The Wolf Among Us Episode 5: Cry Wolf Review (PC)

Telltale Games delivered some great adventure games over the years, but the studio really struck gold with the adaptation of The Walking Dead comic book series, which has already spawned its second season and has brought in quite a bit of profit.

The studio went back to another critically acclaimed comic book series, this time in the form of Fables made by Vertigo, for a new adventure experience called The Wolf Among Us.

After four great chapters, the fifth episode, called Cry Wolf, has just been released by Telltale, promising to conclude the current adventures of protagonist Bigby Wolf.

After ending with a major cliffhanger in the fourth part of the series, Telltale wants to settle things in a big way by providing even more confrontations, both physical and verbal ones, which threaten the existence of Fabletown.

Does the concluding chapter of The Wolf Among Us shine brightly or should the big bad wolf get it? Let's find out.

Confront the Crooked Man ...

... and decide his fate

Bear in mind that I'll spoil elements from the previous chapters in the series and I'll only make vague references to the things that will happen in the final episode. As such, if you want to experience it with a clean slate, go back now.

Episode 4 ended with protagonist Bigby going into the hideout of the Crooked Man, a character that practically controls all of Fabletown, which is the New York City area in which fantasy creatures make their home.

While Bigby is definitely a powerful Fable himself, the Crooked Man has already gathered his loyal henchmen, from Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb to the Jersey Devil and many others, all of which bear a grudge against the Sherriff and certainly want him out of Fabletown.

The new episode picks up from where the other one left off and, depending on the choices made by players, the adventures can go in all sorts of directions.

By now it has become clear to players that, while the Fabletown administration chose to ignore the Crooked Man, he'd been assembling his own underground society that offered call girls, glamour spells, and, of course, assassinations, to anyone who was willing to pay for it.

Bigby reached the Crooked Man after quite a lot of surprising twists and turns that all started with the killing of a young girl named Faith. As you can imagine, the villain has taken many steps to distance himself from such matters and it's up to players to decide how Bigby reacts to this. You have the option of going for a direct physical confrontation or you can go in a more diplomatic route.

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Even so, there will be plenty of intense action scenes that are handled in some pretty good ways. Of course, the quick-time events return but they're a necessary evil in keeping players invested in the many adventures of the big bad wolf.

There are also plenty of end-game reveals that turn things into even more unexpected directions. By far the most impressive one is the long-awaited brawl between Bigby and one of his main enemies, and here Telltale finally went all-out and allowed the wolf to use all the powers seen in the original comic book series.

There are quite a few major choices in the new title and some of them have repercussions on the conclusion. There are also some pretty big dialog battles in which players must convince others about the current state of things in Fabletown and the perceived actions of Bigby.

In terms of visuals, the game doesn't stray all that much from the style used by the previous chapters. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the graphics are still looking quite good, but there are still some lingering problems when it comes to animations and a few low-res textures in some areas.

Even so, this time around there are no perceived frame drops, which is particularly impressive considering a really hectic battle happens that requires a lot of power from the old Telltale engine.

The soundtrack is good once more, but the true standout part is the voice acting, starting with Bigby and continuing with the Crooked Man or Snow White.

Go through new adventures ...

... and let loose the wolf

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion