The Wolf Among Us Season 2 is still real!

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.

The Wolf Among Us 2

Who's afraid of Bigsby Wolf?

At long last I have come to the end of my VGA flashbacks (only 2 months after the actual event) and we've landed on the one game that I've been holding off on the most. One title which succeeded at blowing my mind so completely that I needed these past two months just to get all my thoughts together so that I could appropriately discuss it. I am, of course, talking about the grand announcement (or should I say; re-announcement) of 'The Wolf Among Us Season 2.' To be completely frank with everyone right now, I'm still in the throes of giddy shock right now as I feel like one of dearest friends has risen from the grave for one last pub crawl. (Let me explain why I feel so strongly about this.)

Telltale was a studio that had been knocking about for quite a while before it hit it's stride. In their early years they dabbled with various mediums that could facilitate cinematic storytelling until they took the steps to revolutionise that particular sub-category of games with 2012's 'The Walking Dead'. When that game first launched the franchise was at the height of it's popularity, with folk dedicating every fibre of their being to consuming this show, so for a related game to launch in this window heralded both incredible potential and risk to crash and burn. To muddy matters even more, this game wouldn't even be based on the TV show that had taken the horror world by storm, but on Robert Kirkman's comics which was still relatively niche in terms of audience. The title couldn't even rely on it's identity as a game to secure a sure-fire audience, as Telltale's new 'gameplay' style would defy many traditional classifications for a 'video game' and would inevitably be compared to a 'choose-your-own-adventure' DVD game. What I'm trying to say is that this game had everything working against it and very much should have crashed and burned. But it didn't.

Against all the odds, The Walking Dead hit audiences with more than just mild success, the game was heralded as a revolution to video game storytelling. (Personally I wouldn't go that far but the title was a good time.) The characters were endearing, their journey was heart-stopping and the conclusion of the tale was powerful enough to bring some audiences to tears. Telltale had established themselves as a true powerhouse in the gaming landscape and revived the 'point and click adventure' genre. But then the immediate question was raised. Where would the team take their talents next? They couldn't relay on Walking Dead forever, so what brand could they possibly move onto next in order to prove that they weren't just one-trick-ponies? They ended up with the comic book series: Fables.

Fables is a somewhat similar world to American Gods, as in it purposes a world in which the fairy-tale characters from The Brothers Grimm would walk the real world and try to survive. It took classic characters like The Little Mermaid, Cinderella and Snow White and threw them into a gritty and dark world of murder, prostitution and drugs. In theory, that concept has the potential to be one of the most eye-rolling 'wannabe edgy' stories of all time, but through a shared quality in writing and a dedication to remaining mature to the subject material, Fables handled it's premise with integrity and easily sold it's world to audiences. This was the world that Telltale wanted to share with video game audiences through their (Prequel?) series; The Wolf Among Us.

A lot of things went right for Telltale to set-up this particular series, and not all of it was intentional. 'The Wolf Among Us' followed the tale of Bigsby Wolf, (The 'big bad wolf' from Little Red Riding Hood) although here he was just a gruff looking plain-clothes detective right out of an noir movie. Bigsby served as the sheriff of the New York population of fable characters and it was his job to keep everyone following some variation of the law considering the fact that real police would have trouble enforcing laws upon citizens who can eat bullets and transform into nightmare monsters. His job is put to the test, however, once bodies start showing up and it's up to Bigsby to figure out who is putting down fables in his city.

So there it is, a fairly bog-standard crime thriller story with a weird supernatural twist. What's the big fuss about? Well, 'The Wolf Among Us' benefited from a great narrative team alongside years worth of source material, as this title managed to make every character in this dime-store novel feel real and interesting. When I came to the first game it was very much just to dip my toes into the waters due to a demo that impressed me, but I left that first episode absolutely hooked to a degree that only the best stories can replicate. But this is where a slip-up for Telltale managed to work out to their favour, as due to an unforeseen complication the second episode of 'The Wolf Among Us' had to be delayed by several weeks. Usually this would result in a huge hit to the audience, but the first episode of this game had landed with such an attention grabbing cliffhanger that everyone was salivating for some resolution. The delay only heightened the fervour for this title and allowed for others to get in on the excitement that was sweeping the gaming world. (As well as allowing for Streamers,YouTubers and their huge audiences to get invested.)

When it was all said and done, 'The Wolf Among Us Season 1' capped off as some of the finest work that Telltale ever pulled off and the team would never get the chance to match that high for the rest of the company's lifespan. Don't get me wrong, I liked 'The Walking Dead series 2' (a lot more than most people, it seems) and 'Tales from the Borderlands' is easily the funniest entry to the Borderlands franchise, but nothing from Telltale had me coming back month after month itching for my fix. Bigsby, Snow and all the fable cast had us enchanted and the subtle tease (which doesn't even really amount to a cliffhanger) at the end of season 1 would rattle around her heads for years to come. Telltale seemed to be very aware of how special this title was as well, as they never rushed to make a sequel and vowed to take their time in order to make it perfect. Unfortunately, that reticence ended up costing us the possibility of a sequel altogether.

In late 2018 it was revealed that Telltale games was shutting down for a variety of reasons that I can't be bothered to shift through in this blog. That was pretty much the end of all hope that we would ever see the promised sequel series as the studio was taking all of their talent and licences to the grave with them. Or at least so it seemed. Through some means, some Telltale staff managed to band together in order to pen the finale of their Walking Dead series, providing closure to the fans of that particular franchise and sparking hope for the company. Nothing more would be said until December last year, when fans were thrown for a loop with the surprise announcement of 'The Wolf Among Us 2'. (I almost fell out of my chair.)

You might have noticed that the majority of this blog didn't even touch on the VGA trailer itself, and that is because that trailer was constructed with the sole purpose of inspiring my brand of nostalgia. We see Snow White asking for Bigsby's help and nothing else, but we didn't need anymore to be flooded with memories of the best of Telltale's best. As of yet were still to get any concrete information on what this means the company (Is Telltale back?) but right now I don't need to know anything other than the fact that the Big Bad Wolf is coming back to my computer screen sometime in the future, and that's enough to set me buzzing.