The Wolf Among Us is an episodic interactive mystery drama graphic adventure video game based on Bill Willingham's Fables comic book series. It is developed and published by Telltale Games, makers of the hit game The Walking Dead, and distributed by Vertigo and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is canon with the comic book universe and is set as a prequel to the comic book. The game's first season consists of five episodes, with the first episode being released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 worldwide on October 11, 2013, for OS X worldwide on October 14, 2013, for PlayStation 3 on October 15, 2013, in North America and on October 16, 2013, in Europe and Australia, for iOS worldwide on December 4, 2013, and PlayStation Vita before the end of 2014. Retail versions for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Xbox One consoles were released in November 2014.
Gameplay:
The Wolf Among Us is a point-and-click adventure game, where the player, in control of the protagonist Bigby Wolf, can move about the environment and examine and interact with other characters or objects. It is similar to Telltale's previous game, The Walking Dead, in that the player may make choices in their actions or through conversation trees that will influence future events in the story, including events in future episodes. These include major decisions, such as deciding which of two culprits to chase after while allowing the other to go free. Like The Walking Dead, these choices are recorded by Telltale, and general statistics on the major choices are presented to the player after completing each episode to allow them to compare their take on the story to others. Telltale has worked to make some of these choices affect parallel events within the narrative, such as choosing which of two people to help first, and later learning from the second one that their help could have been used before.
Some scenes are more action-oriented, requiring the player to respond to a series of quick time events. Failure to do these correctly may end the scene with the death of Bigby or another character, but the game will restart at a checkpoint just before that scene to allow the player to try again. In some instances, failure to active particular quick time events results in minor game decisions.
Development:
Steve Allison, the senior vice president of marketing at Telltale Games, announced they were working on a game based on the comic book Fables in an interview with All Things Digital in February 2011. Telltale formally announced plans for a Fables game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June 2011. After several postponements, Telltale's Fables game was re-announced at the New York Comic Con in October 2012. It was revealed under the working title of Fables, but it was revealed that it would receive a new name in February 2013. The final name is The Wolf Among Us, after the main character Bigby Wolf. The first episode was originally scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2012. It was later postponed until the third quarter of 2012. It was postponed again to the third quarter of 2013, then to October 2013. In February 2013, it was revealed that the game took longer to develop than Telltale originally anticipated due to the success of The Walking Dead. Telltale incorporated many of the game mechanics from The Walking Dead into their Fables series.
Releases for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles were announced in May 2014 with release at a later date, along with retail versions of the game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.
Synopsis:
The Wolf Among Us is set in the year 1986, decades before the events of the first issue of Fables. For years, many of the magical and mystical lands described in myth, legend, and folklore (known colloquially as "the homelands") have been occupied by an enigmatic tyrant known only as the Adversary. To escape the Adversary's marauding armies and totalitarian regime many creatures and characters known as "fables" fled to the mundane world and created an enclave known as Fabletown in colonial America, now located in modern-day Manhattan. To mask their presence from the native humans (referred to as "mundies") all non-human fables have to purchase an enchantment known as a "glamour" which allows them to appear human, or be relocated to a rural community known as "The Farm". The reformed Big Bad Wolf, Bigby Wolf (voiced by Adam Harrington), is the sheriff of Fabletown and is responsible for hiding the community from the wider world and enforcing its laws.
Characters : The player-protagonist of The Wolf Among Us is Bigby Wolf (Adam Harrington), formerly the Big Bad Wolf. He is the sheriff of Fabletown, currently working at the "Business Office" under interim mayor Ichabod Crane (Roger L. Jackson), aided by Snow White (Erin Yvette) and her Magic Mirror (Gavin Hammon) in his investigation along with the help of Bufkin the winged monkey (Chuck Kourouklis) that manages Fabletown's records. Bluebeard (Dave Fennoy) also works at the Office though his motives are unclear. Bigby resides at the Woodlands apartments, where he is currently allowing Colin (Brian Sommer), one of the Three Little Pigs, to stay with him after blowing down the pig's home. Beauty and the Beast (Melissa Hutchison and Gavin Hammon) are also residents of Woodlands, though currently struggling with a troubled marriage. One of the Fables that he frequently contacts is Mr. Toad (Chuck Kourouklis) and his son TJ (Toad Jr.) (Melissa Hutchison), who live in a run-down apartment building nearby.
As the game opens, the player is introduced to the The Woodsman (Adam Harrington) who lives in the same building as Mr. Toad, and Faith (Cia Court) and Prince Lawrence (Anthony Lam), characters from the Allerleirauh/Donkeyskin fables. Standing in Bigby's way are Dee and Dum Tweedle (Gavin Hammon), twin thugs working for an unknown agent. Bigby also encounters Holly (Janet Lipsey), a Troll that runs the Trip Trap bar, and Grendel (Kid Beyond), a barfly there. The second episode introduces Georgie Porgie (Kevin Howarth), the owner of the Pudding and Pie strip club and Faith's pimp, along with two of his dancers, Nerissa (Molly Benson) the former Little Mermaid and Vivian (Sandy Delonga), and Clever Hans (Ben Knoll), the club's bouncer. The third episode introduces Bloody Mary (Kathryn Cressida) as an agent of the Crooked Man (Philip Banks) and Aunty Greenleaf (Laura Bailey), a rogue witch who illegally sells cheap black-market glamours to Fables who cannot afford the glamours in the 13th Floor. The fourth episode introduces the Jersey Devil (Bobby Vickers), the manager of the Lucky Pawn shop and Johann the butcher (Terry McGovern), the former owner of the Cut Above butcher shop and has since been forced out by the Crooked Man's henchmen.
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 manages to save a young prostitute from an intoxicated Woodsman. He escorts her to safety and before she departs, she tells him he is not as bad as everyone says he is.
Later that night, Bigby is shocked to 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 White 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. They learn from Lawrence that they 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, but Crane uses a spell to wipe the incident from the police's minds. When they return, they are surprised to find Snow still alive; the head is shown to be disguised by a black-market glamour, a spell that Fables use to look human, and belongs to a troll named Lily. Bigby tracks Lily's connections to a sleazy strip club run by Georgie Porgie, but Georgie claims innocence. One of his other prostitutes, Nerissa, cryptically directs Bigby to a nearby hotel room. There he finds Lily's blood on the bed, and photographic evidence of Crane engaging in sexual acts with Lily glamoured to look like Snow. He informs Snow of this, and 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, one of the witches that makes the black-market glamours. When Bigby and Snow threaten to destroy the tree she needs to make them, Greenleaf begs forgiveness and points the two back to Georgie's club. Storming the club, they find Crane trying to hide in the back. Snow realizes Crane's actions are not that of a murderer, and the two convince Crane to return for questioning. En route, they are stopped by the Crooked Man and his agents, the Tweedles and Bloody Mary. Mary and the Tweedles goad Bigby into his werewolf form, and a fight breaks out. When Mary wounds Bigby with a silver bullet, Snow steps in to stop the fight and willingly gives up Crane.
Back at Woodlands, Bigby is healed, and is struggling 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 Faith died when the ribbon was removed. He follows another trail of clues, and finds evidence of the black-market glamour ring and Crane's presence, as well as the missing Mirror shard. The Mirror reveals Mary putting Crane onto an overseas flight to keep him from talking, as well as the next location of the door to the Crooked Man's realm, which moves around the city.
Bigby enters the Crooked Man's realm alone, meeting him and his agents. The Crooked Man explains that the situation is all a misunderstanding by Georgie, who had only been asked to deal with an internal problem, but Georgie asserts the Crooked Man told him to kill the women. A fight ensues, and ends with the Crooked Man and Mary escaping together, and a fatally stabbed Georgie fleeing with Vivian. Following Vivian to the Club, she explains that the Crooked Man and Georgie were acting to stop a plot spearheaded by Faith with the other prostitutes. Vivian is revealed to be the girl with the ribbon around her neck and, having made copies of her ribbon, trapped girls like Faith, Lily, and Nerissa for Georgie whilst guaranteeing their silence. Regretting her actions, Vivian undoes her ribbon, breaking the spell but severing her head as the cost.
When Bigby finds the Crooked Man's hideout, he is stopped by Bloody Mary, but by transforming into his wolf form he manages to kill her. Bigby then confronts the Crooked Man and corners him in an office, where he demands a fair trial at the Woodlands. Bigby can either arrest the Crooked Man or kill him immediately.
Plot branch: Bigby arrest the Crooked Man
Bigby returns to the Witching Well at the Business Office with the Crooked Man to stand trial with Snow White, Bluebeard, and the assembled Fables of Woodlands. The Crooked Man demands the other fables to at least hear his point of view. Bigby and Snow are forced to defend their position against claims from the Crooked Man and Fables supporting him, Bigby recounts Vivian's and Georgie's confessions regarding the Crooked Man's involvement, but they are deemed untrustworthy as Bigby is the only living witness. Nerissa appears and, freed of her ribbon, reveals she heard the Crooked Man order the murders. She assures five other women can back up her testimony. Their testimonies are considered sufficient to believe the Crooked Man is guilty.
Plot branch ends
Plot branch: Bigby kills the Crooked Man
Bigby returns to the Witching Well at the Business Office to recount events with Snow White, Bluebeard, and the assembled Fables of Woodlands. 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 they are deemed untrustworthy as Bigby is the only living witness. Nerissa appears and, freed of her ribbon, reveals she and five other women heard the Crooked Man order the murders. Their testimonies are considered sufficient to believe what Bigby did was right.
Plot branch ends
In the epilogue, Snow and Bluebeard deal with the fallout of the Crooked Man's actions, while Bigby sees off those Fables being taken back to the Farm. Afterward, he encounters Nerissa, who is moving on with her life. She admits that Faith concocted a plan with Lily, Nerissa, and the other prostitutes to blackmail Georgie and the Crooked Man for their freedom, but Georgie killed Faith when he discovered their plot. Nerissa left Faith's head at the Woodlands to get Bigby involved, and gave false testimony to have the Crooked Man punished. Leaving, she comments Bigby is not as bad everyone says he is, causing Bigby to recall Faith said the same before her death. Several past conversations with Faith, Nerissa, even Bloody Mary, regarding the use of glamours play out in Bigby's head, leading him to question the true identity of Nerissa.
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 are expected to trail these by about a month or so.
Reception:
The Wolf Among Us has received mostly positive reviews from critics. Praise was given to the game's story, action sequences, voice acting, and faithfulness to the source material while criticism was focused on the stuttering issues (due to loading) often found in Telltale's work.
Episode 1 – Faith : Episode 1 – Faith received positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 87.00% and 85/100, the PC version 86.14% and 85/100 and the Xbox 360 version 80.96% and 82/100.
Episode 2 – Smoke and Mirrors : Episode 2 – Smoke and Mirrors received mixed to positive reviews from critics.Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 84.57% and 82/100, the PC version 78.37% and 76/100 and the Xbox 360 version 73.50% and 73/100.
Episode 3 – A Crooked Mile : Episode 3 – A Crooked Mile received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 88.80% and 82/100, the PC version 83.10% and 82/100 and the Xbox 360 version 78.62% and 77/100.
Episode 4 – In Sheep's Clothing : Episode 4 – In Sheep's Clothing received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PC version 76.73% and 75/100, the Xbox 360 version 71.36% and 74/100 and the PlayStation 3 version 70.75% and 69/100.
Episode 5 – Cry Wolf : Episode 5 – Cry Wolf received positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PC version 87.96% and 84/100, the Xbox 360 version 84.77% and 85/100 and the PlayStation 3 version 76.83% and 75/100.
Awards:
The series was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Story and Adventure Game of the Year for the 18th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
The series was nominated for two 2014 BAFTA Games Awards for Story and Performer (Adam Harrington as Bigby Wolf), losing both to The Last of Us: Left Behind.
Legacy:
At the 2014 New York Comic Con, Vertigo Comics announced that they will be adapting The Wolf Among Us into comic form, to be released digitally first in December 2014 and later as print comic. The story will be adapted for the comic by Matthew 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.
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire