Posted in: Movies, Video Games | Tagged: bill willingham, entertainment, gaming, Telltale, The Wolf Among Us: Smoke And Mirrors, video games

Shaping the Big Bad Wolf In The Wolf Among Us – Episode 2 : Smoke And Mirrors

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2014 23:15:09 -0600

by Hannah Means Shannon

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By Etienne Dubuc

Telltale certainly has the wind in its sails right now with The Walking Dead season 2 and The Wolf Among Us rolling out out on the market, episode by episode. But the question is, is its latest release, Episode 2 of The Wolf Among Us, Smoke and Mirrors, up to par?

The wait has been pretty long since episode one came out, just short of four months, and fans were getting upset or disinterested in the game because of it. I, myself, lost of a lot of enthusiasm due to forgetting the details of the first episode. Sure, I remember the big plot lines, but in a murder-solving story, it's usually the details that seems to matter least that finally make the conclusion make sense. I wondered if the world of Fables would able to pull me back in, honestly.

It absolutely did, and although it took a few minutes, I eventually got back into the case and started to care again about what happened to Faith. The way the story is told and the gamplay mechanics that force you to make choices very quickly really hit home when it comes to getting the player invested in the game. Telltale knows they've got great mechanics and are making the best use of them.

The gameplay mechanics aren't perfect, however. Playing Smoke and Mirrors is the first time on a Telltale game I've ever felt that I was kind of just going through the motions occasionally. Puzzle solving has always been pretty easy in the Telltale games, but here there are just no puzzles. You're not really playing an adventure game, you are really just experiencing a story. That's where the game can lose it's fun for gamers. We are way more into narrative territory then into gameplay here with Smoke and Mirrors. Which doesn't make the game bad, it just offers a way of being entertained that won't suit everybody.

So, this game seems to be really all about the story and the characters development. On that front, it knocks the ball out of the park. Without going into spoilers territory, there are some twists and turns pretty early in the episode that change the way the player thinks the game is going. It also gives the narrative some nice content to build upon and establishes the limits of the Fables universe. It also brings up some pretty interesting opportunities to build a Bigby Wolf character of your own.

There are some narrative shortcuts to create more drama and action, making you ask questions like 'Why is that character here? Why is this other character not reacting to his presence? Why does he pass from aggressive to understanding in a matter of a few seconds?' All those questions might be answered in a future episode, but for now a big part of the hotel sequence in the game just doesn't hold up in narrative terms.

The Wolf Among Us episode 2 : Smoke and Mirrors is, all in all, a pretty good game that delves even deeper in the universe Bill Willingham's Fables. Mostly story-driven, it will catch your attention just as any good book, movie or TV series would. Where it beats those experiences is that you can shape the action of Bigby as your own character and have a loads of fun doing it.

Etienne Dubuc is the host of a French radioshow called « Les geeks ont raison » and program director for CISM 89,3FM in Montreal. You can follow him @geeksontraison

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