After the gut punch ending of Faith and the aftermath twists of Smoke and Mirrors, The Wolf Among Us: A Crooked Mile spins the mystery into even more directions, while pulling the covers off and shedding a bit more light, albeit dark light, on the central mystery. Light on action, but heavy on plot and characters, Telltale, once again, has made a compelling episode that sinks it’s hooks into the player.

A fork in the road

After an apparent orgy of evidence, Bigby sets out to find the person who he believes is the killer responsible for the two grisly deaths that occurred in Faith. It immediately became apparent to me that it would be far too obvious for the pieces to fall into place that quickly and easily, so I remained unconvinced – both as myself and by proxy, Bigby – that the solution was that simple.

A ticking clock element is brought into the fore this time out, with three choices as to where to investigate but barely enough time for even two. It’s the kind of thing that begs for repeat play throughs, but I like to live with consequences of my choices so the two I chose are going to stick until the end.

The shape of things and people to come

As often talked about in Telltales recent games, the way the player is allowed to shape the character through choices is once again, fantastic. However, doing what I feel to be the “right” thing seems to be putting me at odds with those I have come to care about. It’s fascinating stuff for sure, and I can’t even begin to figure out how these relationships are going to play out.

A trio of new characters is introduced to the story and their presence begins to shed light on the greater story at play here. This being the world of Fables, where character use glamour spells to appear as something they’re not, so too does the story. It’s no use getting settled into a theory because Telltale will undoubtedly pull the rug out from under you with the quickness. It’s best to play this game, shaping Bigby, making choices you would want him to make, and letting the story play out how it does.

Let’s talk about this

While Smoke and Mirrors scaled back the action sequences that were found in Faith, The Wolf Among Us: A Crooked Mile scales them back even further until the end, making the vast majority of this episode all about talking to people and trying to get information to figure things out. It’s also a much slower paced episode than the previous ones, despite the presence of the afore mentioned “ticking clock.” Telltale has also managed to slow down the timer between making choices in what to say or do next to make sure the player can properly weigh what they’re about to say and do. It’s a welcome choice, but again, it slows down the pacing just a bit and considering there are two murders to solve, it makes it feel less serious than it really is.

What’s next?

By the end of The Wolf Among Us: A Crooked Mile, the characters are even worse off than before, and are not much closer to the actual solving of the mystery, despite the dark light that has been shed on the overarching story at play here. It would be easy to start positing theories but if these first three episodes have taught me anything, is that that is about a helpful as Pinocchio by a campfire. Either way, I can’t wait to see what comes next.

+ Shaping Bigby’s character is interesting and layered
+ New characters shed light on the overarching story
+ Things are not what they seem as always
-It’s the middle of the story

Available on: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Version Reviewed: Xbox 360