Something like that
Telltale are a studio that tried to do something transformative for the medium and make it sustainable. They took the narrative-based story-game model and moved it on from Visual Novels, and even Point-and-Click Lucasarts games, and move that same world into exploration based 3D environmental... point-and-click. Okay, it's largely the same; but the presentation had pizazz! I'd like to say they did a great job with half their goal, but given their surprise folding a while back it's clear they never quite cracked sustainability. But in the time they were alive they made some absolute banger games. The fantastic Walking Dead games, the hilarious Tales from the Borderlands, Life is Strange (Not directly 'developed' so to speak, but DONTNOD would be nowhere without them) and many smaller hits and misses in-between. With their library I think everyone has their favourite. That one story, with the right presentation at the right time which just transcended the confines of the game and became an obsession. That series you'd needed more from. For me that series was The Wolf Among Us.
Now a lot of that comes from the source material that Telltale based their game around. 'Fables' tells an endlessly enticing 'American Gods' style story of various fantasy fairy-tale characters living in the modern day real world as faded husks of their glorious namesakes. Bums, deadbeats, hookers and thugs; most former princesses and princes plucked from their happily ever after into the harsh reality of a cold world that doesn't care for anyone. The Wolf Among Us, as I recall, serves as a prequel to the comic series, showing us this world through the lens of the Sheriff of this secret community of Fables living in the middle of New York, called Bigby Wolf- literally the Big Bad Wolf from stories such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. He navigates a noir-themed world of debauchery and homicide while trying to reconcile the monster he once was with the protective figure he represents nowadays, all the whilst keeping his true form in check.
It's hard to quite convey all the reasons why Season 1 of this game hit all the right notes for me, but I think the biggest key lies in that very first episode. You see, the first episode is dripping the style and mood of your typical Noir-themed world, with long shots bathed in heavy shades occasionally cut with a brilliant stark primary flash, a spiralling narrative of a world that always seems that bit more depraved the further you peel back, and of course, the rugged and hard-faced Sheriff who comes across as the hard edge of the law but wears a large heart on his sleeve. (Although I suppose that last point depends solely on how you play him. Bigby can just as easily be every bit the arse that everyone seems to think he is.) But more than the presentation, I think the key for me came from an ostensibly accidental stunt that Telltale themselves pulled when making this series. They delayed the second episode.
And when I say 'delayed', I mean by a lot. We weren't talking days, we were talking months. And when you have the first episode end on a cliff-hanger like that; you best be working on resolving things post-haste. (I refuse to spoil the ending of Episode 1 because I know people haven't played it and you need to) I remember being in that community and tearing my hair out over the implications of that finale and where on earth the story could go. Torn between grief and intrigue, all from a single episode of this series. That fever pitch which built, like hot air culminating in an enclosed space, just burst through that veneer of trepidation and carried away my heart in the carnage. I fell for the series, utterly and totally, and I needed to know every thing that would happen, see every which twist of the tale and meet every twisted caricature of the fairy tale heroes we all know so well. I adored The Wolf Among Us Season 1. And now we have a release window for Season 2.
Unfortunately it's 2023.
But let's focus on the positives, such as the brand new trailer which shows honestly to goodness rendered footage and it looks good! Really Good. I always thought that the stylised art of the original game made sure that it held up extremely well, but the limitations of the engine running it are still obvious, and making the thing look smoother, pop it's colour saturations better, and use thinner outlines to achieve greater detail for the animations to flex demonstrates tangible steps up. Also am I incredibly glad that the apparent 'leaked screens' that have been floating around for the past couple of years that seemed to show a drastically redesigned Bigby were false; the whole 'mountain-of-meat' aesthetic doesn't really fit the Noir presentation outside of maybe Hellboy. But even that comic used long, thin character designs to offset the general size of it's protagonist.
Also, what a surprise it was to see the creative team moving away from the Grimms Fairy Tales source for characters. I mean there already was a bit of that in the first season, with prominent character 'Bloody Mary' obviously being based on the old children's horror story around... Mary Queen of Scots, I think? But having Dorothy and gang from The Wizard of Oz is a step up even from that! At his rate I'd say it's only a matter of time before Alice Liddel shows up, if such a prospect wouldn't end up being so much of a predictable cliché. Although, if they decide to adapt the right Alice... No, I should stop. As much as I would kill for a surprise crossover between Fables and American McGee's Alice, that's a pipe dream too far even for me. But the point is we're seeing variety, and that may come from necessity due to limited choice, or just a desire to pull from wider source, but whatever the impetus I see the promise as exciting!
And then we have the set-up of the trailer itself. Cliché, kind-of-hammy, but a great reintroduction to simple snippets such as the fact Bigby has the same Voice Actor. (Hell yeah!) The whole 'anger management' setting is a bit eye-roll worthy, although I do find it funny to think Snow herself enrolled him against his will. (Does that make Snow his official boss now?) But it gives us a natural way to show him Wolfing out, and considering those were some of the most hype moments from season 1, (the Dum and Dee scene in the Alley will forever be one of my favourite moments in any narrative game ever) I'm not really going to start complaining. I just pray, in my heart of hearts, that Telltale haven't forgotten about that little story hook which was dangling at the very end of Season 1- because I've been hanging onto that fishing line for too long for them to cut me off and start a new thread. (I'm not asking for a whole overarching plotline, but just a bit of recognition would be nice.)
It's been two years of silence but Telltale is back and The Wolf Among Us is back, I could care less for anything else that studio is working on because this is the flagship for me right now. With a whole year of waiting to look forward too, I'm just clasping my praying hands together and entreating all divine ears still open that this game, of any game, be good; because I really need a little faith in my favourite pastime to be restored around about now. Coming out swinging with such a big sequel like this is a gamble for new Telltale, but if it pays off, by golly, they will shoot back into the industry on a pedestal of success so resplendent it will be like they never left. So the absolutely best of well wishes to the Telltale team, I am routing for every single one of you.
No comments:
Post a Comment