I’ve been waiting for The Wolf Among Us 2 for an age.
When I played the original, I was about 17-years-old, and my mates and I used to squeeze into my tiny bedroom to play the game on Xbox 360. So it was an odd sensation squeezing into a tiny booth at Gamescom to check out the sequel 13 years later.
I sat down with Design Director Jess Hara Campbell and Principal Scene Coordinator Leslie Harwood to play a short hands-off demo of the long-awaited sequel. And those opening moments felt like slipping on a comfy pair of joggers, helped all the more by the original voice cast returning for many of the familiar faces in the sequel.
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Taking place just six months after the events of the last game, Bigby Wolf is forced to work alongside a Mundy (human) cop, Faye, who’s chasing down a serial killer. Unbeknownst to Faye, Bigby suspects our killer is a Fable, and this sets up the biggest dynamic of this demo, and potentially the whole game.
As Bigby, you have to decide whether to be honest with Faye about magic and the world of the Fables, or keep your community safe and secret. Either decision is said to have impacts on the story, and it’ll certainly impact your relationship with Faye herself.
The near-ageless comic book visuals mean the game looks very similar, although of course a lot crisper. The neo-noir inspiration to this dark murder mystery gives it such a cool and distinct style, and I loved the idea of cosying up to play this upon the whole release, which I was told will see all episodes drop at once.
Anyway, in the portion I was shown, Faye and Bigby find themselves locked in a Mundy’s apartment with an ominous runic table puzzle to solve. As you explore the apartment with the game’s new over-the-shoulder third-person perspective, you must examine different clues to work out the puzzle.
Jess and Leslie spoke about trying to give the players options when it came to the puzzles, like a full auto-solve feature for those that just want to focus on the story. Faye, as a companion in this scene, will also examine the environment, commenting on little clues, but they were keen to point out that she won’t bombard you with hints. The system is supposedly dynamic too, with contextual comments based on what you’ve already found.
I didn’t get a great sense of the puzzle-solving, mainly because we were a bit tight for time, and Leslie quickly did the steps for me. What I really enjoyed was the way it built up to you making that choice with Faye, as she became more and more irritated because she was seeing things that didn’t make sense to her.
I eventually opted to tell her about magic and, to be honest… she took it pretty well. I wonder how it will evolve things as the story continues, however.
From a narrative perspective, I was certainly intrigued. I loved the whole serial killer set-up, and the forcing of Fable and Mundy together. Undeniably, it feels like more of The Wolf Among Us, but I don’t really see a problem with that. I don’t know about you, but I just want some more Bigby investigations.
The issue is that the demo I was shown felt very early in development. Missing VFX, stand-in voice lines, text boxes explaining features that will be in the full release, and even a level completely devoid of any graphics, just the layout with grey boxes.
I love this world, and the small polished sections that were there gave me some confidence that it could be worth the wait. The unfinished sections made me wonder if that wait will be longer than we’re hoping.
2027 is the current release window, and a lot can change in six months or a year, and to be fair to Telltale this is an early, behind-closed-doors look at a press expo, it was never going to be the finished product. But we’ve been waiting such a long time for this game, so I’m hoping that Telltale don’t stumble in the final stretch.
Have you been waiting patiently for The Wolf Among Us 2? Where does this game register on your most-wanted list? Let me know below.
