Guest Troy Giles checks in with some thoughts around the latest installment of the Fables videogame adaptation
Troy Giles is a good friend of GeekRex, and generously offered his time and "video-game expertise" to a review of the latest episode of The Wolf Among Us. Thanks so much Troy!
Episode 2 of the new Telltale series
set in the Fables comic book universe: The Wolf Among Us has finally
arrived. With this new installment the developers have debuted a few
new characters to help guide you way amongst the murder mystery
occurring in Fabletown. With the shocking conclusion of Episode One
under your belt, players return to the role of Bigby Wolf who
continues his investigation into who is committing these atrocities.
In terms of some of the new characters you will meet, a favorite of
mine and most fans, Jack (of & The Beanstalk fame) finally makes
his appearance and already is getting under the skin of our hero
Bigby. The game contains an interesting intro to both this character
and a major player to the episode: Georgie, Faith's pimp. These
interactions with Fable characters are one of the reasons I keep
coming back to this game and playing it more than once.
Episode 2 is a bit on the short side,
as those that play these offerings from Telltale would expect. I
believe I was able to get about two and a half to three hours of
gameplay out of this installment. As with their other popular game
series, The Walking Dead, choiced that have been made in the previous
episode have some effect on what’s to come. For example, Episode 2
starts off with whomever you decided to chase after in the first
episode successfully apprehended and ready for questioning.
Post-intro it just gets better and better, delving deeper into the
mystery of who is killing the members of Fabletown. Many interesting
twists and a shocking conclusion are in store for those that play
this episode.
Players can expect a return of the same
voice actors from the first episode providing the same great vocal
work that marked the earlier entry, with some new stand-outs that
provide perfect voicing for everyone’s favorite Bill Willingham
creations. On the animation side, the game is crafted to the stylized
comic design that Telltale is known for with both of their more
popular series. This immersion gives the player a sense that they
are really stepping into the Fables comic and able to affect the
world they’ve come to enjoy so much.
On the technical side of the game, it
can still be a little jarring trying to deal with the various QTE’s
(Quick Time Events) that are a little more action based and
potentially frustrating. Also, with my play through on the X-Box
360, the game chugged along a bit and at some points stuttered with
sudden drops in sound. But, even though there were the occasional
technical points of frustration, there wasn’t anything outright
game breaking while I played, typically the gold standard for Quality
Assurance. My only other problem with this game is even though it
expanded the story; it lacked the depth and sense of fulfillment of
the first episode. However, this could be attributed to “second
chapter syndrome”, giving you enough to hook you for the next
entry, although with the shock reveals at the end of the chapter, it
would seem we could have a very interesting third chapter coming.
Overall, Fables Episode 2 is worthwhile
for those already invested in this series and contains the same
excellent “choice carry-over” system of The Walking Dead that
allows players to shape the narrative and creates greater audience
investment in the happenings on-screen. In a fun little option, the
game also allows the player to go through its choices multiple times
to see what other directions will yield in the story. Whether these
are good or bad choices depend on how the person wants to play
Bigby’s latest adventure. As for an overall Episode 2 score, I
would have to give this a B for good exposition and interesting new
characters but, not enough gameplay time and a lack of the same
central hook that grabbed me in the initial installment.
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