REVIEW: The Wolf Among Us: A Crooked Mile

by Jake Doolin

Telltale has always been good at providing games with moments. The kinds that draws a reaction of stunned silence, and that feeling of irreversible dread as you question every choice you’ve made. But with The Wolf Among Us, Telltale seems to be aiming much higher them moments, instead creating one of the saddest, most human worlds seen in video games.

A Crooked Mile picks right up after Smoke and Mirrors with protagonist Bigby gaining his first solid lead in the string of murders plaguing Fabletown. Since this is the middle chapter of the story, things are expected to get dark, and while this episode does reach that murky point at the end, I was surprised to find how Telltale didn’t go for the simple path to get there.

Bigby is forced to make weighty decisions that gives gravitas to this new episode.  Entire lives are ruined in an instant, and it speaks to the quality of the narrative that I never felt that the game was pushing me towards these choices for shock value, instead I saw them as part of the job. After the last episodes complete foregoing of the main story in favor of character building, it’s nice to see how that paid off.

Over the course of three episodes the many characters that inhabit Fabletown have become something of a family. And like a family’s bonds form, people love and lose each other. When that moment comes to finally let go, they often can’t.

Images such as a funeral under an overpass to the scene where Bigby looks through a dead woman’s belonging stick with me because the characters in them feel something.

Gameplay remains much the same as previous Telltale games, a point and click style adventure with a few scenes of quick-timed combat. One noticeable difference this time around is a lack of exploration, instead the game focuses in on selected items or events to move the player along.

There are many missed opportunities for further character development or story progression that extra exploring might bring about. Time is a factor in this episode as well and works against the game as a whole. At certain points, the game seems to hurry you along while you were investigating by placing trigger items throughout rooms.

One click on these items and exploration ends and the story continues. They became a slight annoyance after walking into a room full of interactive objects, but after looking at it just once I was pushed to the next scene.

Visually the game is at odds with itself. While the locations and character models all look great, the noir theme really hits its stride at night when shades of purple and red paint the screen.

Once again the majority of the game takes place in a bar or strip club that both have been heavily featured in the past two installments. The lack of various environments is starting to become noticeable. While the new settings look great, I particularly liked the look of the overpass funeral, its when we have to return to the same place over and over again that lessens the impact of the visuals.

If there was a theme present in A Crooked Mile its one of pain. In the final moments of the game, the absolute power gained is offset by a quick lapse of violence. The characters of Wolf Among Us are heading towards a conclusion that promises to bring more heartbreak, and with the way the series is headed, that pain is looking to reach far beyond Fabletown.

+ Story hits a new high

+ New Settings look great

+ Character interactions

- Use of old environments is getting tiresome.

- Lack of exploration

9/10

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