REVIEW: The Wolf Among Us: Episode 5


Title	The Wolf Among Us: Episode 5 – Cry Wolf
Developer	Telltale Games
Publisher	Telltale Games
Release Date	July 8, 2014
Genre	Adventure
Platform	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Age Rating	ESRB – Mature- Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco
Official Website

If there are two things that Telltale Games does right, it’s quick-time events and big decisions. For a more detailed description, click here for my recap. Fabletown is a community where a lot of old fables, myths, and legends went to live after their home world was taken over by an evil tyrant. You play as Bigby Wolf, also known as the “Big Bad Wolf” by the “mundies,” or humans. Your job is to keep the citizens of Fabletown safe by enforcing the rules.

This episode starts out exactly where the last one left off, in the room of the city’s most powerful crime lord, the main antagonist of the game. Bigby and he exchange words for a bit, then he summons one of his gang members to attack Bigby, and the rest join in. During the fight the crime lord runs away, along with a few of his other gang members. After the fight, Bigby chases after them and has to decide which car to chase. What happens next is for you to find out. Many hidden truths are revealed in this episode, and it us up to you to decide what justice means. This episode answers a lot of questions that were asked in previous episodes of the series. It really makes you wonder about what you’ve done to these people, and if you’ve made the right decisions. Even though the ending has had many people talking and asking a lot of questions, it really feels like a fitting end to a pretty all right game.

This game looks absolutely stunning. From the big things, like when you smash someone through a window to the little things, like the wrinkles on the clothes, this game makes good use of its art style to make you feel like you are in control of a comic book. I am in love with the classic Telltale Games art and animation style. The entire game just looks very pleasing to the eye and it immerses you into the world of Fabletown. The only complaint I have is that some of the effects look kind of low-tier, such as the gushing of blood at some points in the game. Other than that, the game looks absolutely fantastic.

The music is almost as beautiful as the artwork and style. It sounds like classic New York-style detective music, and it works beautifully with the noir style of the game. It really draws you into the game and it puts you in the mood to find out who is the culprit behind all these cases. Here is just a small sample to give you an idea of what the game has to offer audibly. I’m sure that you won’t be disappointed!

The controls in the game feel very fluent and work well. The only complaint that I have in this department is that some of the quick-time events are sometimes either too fast or too slow. During the fight scenes, you’d expect some fast-paced gameplay, but, instead, the game decides to throw in a lot of slow-motion events, and, to me, it really takes away from the experience. Then, when you have to make the difficult decisions, the game decides to speed up the events. That’s something that I really didn’t like about this game. I felt that it took away from the overall satisfaction by making you sit through unnecessary slow motion just to give you an easier time. The game felt like it was too easy because of the slow quick-time events.

Overall, The Wolf Among Us was good and fairly fun to play, but some of the episodes in the series were pretty disappointing, and the characters didn’t seem to react all that much to some of your decisions. For example, no matter how nice you act towards Toad, he still sounds really mad at you at the end of the game. Also, no matter how well you’ve followed Snow’s instructions, at one point in the game she will sound like she really can’t stand you. At one point, it felt like the game was completely ignoring everything that Bigby had done up to that point, in favor of letting him behave the way that Telltale intended. Also, some of the characters didn’t get much in the way of development. Some of them were just there for a little while and didn’t really have enough on-screen time to make me feel anything about them. They just seemed thrown in there.

But, even though these are issues, the game makes up for it with a fantastic story and a cliffhanger at the end that will leave you begging for more. The finale took me only about an hour and a half to beat, but it was really worth the money for it. As a whole, I loved this episode and the season as a whole. It had a fantastic story and most of the characters were really well thought out. What did you think of the game? Tell us down below and I will be sure to get back to you. Until next time, my friends!