Well it seems Telltale have done it again, although at this point it’s hardly surprising that they’re capable of producing top quality, story driven games. While they’ve had a few misses in the past, The Walking Dead has really established them in the public eye in recent years, and it would seem that The Wolf Among Us only pushed their stock higher if the community’s judgement is any kind of guide.
However, what’s interesting is that people still liked the game despite a few flaws that I would call fairly core to the whole experience. The game’s episodic nature annoyed some, or more specifically, Telltale’s release schedule did. As Forrest_01 pointed out, “Episodic gaming tends to live or die by its release schedule”, and a few people seemed to feel that Telltale hadn’t really found the “sweet spot between ‘too soon’ & ‘too long’”. Youles, for example, found they “forgot a few plot points” as the episodes were too spread out, while Kennykazey called the release schedule simply “ridiculous”.
Of course, several people suggested the simple solution to this problem, which is to wait until the full game is out. Among them was bunimomike, who intends to smash “through the episodes over the course of a week or so”. Charles Logan has followed through on this exact plan, saying he and a friend waited “until all episodes were out and then played one a day for five days in a row”. Clearly this is the way to go, as he called it “a really excellent experience!”
With a modern Telltale game the key element is the game’s choices and how they play out, so it’s worth seeing what people had to say on this element. There seemed to be two real criticisms of the game’s choices, with Carrot381 noticing that “some dialogue choices made no difference to character replies”, whereas JustTaylorNow felt that all episodic games are too limiting as “whatever choice you make doesn’t damage the game”. Although these are both very reasonable points, both Carrot381 and JustTaylorNow actually really enjoyed the game overall.
There were a couple of people who, I think it’s fair to say, didn’t enjoy the game. First amongst them was Tuffcub, who was disappointed by the game graphically, saying that the “Telltale engine really needs an overhaul, even on PS4 there are long pauses, stuttering animations and voice work”. He also criticised it for containing “an awful lot of unnecessary swearing”, something I didn’t really notice.
DividSmythe was also critical of the game, although less so than Tuffcub. In fact he actually Platinumed the game on PS3, but when it came to playing it on PS4 he found the game just really lacked any replayability, unlike The Walking Dead “which didn’t lose its appeal on a few play throughs”.
Before we close things out for the week, it’s probably worth taking a look at the game’s art. I’m personally a huge fan of its visual presentation, and it seems like I’m not alone. JR. seemed to find a lot to like, calling it both “gorgeous” and “stunning”, while Charles Logan awarded the game “Bonus points for the lovely art/design of the main menu”. cam_manutd went much further, praising just about every element of the game’s visual design:
The story, art style, writing and voice acting particularly stand out. The game is unbelievable in these aspects. Presenting a common known mythos but then applying neon colours, a sweeping soundtrack and mature dialogue to match as well as themes, The Wolf Among Us stands on its own as one of the finest point and click games of all time.
Finally, it’s time to form an overall verdict of the game. A single vote was cast for Avoid It, while another was cast for Rent It. However, Rent It hasn’t actually been an option for ages, so I’m going to class that as a Plus It. The remaining six votes all went to Buy It, particularly as you can now get the whole story in one package.
In tomorrow’s WeView we’ll be taking a look at Far Cry 4, and you can vote for next week’s WeView below (with plenty of new options).
