DISCLAIMER: This "review" will be filled to the rim with SPOILERS. Future reviews will also have a similar disclaimer if SPOILERS are contained. This review serves more as a discussion of the events in the game.
In my eyes, I was truly worried about this episode of The Wolf Among Us. After the way the second episode ended, the rest could easily be predicted if you've read the comics. It implied the cliffhanger character, Icabod Crane, was a normal big, bad serial killer using prostitutes to live his dirty little fantasies about Snow White, which was hinted at in the comics. I thought the next three episodes would have focus on Bigby hunting him down. But, boy, I've never been so happy to be wrong. The third episode of The Wolf Among Us - "A Crooked Mile" - pushes everything in full-throttle and turns the investigation upside down.
This episode features an incredibly pissed off Bigby Wolf demanding answers and turns the game into a no-holds-barred suspenseful investigation. It starts off immediately where we left off, with Bigby discovering the photo of Ichabod with Beauty, where he then goes to Lily's funeral to talk to Snow and tell her the urgency of the crime. This small funeral scene by Telltale was really touching, and that's what I like about The Wolf Among Us. The gloves are off to do almost anything in this noir-esque New York City with characters from almost any piece of fiction. The Lily funeral scene was very genuine , yet quickly turned suspenseful, but not because there was much action, but because you're worried about what's going to happen to these characters that Telltale has made you grow to love. TweedleDee and TweedleDum invade the funeral to tell Bigby to back off of and with Telltale, you almost never know if what you say will have big consequences. Did telling them to "Fuck Off" ensure the death of one of the characters at the funeral? Luckily, it didn't, but my actions did cause some pretty bad consequences.
Fast-forward and Bigby and Snow are now in the Fables Business Office with newly-introduced character Dr. Swineheart (who Fables fans know is important to the lore and will discover something vital to Bigby and Snow's future) who gets Bigby all checked up. The next few minutes actually lost me, honestly. We go from Bigby contemplating how to find Crane since he smashed the magic mirror, to Bigby finding a ripped page from a magic spellbook. It's all too convenient, and then Bluebeard comes in and starts rambling about helping to find Crane. I think, it was just something in the pacing of the dialogue that made me lose track of where it was going. Thankfully, it picked itself back up not minutes later and explained enough for me to make a harrowing decision. And this is what I have to praise, I had to actually think about picking where to investigate first because I thought - that much like the first episode - my choice would have some very big consequences.
The difference for me - and in a good way - that separates TellTale's The Walking Dead from The Wolf Among Us for me personally is that I know who the main character is. I know his motives, his ambitions, his personality and his future. I've read a ton of Fables issues so I know some start and end points for this character. So when making hard decisions, I choose what I honestly think Bigby would do, or I play and act how I think Bigby would act. For example, when investigating Crane's apartment, I ran into Jack and from reading Fables, I know how much of a shit Jack will end up being to Bigby so I try to give him the worst shit I can. I'm a hard ass because Bigby is a hardass and served Fabletown for years trying to protect the city. The ending for example, also lets you to decide to kill someone or not when Bigby is in full Wolf mode, and that was one of my favorite scenes of the episode, actually. But in the end, Telltale really makes the game your own by letting you choose the narrative even if you have an idea of how the character acts, because sometimes, all of the choices are all in the same tone or "morality" column.
All in all, The Wolf Among Us jams a ton of content into one episode. From it's start as a small investigation into the death of an unknown Fable into a giant conspiracy in Fabletown, I'm nothing but curious as to where they're going with this "Crooked Man" storyline. There has been no references to the comics about Ichabod's early days in Fabletown other than that he embezzled money from the city and had some sexual obsession with Snow White which was obviously portrayed in this episode. I'm not worried that The Wolf Among Us is going to disrupt Fables canon, because honestly, the past episodes have only been adding to the mythology.
Sat, April 12, 2014 
