to put the puzzle together and figure out the source of the problem. And now with all this knowledge, it just would have been nice to see what the fallout would have been from how Bigby obtained that information. Trust us when we say that he destroyed several lives in order to get to this point in the story, and to not see some sort of retribution from the victims was a disappointment.

In the end, In Sheep’s Clothing had the potential to pay off on so many different decisions that were made throughout the story leading up to the final showdown and it just feels like it fell flat. Bloody Mary showing up right before this episode began had us excited for an epic battle, and she showed up only once in a vision. A Wolf Among Us has up to this point been able to make us feel terrible for making split second decisions. Decisions that could cost people their livelihood, their friendships or even their lives. Yet this time around the choices did not carry any weight, and Bigby never really has a moment to lash out and show why he was so feared when the Fables were back home. The series has hit a speed bump in this episode, we hope that the final episode will be able to bring all these choices to a fulfilling conclusion.