The Wolf Among Us
The Wolf Among Us | ||
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Director(s) |
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Designer(s) |
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Programmer(s) |
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Writer(s) |
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Telltale Tool | ||
Platform(s) |
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Release | October 14, 2013 Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 | |
Single-player |
The Wolf Among Us is an
The Wolf Among Us has been generally well received by critics and garnered a
Gameplay
The Wolf Among Us is a
Synopsis
Setting
The Wolf Among Us is set in the year 1986, nearly twenty years before the events of "), all non-human Fables have to purchase an enchantment known as a "glamour" which allows them to appear human, otherwise they will be relocated to a rural community known as "The Farm".
Characters
The protagonist of The Wolf Among Us is Bigby Wolf (
In the first episode, the player is introduced to
Plot
This is a broad overview of the plot. Certain decisions made by the player will alter details of specific events.
Bigby Wolf, formerly the Big Bad Wolf, is the Sheriff of Fabletown, a hidden community of fairytale characters located in 1980s New York City. Receiving a call from Mr. Toad, Bigby protects a prostitute from an intoxicated Woodsman. Before she departs, she tells him he is not as bad as everyone says he is. Later that night, Bigby and Snow White find the woman's head left on the Woodlands doorstep. Clues left with the head identify her as Faith, a Fable from Allerleirauh. Deputy Mayor Ichabod Crane orders him and Snow to investigate her death. They head to the apartment she shared with her husband Prince Lawrence and find the Tweedles, Dee and Dum, snooping through it. Bigby pursues them, but they escape. He and Snow then learn that Lawrence and Faith struggled to make ends meet and Faith took up prostitution to help pay the bills. Bigby leaves Snow at the Woodlands while he continues to trace leads. When he returns, he finds the Woodlands surrounded by police, Snow's head sitting on the building's steps.
Bigby is taken in for questioning by the mundy police, but Crane uses a spell to wipe the incident from the police's minds. When they return, they are surprised to find Snow alive; the head, actually that of a troll named Lily, was disguised by a black-market glamour. Bigby tracks Lily's connections to the Pudding & Pie, a strip club run by Georgie Porgie, but Georgie claims innocence. Another prostitute, Nerissa, cryptically directs Bigby to a nearby hotel room, where he finds Lily's blood and photographic evidence of Crane engaging in sexual acts with Lily glamoured to look like Snow. After informing Snow of this, they race back to the Woodlands to find Crane gone, and the Magic Mirror, which could have revealed his location, shattered with one shard missing.
Bigby follows a trail of clues to Crane's whereabouts to the apartment of Aunty Greenleaf, a witch that makes the black-market glamours. Along the way, he discovers that Crane has been embezzling money from Fabletown over the years to pay off a loan shark known as the Crooked Man. Greenleaf points Bigby and Snow back to the Pudding & Pie. Storming the club, they find Crane trying to extract information out of the prostitutes to prove his innocence. Though Snow realizes Crane was not the murderer, he is nonetheless arrested for embezzlement, but as they leave the club, the Crooked Man and his henchmen, the Tweedles and Bloody Mary, confront them. Mary and the Tweedles goad Bigby into his werewolf form, and a fight breaks out. When Mary critically wounds Bigby with a silver bullet, Snow stops the fight and willingly gives up Crane to save Bigby's life.
Back at the Woodlands, Bigby struggles to find clues when Nerissa appears. He realizes the ribbon she wears prevents her from speaking the truth, that Faith wore an identical ribbon, and that she died when it was removed. He follows another trail of clues, and finds evidence of the black-market glamour ring in the Cut Above butcher shop, a pawn shop called the Lucky Pawn owned by Jersey Devil through which the Crooked Man distributes his loans, and Crane's presence, as well as the missing Mirror Shard. The Mirror reveals Mary putting Crane onto an overseas flight to Paris to keep him from talking, and the next location of the door to the Crooked Man's lair, which moves around the city.
Bigby enters the Crooked Man's lair alone, meeting him and his agents. The Crooked Man reveals Georgie as Faith and Lily's killer and claims he misunderstood his orders to deal with them, but Georgie asserts the Crooked Man told him to kill the women. A fight ensues and the Crooked Man and a fatally stabbed Georgie escape. When Bigby pursues the dying Georgie and his lover Vivian to the Pudding & Pie, she explains that the Crooked Man and Georgie were trying to stop a plot spearheaded by Faith with the other prostitutes to escape their forced servitude. Vivian is revealed to be the original girl with a ribbon around her neck, and have made copies of it to trap other women and force them to work for Georgie. Regretting her actions, Vivian undoes her ribbon, severing her head and breaking the spell.
Bigby finds the Crooked Man hiding in an old foundry, and after turning into his true wolf form to kill Bloody Mary, corners him in an office, where he demands a fair trial at the Woodlands. Bigby brings the Crooked Man either dead or alive before the assembled Fables of Woodlands at the Business Office, where he and Snow are forced to defend their actions against claims from the Fables. Bigby recounts Vivian's and Georgie's confessions regarding the Crooked Man's involvement, but his word is deemed untrustworthy. Nerissa appears and testifies that she and five other women heard the Crooked Man order the murders. Their testimonies are considered sufficient to believe what Bigby did was right. If the Crooked Man is alive, Bigby is allowed to choose his form of punishment: locking him up forever, slice his neck open and kill him, or throwing him down the Witching Well (used to dispose of dead Fables).
In the epilogue, Snow becomes the new Deputy Mayor and deals with the fallout of the Crooked Man's actions, while Bigby sees off the Fables being taken back to the Farm. Nerissa approaches him and admits that she, Faith and Lily concocted a plan to blackmail Georgie and the Crooked Man for their freedom, using a picture of Lily and Crane together, but Georgie killed the two women when she panicked and revealed their plot to him. Nerissa left Faith's head at the Woodlands to get Bigby involved, as she knew if anyone had a chance to go toe-to-toe with the Crooked Man and come out on top, it was Bigby, and gave false testimony to have the Crooked Man punished, convinced that he was the one who ordered their deaths but lacking the evidence to prove it. She explains that, while Bigby has his faults, Fabletown would not have survived without him. If not for him fighting the unjust and his own inner demons for the good of the community, everyone would be dead due to actions from people like the Crooked man. Leaving, she comments that Bigby is not as bad as everyone says he is, causing Bigby to recall Faith's similar words to him and question Nerissa's true identity hinting that Faith isn't really dead. Bigby is allowed to choose either to go after Nerissa or let her go.
Episodes
Episodic releases for the Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, OS X and PlayStation 3 platforms were released near-simultaneously within the same week; the iOS and PlayStation Vita episodic releases were expected to trail these by about a month or so.
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
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1 | "Faith" | Nick Herman and Dennis Lenart | Pierre Shorette | October 11, 2013 | |
The first murder of a Fable in several years leads Bigby on the trail of a killer. | |||||
2 | "Smoke and Mirrors" | Jason Latino | Dave Grossman Adam Hines Nicole Martinez | February 4, 2014 | |
Bigby continues investigating for the 'serial killer' walking the streets of Fabletown. He also attempts to find answers from Faith's pimp: Georgie Porgie, and becomes more involved with Beauty and Beast's affairs. | |||||
3 | "A Crooked Mile" | Martin Montgomery | Adam Hines Nicole Martinez | April 8, 2014 | |
Following a shocking revelation, Bigby pursues Ichabod Crane, who is now in hiding. | |||||
4 | "In Sheep's Clothing" | Kent Mudle | Dan Martin | May 27, 2014[22] | |
Bigby must delve into the criminal underworld to find the Crooked Man. | |||||
5 | "Cry Wolf" | Vahram Antonian | Nicole Martinez Adam Hines | July 8, 2014[23] | |
Secrets are revealed and decisions are made as Bigby squares off against the Crooked Man, facing off against his deadliest agent, Bloody Mary and learns the full truth about his crimes against Fabletown. |
Development
In 2011,
Due to these delays, Telltale re-announced the Fables game at the New York Comic Con in October 2012.[32] The name The Wolf Among Us was revealed in March 2013, and is based on the main character Bigby Wolf.[33][31][34]
Pre-orders were made available on October 3, 2013, from Telltale Games and Steam. Those who pre-ordered through Telltale received a collector's DVD at the end of the season.[30]
The game was initially released across five episodes between October 2013 and July 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms.
Release dates and platforms
- The Wolf Among Us was released on Xbox 360, PC, and Mac worldwide on October 11, 2013.[35]
- The digital download was released on October 11 worldwide for Xbox 360, and for Microsoft Windows from the Telltale Games store.[1] The PlayStation 3 version came on October 15 in North America.[36]
- The digital download was released on October 14 worldwide for It also became available through Steam for both PC and Mac.
- The digital download was released on October 15 for PlayStation 3 in North America[2] and on October 16 in Europe and Australia.[3]
- The iOS version was released worldwide on December 4 of the same year.[38][4]
- The game was released on PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in November 2014, at both retail and digital stores in North America and Europe.[39][40][41] In addition, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 retail versions were also released in the same month.[10]
Reception
Game | Metacritic |
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The Wolf Among Us | (PS4) 83/100[42] (X360) 83/100[43] (PC) 80/100[44] |
Episode 1 – Faith | (PS3) 85/100[45] (PC) 85/100[46] (iOS) 83/100[47] (X360) 82/100[48] |
Episode 2 – Smoke and Mirrors | (PS3) 82/100[49] (PC) 76/100[50] (X360) 73/100[51] |
Episode 3 – A Crooked Mile | (PS3) 82/100[52] (PC) 82/100[53] (X360) 77/100[54] |
Episode 4 – In Sheep's Clothing | (PC) 75/100[55] (X360) 74/100[56] (PS3) 69/100[57] |
Episode 5 – Cry Wolf | (X360) 85/100[58] (PC) 84/100[59] (PS3) 75/100[60] |
The Wolf Among Us has received mostly positive reviews from critics. Praise was given to the game's story, action sequences, atmosphere, visual style and faithfulness to the source material while criticism was focused on its pacing and technical issues.
Episode 1 – Faith
Episode 1 – Faith received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 85/100,[45] the PC version 85/100,[46] and the Xbox 360 version 82/100.[48]
Episode 2 – Smoke and Mirrors
Episode 2 – Smoke and Mirrors received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 82/100,[49] the PC version 76/100,[50] and the Xbox 360 version 73/100.[51]
Episode 3 – A Crooked Mile
Episode 3 – A Crooked Mile received positive reviews. Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 82/100,[52] the PC version 82/100,[53] and the Xbox 360 version 77/100.[54]
Episode 4 – In Sheep's Clothing
Episode 4 – In Sheep's Clothing received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Metacritic gave the PC version 75/100,[55] the Xbox 360 version 74/100,[56] and the PlayStation 3 version 69/100.[57]
Episode 5 – Cry Wolf
Episode 5 – Cry Wolf received positive reviews from critics. Metacritic gave the PC version 84/100,[59] the Xbox 360 version 85/100,[58] and the PlayStation 3 version 75/100.[60]
Awards
During the 17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, The Wolf Among Us received a nomination for Mobile Game of the Year.[61] During the following year's awards ceremony, the entire Wolf Among Us series received nominations for Outstanding Achievement in Story and Adventure Game of the Year by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.[62]
The series was nominated for two 2014 BAFTA Games Awards for Story and Performer (Adam Harrington as Bigby Wolf), which went to The Last of Us: Left Behind.[63]
At the 2014 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR) awards the game won Direction in a Game Cinema and received six nominations: Writing in a Drama (Pierre Shorette), Performance in a Drama, Lead (Adam Harrington), Original Dramatic Score, Franchise (Jared Emerson-Johnson), Game, Original Adventure (Joe Pinney), Camera Direction in a Game Engine (Dennis Lenart) and Art Direction, Contemporary (David Bogan).[64]
Comic adaptation
A comic book adaptation of The Wolf Among Us was released in December 2014 by Vertigo Comics. The story was adapted for the comic by Lilah Sturges, who has previously written for the Fables series, and Dave Justus, staying otherwise true to the game's story but exploring some of the characters and back story in more depth.[65][66]
Sequel
When The Wolf Among Us was completed by July 2014, Telltale had thought of doing a second season, but they had already committed to the projects leading to Tales from the Borderlands, Minecraft: Story Mode, and Game of Thrones.[26] The company was aware of strong interest in a second season through the intervening years, and they were looking for the right time to develop it.[26]
A second yet-to-be-named season was announced during the July 2017
Upon Telltale's revival by LCG Entertainment, The Wolf Among Us was one of the titles reacquired by LCG, but no announcement was made at that time about the sequel.
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