Let's immediately warn those who are not familiar with Telltale games: the adventure of The Wolf Among Us is divided into several episodes, and this is the first of them that we are testing today. We must therefore expect a reduced lifespan (about two hours), a modest price, and... great uncertainty as to the future. This is the major drawback of this formula, which also makes it difficult to cry genius right away, since we do not yet know three-quarters of the story, let alone its end. Fortunately, the various episodes of The Walking Dead have already proven to us in the past that the Telltale team knew how to manage a long scenario. And above all, The Wolf Among Us offers us a truly exciting universe, the discovery of which is already a real pleasure in itself. The action takes place at the end of the twentieth century in a district of New York which is home to the community of Fabletown. Its inhabitants are "Fables", ie characters from fairy tales. You will very quickly come across Snow White, Belle, the Beast and many other celebrities of yesteryear. But in contemporary clothes and decor! To pass unnoticed in the midst of classic human beings, Fables with an overly monstrous or animalistic appearance must regularly use a spell called Glamour, which grants them an all-purpose physique. It is in this context that you will embody Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of Fabletown, former Big Bad Wolf of the tales of yesteryear. We won't reveal the scenario to you so as not to spoil any surprises for you, but know that the atmosphere is very "film noir". The mix between crime fiction and fairy tales works perfectly well, and is clearly one of the strong points of the game. The presence of some talking animal creatures (special mention to Colin, one of the three little pigs who has become depressed) even regularly think of the Blacksad comic, which is no small compliment!
When comics come to life
It must be said that it really feels like browsing through an interactive comic book, thanks to the cel-shaded graphics. The respect for the original Fables comic is total, and certain shots are absolutely magnificent. From a technical point of view, we only regret the presence of a few micro-jerks during certain passages, a recurring problem in Telltale games. But it's a trifle in the face of the strength of the artistic direction. In addition, each character is easily recognizable, all the characters are well-tempered, and the original voices are perfectly played. Note in passing that the game does not currently have any French localization. From an audio point of view, it's not necessarily worse (we would have lost the dubbing), but Anglophobes will inevitably have a little trouble following the English subtitles. Let's bet that a translation will eventually arrive one day or another, especially when the five episodes are released and the game will be entitled to a boxed version. In the meantime, note that the gameplay of The Wolf Among Us is more or less that of The Walking Dead. We are therefore entitled to action sequences in QTE, where we must quickly execute the orders that appear on the screen, to avoid Game Over.
The game detects whether you are using a gamepad or the keyboard/mouse pair, and adapts accordingly, immediately and automatically. Quieter exploration phases are also present. We can then observe certain objects precisely, so as to unblock the situation, in particular by opening up new dialogue choices. It is also possible to pick up certain objects, which are then placed in a discreet inventory on the left of the screen. Problem: we didn't need to access it once in the whole episode. Two explanations are possible: either this inventory is a simple cosmetic and useless reminder of what Bigby has in his pockets, or this feature will be really (inter)active in the next episodes. Either way, it's a bit strange. No worries, however, regarding the dialogue system, which allows you to make choices with small or large consequences. For the thorniest dilemmas (running after one character or another, visiting one place before another, etc.), a break or a slow motion gives us time to think precisely about what we want to do. And once the adventure is over, you can't resist the pleasure of restarting certain passages to find out what would have happened if you had made different choices. This type of feedback is also beneficial for the lifespan, which can then exceed the initial two hours. Finally, the game also offers a small encyclopedia on the universe and the characters encountered (very useful for those who do not know the comic book Fables) and, above all, a summary of the choices made by the player, compared with those made by all players in the world. Are you going to do like the majority or distinguish yourself? To find out, it's up to you!
