GameSided Game of the Year 2014 | Daniel’s Picks

10 – The Wolf Among Us

Full Season Review / Episode 1 / Episode 2 / Episode 3 / Episode 4 / Episode 5

My entry into Telltale Games’ take on graphic adventure storytelling was with The Walking Dead, which tricked me into thinking this game centered around “the feels,” or evoking a strong, yet depressing relation with its characters. The Wolf Among Us threw most of that out the window, with a decidedly neon-noir feel that placed protagonist Bigby Wolf in a fully realized world that felt ripped from a comic book.

Some of Telltale’s best voice acting work (pre-Game of Thrones) is at home in The Wolf Among Us, sporting a cast of story tale fictional characters that take on unique personalities within the “Fables” world. Combine that with excellent pacing, storytelling and ongoing reliance on choice and you have an excellent followup from the independent studio that brought you 2012’s Game of the Year.

If I have one criticism about the game, it’s the focus shift from solving a puzzle using logic and adventure interaction towards QTE’s and following an invisible path towards ‘the narrative’ as the season wound down. The final episode is the most indicative of this notion, being more about the end result than the journey itself. It may sound hypocritical out of context, but you really need to have finished the game to understand where I’m coming from. Otherwise, I’d be spoiling you the opportunity to go fresh into Telltale’s best offering in 2014.

Next: War Is Hell. #9 Shows You How