A Dish Served Cold | The Wolf Among Us Episode 3: A Crooked Mile Review

<p>It’s rather easy to define <i>The Wolf Among Us <&sol;i>as a work of contrasts&period; A striking blend of the fantastical among the mundane&comma; its fairytale coating belays its more sordid undertones&comma; all seamlessly juxtaposed against a noire backdrop of sex&comma; violence&comma; and intrigue&period; Since its tremendous debut and disappointing follow-up&comma; the series has been one of hits and misses while still in its youth&period; Its all the better that <em>The Wolf Among Us<&sol;em> third episode&comma; <i>A Crooked Mile&comma; <&sol;i>fully realizes its strengths and builds upon them to a fantastic degree that even technical hurdles and minor plot-holes can&&num;8217&semi;t silence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>A Crooked Mile<&sol;i> begins slowly and methodically as a simple extension of its predecessor&comma; but quickly makes use of its escalating tension&period; Sheriff Bigby Wolf &lpar;a&period;k&period;a fairytales’ The Big Bad Wolf&rpar; and Mayor Snow White continue their murder investigation as they race against the clock to track down their suspect&comma; all the while sifting through the filth of Fabletown’s twisted social web&period; The episode suggests that there&&num;8217&semi;s a bit more meaning to the deaths rather than just random killings and the greater sense of menace adds a keen urgency to what leads you choose follow&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;incgamers&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;Wolf-Among-Us-Episode-3-04-1024x576&period;jpg&quest;9f2eb8" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Bigby &&num;8220&semi;investigating&&num;8221&semi; some office work with a smartly dressed janitor&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As Fabletown’s murder mystery deepens&comma; Telltale’s spin on Bill Willingham’s comic universe grows ever more alluring&comma; at times gleefully showcasing the shadowy underbelly of fairytale characters struggling to scrape by in an &OpenCurlyQuote;80s Manhattan&period; Opposite <i>Smoke &amp&semi; Mirrors<&sol;i>’ lethargy&comma; <i>A Crooked Mile<&sol;i> hurries by at a more attractive pace&comma; bringing in fresh faces and eye-catching glimpses at how much deeper the rabbit hole goes into the dark heart of Fabletown&period; While a 2 A&period;M&period; deadline looms over your head in-game&comma; there’s no genuine consequence for taking your time and events unfortunately unfold similarly&comma; even though their effects on character building feel unscripted&period; Early on&comma; you’re given a choice between three different locations to investigate with only enough time to search two&comma; and whichever ones you visit determines who you might meet and your interactions with them&period; Their implications for future cast members are intriguing and their personal stakes are higher compared to preceding episodes&period; Players will anxiously contemplate making the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;right” choice&comma; if such a thing exists in what amounts to a revenge-driven narrative&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This captivating moral spectrum is then what <i>A Crooked Mile <&sol;i>does best at presenting&period; Often the look of disappointment or disapproval on a fellow Fable’s face is more painful than weathering even the worst of failures&period; It’s not always evident how invaluable mercy can be to a simple witch&comma; or what a simple punch can do to end a conversation&period; Your choices go deeper this time&comma; not so much in their actions&comma; but for each relationship it reaches&period; Every time the screen reads &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;they will remember that&comma;” you know in your gut the developers mean it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;2a34166a1c224507ff54-79590be14f37a3e58649da10f58ee927&period;r67&period;cf1&period;rackcdn&period;com&sol;games&sol;full&sol;13152&sol;1397148094&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Bigby confers with Snow White&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>At Fabletown’s chaotic center lies our wolf in sheriff’s clothing&comma; and how he acts is largely up to you&period; My Bigby wasn’t unaccustomed to violence when it quite often got the better of him&comma; yet none of it without reason and all of it felt relatable to his checkered past&period; <i>The Wolf Among Us <&sol;i>ratchets it up to exciting proportions&comma; bringing our star anti-hero to do questionable deeds for those he cares about at the cost of what imagined humanity he has left&period; That’s perhaps the greatest of the game’s questions&colon; how much are you willing for Bigby to sacrifice to maintain peace amidst centuries old rivalries&quest; Old habits are difficult things to fight&comma; and neither is it easy to derail your ethics for the sake of the case&period; Akin to its name&comma; <i>A Crooked Mile <&sol;i>lives up to its moniker&comma; bringing out a darker side of Bigby few might expect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Old head-scratchers continue to plague the episode as much as its predecessors&comma; though perhaps not as strongly as before&period; It remains forever unclear how mortal a Fable is&comma; with Bigby surviving near-lethal attacks with only a scratch to show for it&comma; even while having some unexplained need for immediate medical attention&period; Fabletown’s social structure is additionally murky&period; Much of the episode focuses on locating a witch unknown to the protagonists in a close knit community where everybody knows everyone else&comma; and it seems that the game is at times purposefully vague just as a cheap plot device&period; All are but minor complaints and fans will again be pleased with such otherwise great writing accompanied by the game’s strong voice-over cast&period; Nevertheless&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;re uncomfortably noticeable among such shining strengths&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;digitaltrends&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;The-Wolf-Among-Us-Episode-3-screenshot-5&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Hired hooligans Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum&comma; out to get Bigby and his friends&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>More importantly are Telltale’s other signature flaws of a few irksome technical quirks&period; Granted&comma; there are significantly fewer problems to be found than any other episode with only a few objects mysteriously hovering in spaces not meant to hold them&period; Meanwhile&comma; the set pieces and art design are as beautifully rendered as ever and character animations remain deeply expressive&period; The finale itself is to be commended for its impactful moral dilemma and its introduction of a disturbingly enigmatic new villainess&period; There are some clever ideas behind a few of its QTE inputs&comma; and it’s all the more unfortunate that the actual QTE fight scenes are as mediocre as the series has had thus far&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hiccups aside&comma; <i>A Crooked Mile<&sol;i> is on the straight and narrow as far as entertainment is to be had&period; What decisions the game offers are less consequential to its storyline than it would like you to believe&comma; but their impactful character studies are what the series has always promised the most&period; Though the episode is short&comma; its justly low price-point is hard to pass up&comma; making it even harder to deny another serving of Telltale’s twisted fairytale&period; Blame us for wanting even better seconds&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;