The Wolf Among Us: Faith

Editor's Notes

360 version performance issues experienced while playing have resulted in a half star subtraction from the Video, Audio, and Final Thoughts grades. Portions of this review also appear in our coverage of the PC version of 'The Wolf Among Us: Faith.'

Introduction

Telltale Games has been keeping the adventure game candle burning for years, but last year's breakthrough hit 'The Walking Dead' proved decidedly that an episodic, story-laden, point-and-click-esque game could be a mainstream success if done right. Now, with second season of 'The Walking Dead' under production, Telltale brings us the first episode 'The Wolf Among Us,' based off of the world built within the DC Comics/Vertigo 'Fables' line of comics. Thus, the mystery is formed, can the big bad sheriff and the gritty world of Fabletown compel players the way that Clementine and hordes of southern zombie's once did?

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

One thing that is quickly apparent in the first episode of 'The Wolf Among Us' is the fundamental difference between 'The Wolf Among Us' and 'The Walking Dead.' The latter is built on the horrific, instantly accessible struggle against zombies and zombie-crazed humans, while the former is meant to be a slow-burning noir, a detective tale set amidst the scrounging fairytale figures of Fabletown with the player in the role of Bigby, the reformed Big Bad Wolf and current sheriff.

Fortunately, this distinction must have been obvious to the team at Telltale as well, since the game exudes an expectation that most players won't really know anything about the comics. A brief text intro gives the player the basics while much of the story is spent informing and establishing the characters, which are not carbon copies from the source material. Unfortunately, before the noir elements can begin to set in, the game forces the player into a lengthy quick time fight.

The best thing about the combat system is that it is robust enough to branch and branch in a way that delivers variety based on performance. A poor performance with the on-screen swiping and targeting can feel different even if the result of the fight is the same. Only once did I hit a game over screen, but that one time was enough encouragement to step up my concentration.

Later fights come with a tempo better suited for building a detective tale. Unfortunately, the investigative aspects between fights can feel stilted, with random clicking in very confined environments supplementing informal questioning. Old adventure game warts, such as looping dialog trees and vague text choices don't always convey the sensation of control. While clues can be hard to miss in the game's narrow little scenes, the lack of investigative skill required means more time spent enjoying the game's atmosphere.

In contrast, games like Rockstar's 'L.A. Noire' and Westwood Studios much older 'Blade Runner' place a greater degree of responsibility on the player to move the investigation and the game as whole forward.

Adding a level of transparency to the game's many conversations are notifications such as 'Mr. Toad will remember that.' Even so, the results can feel incongruent. In one such example, Bigby is a at a bar as a contentious suspect drunkenly shares some information. After one semi-revelation and with a few seconds to read the choices and select, I picked "Glass him," meaning to touch beer glasses, but instead smashing my glass into the subject's head, which instantly prompted the game to declare I "chose violence."

Sadly, what really hurt my experience with the game are some persistent performance issues. Playing off the hard drive of my 360 Elite, the game exhibited a host of problems. The game is packed with twenty second load screens, which consist of a black screen and spinning load icon. Entering small areas like an apartment carried with it the knowledge that the next tiny area was one or two load screens away. (More on other related problems later)

Overall though, once you accept that the gameplay boils down to choices made during conversations and fights and set the performance issues aside, the game's style and 'Fables' prequel story easily stand proud. In some ways, this first episode is just teasing the player, and the expectation has to be that the series and the weight of said choices will continue to build episode by episode and make for a stellar entry from Telltale.