The setup
Step into the world of a dark fairy tale. The setting is New York, sometime in the 1980's. You are a part of a small group of fantastical legends, mythical beasts like trolls and giants and human legends made flesh. Creatures like Mr. Toad (from the Wind in the Willows) is not only a real frog, he's a slumlord.  The world cannot know you fables exist, so you hide from human eyes, the 'mundanes', while trying to coexist. People like Snow White, are appointed to represent some form of government for this fairy tale community. And then when a troll gets mad and throws a floor safe through a wall, someone has to deal with that angry, 7' troll. And thats where you come in. 

In this game you play as Bigby Wolf, and you look like a scruffy guy just coming off work - but that belies your real nature. You are the 'sheriff' (a title, no badge) for the fairy tale folk in the city, your real name, the Big Bad Wolf. The same one that blew the Three Little Pigs houses down, the same one that tried to eat Little Red Riding Hood. In New York, the storyteller fantasy creatures are trying a new life, where everyone gets a clean slate - though plenty of people remember how terrifying you were in the past. And thats the main draw of this game, is playing out the story of a former bad-guy turned good guy, and seeing how your interactions affect those and the situations around you. And when you get mad, you can transform into something that still scares everyone around you.

So what kind of gameplay is this?
This a strange type of game, as its more movie oriented, less action and more watching and responding. You will do a lot of questioning people, some fighting, and in the beginning episodes, some detective work by looking over crime scenes and coming up with leads and clues.   Of the three modes (fighting, talking, investigating) the lion's share is talking parts - Wolf Among Us is very dialog heavy, and selecting different talk options will direct the story down different paths (the four faces buttons is each a reply/question).  It is also a game where you are a sheriff, and often deal with situations that can get hostile (or you can help make them hostile by your actions). There is combat in this game, and a fair share of it, but its all done through quick time events.

However, Tell Tale Games, the now defunct developer, only put the game out a piece at a time. It was their favored format for many years. So you there is not one 'full' game, rather you spend little bits of money to purchase these 'episodes' to see the whole story, 5 in all. I had never played these games for long, but with a sale going on, I decided, what the heck, I'll drop down and see just what a story-driven game from them is like. 

A word of warning. There is a lot of cussin' and a lot of blood in this game. Prepare to see some dead bodies. And the second episode includes brief nudity, which fits in with the story setting - but it also could have been taken out without consequence, and feels like fluff.


Who would I recommend try this game?
If you enjoy Bioware games for their dialog, you might like this. Quicktime events are how combat is done in this game - and if someone really enjoys those, well this game has quite a bit of that - though not enough to satisfy action movie junkies - its story driven, not twitch gameplay.  Also, RPG fans looking for a modern story with a fantasy twist also might check this out. 


Graphics: 8
The game is based off a series of comics, so the graphic novel style works pretty well here.  Every character has a fairly distinct model. Ichabod Crane is tall and super skinny. Mr. Toad looks just like a toad in sweatpants (lol).  Bigby looks a bit buff, then when he transforms into his werewolf form(s), he get noticeably less human and way nastier.  There are a lot of people to visit over the five chapters, and many of these are not in the comic series, so its something new and interesting. 

That said, I found it a bit off-putting Bigby always has an endless supply of white dress shirts lying around. And Snow White never changes out of her wintery business suit. Its small details that might pass in the comic, but especially in Bigby's case - as he ends up getting beat  up a lot and changing or losing his shirt - it felt a bit lame the only shirt on a clothesline for him to steal is the same dang shirt as he wore.


Sound: 8
Honestly, the sound is pretty good. The voices are well done, if I was grading it just on voices, I'd give this game a 9. The sound effects are good, but not necessarily very present. There is gunfire, running sounds, but if it's not an action scene, you often don't get much out of it. There is not much music, really, ever going on in the background. The main title music is good, however.

Getting back to the voices, its overall a great success. Being the star, its important that Bigby's voice is really good, and it is - though it does has some moments where he seems to just start off in a frustrated tone that doesn't match the dialog option you chose.  Bluebeard and Snow White and Beauty are more aristocratic, for example. Where thuggish fable guys like Gren or Georgie are more abrasive and menacing.  I enjoyed all the voices of the other cast, and didn't really find a weak link. I just wish the sound effects and music were used to help with the story more.


Addictiveness: 8
Being in episode format, it did make the game quite addicting. I would beat a chapter, move on and keep playing until the next episode came up. However, a few glitches reared up that bothered me enough to stop playing for a bit. One was a pause screen that remained frozen on screen (twice) and the other happened several times during the last chapters - the written word would change languages on me. Seriously, I went from meeting a bad guy, seeing english subtitles, then getting spanish dialog options, and german footnotes of the consequences of my actions. It was fairly ridiculous. I wasn't a big fan of the quick time fights, they seem overly long, but at least seem hard to lose - you can make many mistakes and it keeps going, better or worse.

Story: 7
The main reason I got the chapters was due to the excellent first episode. The tale of Bigby is often one of one trouble leading right into another, and he honestly never seems to get any sleep. You get a lot of places to visit, people to interrogate/question/beat up and see how your kindness or rudeness affects the other fable residents opinion of you.  What starts as a call about a domestic issue turns into murder. Then more follow. And with the residents worried, you see the stress of your job and the toll it takes on not just the uneasy residents - but Bigby himself. 

I did like how there are choices that affect the story, and give you little nods of approval or suspicion. While I have been  burned by stuff like this in past games (Curse you, Mass Effect 3), here I set my expectations low, and for the most part, thats where they stay. Its not fully fleshed out, a lot of times the story just veers back where you are supposed to go, despite which option you take. Not to say you don't make decisions, there are a few choices in location that are very important, as evidence or suspects will be lost if you go to the other one, either way.  I wish the game had a lot more of those tense moments, and less the powers-that-be following blind leads.
 
However, I don't think the game did a good job of setting up the rules and world these fairy tale people engage in. Rules wise, why is it Bigby can get shot dozens of times, yet one of the fables can be killed by a knife to the gut? A giant troll takes one shotgun blast and she's down the whole fight. Bigby just took seven. Uh, OK? There is no clear determining factor why some fables are more hardy than others. I assumed (in another comic book series, Sandman) that its based on belief or how well known the fable is. But its never clear. 

While the game sets up a gritty setting, it doesn't really feel believeable. I'll give two examples. Its set in the 80's for some reason, but aside from large cordless phones and a funny movie poster in the first half playing off "Cobra" with Sylvester Stallone. Those that were born in the 90's... did you ever play Vice City? Remember all the pastels and neon, and music?  This game has a little neon, no fashion and no music from the 80's. I was expecting some of these Fables to be trying to fit in as New Wave or other popular trends at the time - but nah, it could have easily been set in today's timeframe.  I get Telltale would have to pay to use the rights to songs, but couldn't you just make a mock up song in the same vein? There are several scenes where you ride in a car or have access to a radio, and theres just silence. The game doesn't make good use of its time period.

The second issue I had accepting this is the Fables moving to New York. We see right at the beginning, a walking amphibian like Mr. Toad would have a hard time in the world. He has to pay for glamours to even go outside to look for work, something he already can't afford. But what the heck is half these people's problem? Over half the populace seem dirt poor, yet have full human features. Why aren't rich cats like Bluebeard employing the other Fables so everyone can coexist - I thought that was the point of living here? There is a place called the 'Farm' where some Fables stay, but its never shown and always talked about like its a bad place to go. Why? There's not enough examples to back up what the game is trying to sell you, Fables or in the evidence you have to deal with.

Another issue I had is how.. well, dumb you are for half the game. Bigby chases a lead, the lead usually vanishes, and Bigby just seems to be floundering for some of the episodes. This isn't his first day on the job, doesn't he have an idea of who some likely suspects would be?  I get as the player, we need introductions to these characters, but the sheriff should know who the troublemakers are, at least. There are a couple that he doesn't even know, making me wonder how big is the fairy tale community in New York? Wouldn't they all know each other from the old stories? Weird.

The episodes are sporadic in quality, unfortunately. Episode 1 for me was the best, while episode 2 and 4 felt far too short for the money. 4 was probably the least satisfying, introducing our biggest suspect yet and its just not a great introduction. This hit-or-miss nature with the pacing and plot made me think the piecemeal style of doling out the episodes lacked punch - though they do cohesively form together and all relate to the story - some just don't have a payoff, then show you the credits. That was it for episode 2?  Sheesh, not fun.

I did like the fairy tale setting. But it needed to set up its introduction just a bit better. Why are some fables rich and others so freaking poor? Why can't a stunner like Beauty get like a regular 9 to 5 job? Bigby has an office and you don't even go into it until the fourth episode! Why!? Some stuff just doesn't make sense.


Depth: 5
There are some choices that matter, but for the most part, its small benefits to the story, nothing major. Some people will hate you, and some will like you. This is more important than you think, actually, but in the broad scope of the story telling device, it often just feels like you get a choice of BAD GUY / GOOD GUY. You can definitely go the grey route and not commit, but the game seems to still be scoring off that metric. I hit a suspect with a bottle, then did 3 nice things for them later, but all the game would talk about is how terrible I treated them with that bottle. 

Using your online capabilities, the game does offer a submenu where you can see the percentage of other players that choose the same options you did (64% of players chose to eat the giant corn dog from hell, for example). Its nice, but also just reminds us the game is ticking boxes on key options.  Some matter, some don't.  This is probably what drops the score down the most for me besides the muddy story aspects. This game is dialog driven, and its not giving enough options to experience a totally different game if you replay it, this score should be way higher.


Difficulty: 3
Honestly, I only died once. I didn't even know you could. But if you die in a quick time event, you are allowed to continue at your last save, and its often right before the fight, so it won't impair you much. You do have to be somewhat decent at the quick times though. I am not sure if you could fail the investigation parts. I wasn't expecting to like them much, as they often are just clicking on anything you see highlighted and seeing what happens, but it was nice to see our hero actually do some more thorough police type work.  Some of the decision making did feel rewarding, like you are really putting your evidence together - but sadly that feeling doesn't last long enough. The feeling of Bigby, Ichabod and Snow spinning their wheels on what to do next just dominates much of the game, and I expected more out of our professionals. 

Rating the five episodes individually:

Best: Episode 1 FAITH:
Pretty good: Episode 3 A CROOKED MILE, Episode 5 CRY WOLF 
Felt a bit ripped off: Episode 2 SMOKE AND MIRRORS, Episode 4 IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING

Overall: 6.3
Its not a bad game, but I don't think the rocky structure of the pacing agreed with me. It was fun to play a dialog driven game, but it needs more consequences to your actions to add replay. And maybe less lengthy quick-time fights. One big problem with adding fantasy characters is how difficult the conclusion is going to be for you - as often something magical you can't predict is the reason. So while you get to be a bit of a detective, I kind of wish we had more magical gear to help us even the odds of our guessing. 

The hero is great, and some secondary characters look and sound great (The Woodsman, Dee, etc).

BUY OR DON'T BUY: DON'T BUY. I spent $15 bucks on it, and while comparisons can be made to calling this a movie of sorts (interactive), I didn't think the story was solid enough to be a good purchase. But its story has a lot of holes and filler scenes (perhaps setting up for a future season, but thats a bad business policy if it doesn't interest me to continue).  You can blow through the entire game in a day, and the lack of real replay options hurts it. However, the first episode was currently free to download, so try it if you feel you might want to see what a dialog driven game is like.