The Wolf Among Us Finale Review

For a game about fairy tales, a happy ending was never an option in TellTale’s The Wolf Among Us. The final episode of season 1 was unleashed on us yesterday, and gave us an ending that left me honestly trembling.

I have sat for a few hours, giving the grit a chance to settle in my stomach and the bittersweet taste to fade, and I really don’t feel any more resolved than I did the second the credits began to roll. Episode 5: Cry Wolf was intimately laced with just as much acidity, ambiguity and rigidity as we have come to expect from the noir fables series. Much like The Walking Dead before it, I learnt my lesson quickly that no decision can be made lightly in this game, and you really gotta think fast and respond quickly under pressure because it’s not just you that’s going to feel the consequences of your poor choices.

I really felt like episode 4: In Sheep’s Clothing was the weakest instalment of the series at that point, and I was really hoping that TellTale would pull it back last minute. In usual TTG style I was not disappointed; the penultimate episode left us wanting, entering us into the finale with no idea what would be coming our way. I’m usually pretty good at calling these kinda things, but even I was spun around and desperately wanting answers.

From here on out, this piece may contain moderate spoilers. I’ll be as vague as possible but please proceed accordingly.

Cry Wolf saw us follow Bigby Wolf’s investigations of the Crooked Man to an optionally brutal close. The Crooked Man’s character was incredibly multifaceted, and can easily be seen in several different lights. On one hand, the character was available to all Fables in need, and responded as and when he was reached out to. He offered many residents security, protection, a way out, he stood in place of the inactive government under Crane – although this ‘charity’ always came at a price. The other half of the Crooked Man’s character illustrated what a racketeer the guy could be. A pimp, loan shark and extortionist, he held many residents down with debt and fear. He ran a circuit under the radar and outside the law, answering to nobody left him with very little restraint on his actions. As the Jersey Devil says, this is his town and nothin’ wouldn’t happen without his approval.

I was, however, disappointed that The Crooked Man had been introduced so late. I felt as though the back and forth between his character and Bigby felt very natural, and I thought we could have gained a lot more, in terms of narrative depth, had his character been introduced earlier. I understand the idea of prolonged tension and mystery was imperative to the atmosphere of the game, but as I previously mentioned, In Sheep’s Clothing did feel a little hollow to me and I felt as though that gap could have been filled with some additional Crooked Man & Co. content!

If you’ve played any of TellTale’s episodics, you’ll know the gameplay is very quick-time-event heavy – before everybody in the world collectively groans, they actually work very well in this format. My one real gripe with the episode was not that there was too many QTEs, but that they were poorly paced through-out. Cry Wolf does feature several fight/chase/QTE drenched scenes but they feel as though they’re all very bunched up in a short space of time. One particular part of the episode, involving a car chase, stood out to me. I felt it was very well done, I enjoyed it thoroughly. The QTEs were so perfectly aligned with in game movement, that it felt almost as though playing a rhythm game. But it’s stuck between so many other scenes that it could feel a little lost to many players.

Having said that, an issue I have noticed raised by many fans has been how linear the combat system is. They’re right, and I have to say it’s disappointing, particularly on consoles. The pull of games such as The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead is the freedom to make your own choices, and how deeply ingrained those decisions are with the tides of the story. A choice that seems fairly insignificant at one point can have a major consequence two episodes down the line. It’s a beauty, a freedom and a luxury that very few games afford us. However the combat systems are very basic in comparison. There is no choice in what way to go about the fight, even minor options have the same outcome. If you fail a series of QTEs, you just die and go around all over again. It makes the fights feel a little out of place at times. The tension comes from the time challenge, rather than the deep-seated pressure that if you mess up it’s going to bite you in the ass.

Despite how shallow I think the fight scenes can be at times, my favourite part of this episode was actually a fight! We all knew it was coming, but the showdown between Bloody Mary and Bigby was honest to god one hot mess of amazing. Bigby going full wolf was like a dream come true, and Bloody Mary is by far the best written and most subtly fantastic character in the game. Mary moves with complete grace, she glides smoothly from one place to another, and that drastically contrasts her sharp tongue and brutish attitude. I didn’t include an image of Mary’s Fable form, her design is so utterly, flawlessly creepy, it’s really something that should be experienced in action. Similarly to the Crooked Man, I wished for slightly more Bloody Mary inclusion, if only because I felt she was such a great character.

Once you have seen the investigation through, settled on culprits and verdicts, the game eases you into a scene to catch your breath. It’s in this section I feel as though TellTale have overlooked a chance or two to add some extra choices. It may just be my own guilt, but I ended up sending a character to the Farm when I really wished I hadn’t. I thought perhaps once everything had been said and done, I might have had the chance to turn the situation around. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given this option. The final scene is pretty single track, I was hoping for a little more in terms of decision making, but over all the finishing scene was really great.

I did find it kind of difficult to nitpick over The Wolf Among Us, TellTale are incredibly close to my heart and I was highly recommend this game to anybody that hasn’t yet sat down and played it through. From the unique art style, to the damning decision making, the game grips you at every step. It’s not often that a game comes along that I feel simply unreasonable over, but I can’t wait such a long time for The Wolf Among Us Season 2. I am absolutely dying to see what TellTale pull off with Game of Thrones and Tales from the Borderlands!