Pudding & Pie
REVIEW - The Wolf Among Us : Episode 2 Smoke & Mirrors
By Tyler Pederson (GeekComplex)
It’s been almost 4 months since we last saw Bigby, yet it feels like just yesterday that I first stepped foot into the world of Fables. Coming off of the highly praised adaptation of The Walking Dead, expectations were certainly high for adventure game developer Telltale Games. Episode 1, titled “Faith” was released last October, and brought with it the lessons learned from their past endeavors. This month brings us the second installment in what will be a 5 part series of choice and intrigue, and it too comes hand in hand with high expectations. Coming off of the cliffhanger ending of the first outing, Does this Sophomore dive into the world watched over by the Big Bad Wolf hold up? Let’s find out.
Picking up where you’d expect, Bigby is quickly forced to face the reality of the situation he’s gotten himself into. Fabletown has a killer in its midst, and as the sheriff it’s your job to get to the bottom of it before it can strikes again. Taking you through a number of locations, most of which are completely new, Smoke & Mirrors tells a story more focused on a direct investigation. Whereas Episode 1 had a lot of setup, the plot points introduced here are fewer, but come with more revelations than one might expect this early on.
As can be assumed at this point with an episodic title from Telltale, the choices made in Episode 1 carry over directly into Episode 2. The outcome of the choices made this time are, for the most part, much more readily apparent. The decisions made this time will of course depend somewhat on past actions, but the options given are more obviously varied, coming off a bit too simplified. Think “Good Cop-Bad Cop”. Because of this, it feels a bit less like realistic reactions and a bit more like distinct character paths to choose from.
Finishing the episode was an easier undertaking than the first, clocking in around an hour and a half if you’re not in a hurry. While at first coming off as a bit lacking, looking back it’s clear the pacing was simply much better executed here. Finding a better situation for each mechanic to fit more organically, it’s easy to see the feedback from Episode 1 has been taken to heart. I will note however that at least in the Xbox360 version, there was a bit of a stutter in audio and video when entering a new area.
Overall the time you spend on the second adventure with Bigby feels noticeably shorter, but manages to introduce just enough to the story to keep our personal theories ever changing. Building off the solid foundation of the introductory chapter, Smoke & Mirrors ups the ante on the overall mystery while lacking a bit in it’s own sense of self discovery. The Wolf Among Us Episode 2 gets an 8/10