Dear TellTale: Forget Wolf Among Us, Make a Justified Game Instead
Every now and then a game comes a long that we should like, that is made by a company we do like, and that everyone else seems to like, and we don’t like it. A Wolf Among Us was one of those games this year. The downloadable title is the first in a series based on a popular comic. You play the handsome sheriff of group of fairy tale characters hiding out in New York City. Your character (Bigby) is actually the Big Bad Wolf and now and then your lupine features appear under your rugged exterior as you work to solve a murder and juggle several smaller events as well.
Lots of reviewers have recognized that it is impossible to judge this game because this episode is the first in a series and is definitely not a self-contained story. We also haven’t read the comic (and fans of the comic seem to love the game). Our experience was that the game is a bit of a downer. You travel from dreary location to dreary location (e.g., crappy hotel room, crappy apartment, crappy bar) and encounter characters who either lie to you or beat on you. The fights are principally quick time events and are surprisingly lengthy and brutal, which is fine but with only a few puzzles to balance out the game, Bigby seems to be more of a fighter than a detective. Finally, when you seem to be making progress, the episode suddenly ends, leaving no sense of closure to the story.
By the end of the episode, we really missed Clementine. Or just anybody who was funny or warm. Being Bigby must be no fun at all, and playing Bigby is not real fun either.
IF Telltale wants to make a game about solving a crime in a colorful, unusual environment with a tough, no-nonsense protagonist, why not make a game based on the show Justified? Raylan Givens is a lot more fun the Bigby; he has all of the same anger issues but exudes a calm confidence (and gift for oneliners) that makes him a lot of fun to watch. Rural Kentucky, as created in the show, is a variety of neighboring fiefdoms outside of the real-world (and completely alien to outsiders) that Raylan has to navigate (e.g., Noble’s Holler, the hill people) with great characters to encounter, almost all of whom would be more engaging than the one’s we’ve met in Bigby’s world. As uncomfortable as it is to question weaselly Mr. Toad in front of his child, it would be much cooler to interrogate uber-weasel and ridiculous criminal Dewey Crowe. Raylan is also as prone to getting beaten up as Bigby is (and both the show and the game had a key scene in which a character loses an arm) though he seems to have more of sense of humor about it. And while it is interesting to hang out with an obese pig in your apartment, I’d much rather have one of those crackling, whip-smart tete-a-tete’s with Boyd Crowder, Raylan’s friend, rival, and criminal doppleganger.
So, in the new year, we’d ask Telltale to consider wrapping up the Wolf Among Us as soon as possible and think about shifting to Justified’s world. They can catch up next week when the show premieres on Tuesday.
