The Wolf Among Us

Hey now, it's my first Telltale game. (But then again, Life Is Strange was pretty much a Telltale game in every sense but the actual one, so.) I liked The Wolf Among Us, but didn't love it. Let's start with my complaints. First and foremost, I've gotta shake my head at the technical glitches and bugs going on here. Twice I had to quit the game and restart entirely thanks to freezes, which is such a bummer on a system like the Xbox One in a year like 2017. And mid-QTE loading times? Jesus. Come on. My other issues dealt with the pacing and the story here, which started out strong and finished that way too, but which definitely meandered a bit and took some odd detours in those middle three chapters. I suppose that's just kind of how these episodic games work - you need to close each chapter with a bang, which means a lot of bangs are going to be followed up with some more mundane activities.

But now let me talk about what worked. For starters, the general premise. I guess this was somewhat based on a preexisting graphic novel series called Fables, but it's about a bunch of public domain monsters and fairy tale characters living in modern day New York, most of them in human form. You play as the Big Bad Wolf, the sheriff of Fabletown, and it's time to investigate some homicides. You're crushing on your colleague Snow White, you're trying to stay away from the marital troubles plaguing your neighbors Beauty and Beast, and fucking Mr. Toad is such a goddamn thorn in your side. I enjoyed it, and thought it was clever. Usually in these "make your own decisions" types of games I try to be noble and ethical - at least more than half the time, I'd say. But here, fuck it - I was the Big Bad Wolf! If Grendel's pissing me off, I'll rip his goddamn arm off. If Georgie Porgie wants to get all mouthy with me, I'll smack him around a bit. And if I find the asshole going around killing whores, you better believe I'm not worried about bringing him in for a fair trial while he still lives and breathes. I thought the world was fully imagined and that the story was expansive, if a bit overlong and unable to all tie together in the end.

Anyway, Sween and Trev have already played this one, and guys, I've got questions. What'd you do? How'd your games end? I saw you each "died" once, thanks to Xbox stat tracking, whereas I did not. How did you die? I did not know it was possible to die in this game. Biff on a QTE? Go down the wrong dialogue path?