The Case

In present day New York, amidst the squalor and splendour that stand side by side, two disparate worlds that have formed an uneasy, beautifully ugly perfect balance. Amidst the decadence and the abject misery, there is a third half. At the same time, both comfortably familiar and tantalisingly, terrifyingly alien. This is the world of the Fables. Characters from myth and legend, hiding in plain sight. This is the world of The Wolf Among Us. You are Bigby Wolf. Sheriff, enforcer, prosecutor. The Big Bad Wolf. And it is your job to ensure that the Mundies, the likes of you and I, never learn that you even exist.

The Trial

And boy oh boy, but do you have a tough job on your hands. Never mind all that trifling hiding from the Mundies nonsense, there’s something far larger going on here. You see, Fables have started dying. Two, already, have literally turned up on your doorstep. Part of them at least. Telling a particularly ugly tale of prostitution, slave labour, extortion and a grand protection racket that extends throughout the entirety of your little slice of the Big Apple. The whole of Fabletown has been at the mercy of the elusive Crooked Man for...well, we don’t actually know how long. Maybe since the very beginning.

How this was allowed to happen...well that’s a shockingly, depressingly Human story actually. Just because you were born from myth, just because you were imbued with all of those astounding magics. It doesn’t make you any less Human. Creatures of myth and legend you may be. But these are Mundy myths. Injected with, and born directly out of, all of the hopes, fears and insecurities of the very deepest, most basic Human desires. Tales of heroism, and warning. You see, Fables are the very essence, the living embodiment, of the two great extremes of the Human psyche. At the same time the very best and worst of the Human condition. All wrapped up into one, awkward package.

With no middle ground.

The big bad wolf, the Big Bad Wolf, the most fearsome and feared of all our most basic, unspoken animal desires. The literal essence of terror. And the last line of defence against the worst of what we can be. A precarious position that should be impossible. The very concept is ludicrous, anathema to the most basic logical axioms. What is this insanity that chose our worst to be the protector of the best? Well, the question is equally flawed. Think on this. Who else could possibly have the strength of will to stand against it, to look directly into the heart of the abyss, and never flinch?

Bigby Wolf, that’s who. Because when he gazes into the primordial maelstrom of chaos, the only thing he sees is himself. The worst of what we could be. The very worst. Making him the only one to truly understand how dangerous it is to let go, whilst retaining the sliver of self-control needed to let it out...in moderation. Where a good man would be destroyed by the darkness inside himself, our boy Bigby can let just a little bit of it peek through, just enough to keep the darker side of reality in check, and still come back to himself afterwards.

Something he is going to have to rely on like never before in this, the penultimate episode of Telltale’s superb new series. Though, well, not really new anymore as it’s almost over. But you see the point. This chapter sees all of the plot threads from the previous episodes, those tiny fragments of the big picture, all finally coming together. Culminating in a face to face encounter with the Crooked Man himself. Which ends on a complete bastard of a cliffhanger immediately after you chose your reaction to his offer of parley.

The question this episode asks, its whole purpose in the series, is to challenge both Bigby and you, the player, with your own morality. There is no doubt, none, that the Crooked Man is a truly despicable creature. Praying on the weak, the downtrodden, the lonely and forgotten. The worst kind of predator. Offering that tiny glimmer of recognition, just enough to coax out the ugliness we all try to keep in check. The very essence of an abusive spouse. Breaking you down, then picking you up and patting you on the back. Leaving you to take away only one thing. You are scum, but he still loves you.

There is a reason these games have an 18/M rating. Along with all of the violence, sexual content and harsh language, the thematic and tonal resonance is brutally oppressive. It never lets up. The worst part being those little glimmers of hope we see scattered throughout even the most destitute, the most desperate and hopeless. And the glimmer of genuine compassion in the despicable creatures that would call themselves men.

The whole episode hinges around this duality more than any other before it. The real focus being which way Bigby will ultimately jump. We open with the broken wolf clinging to life in his apartment, suffering through the grievous wounds he received at the hands of Bloody Mary by sheer, if you will excuse the pun, bloody mindedness. He has a job to do, after all, and he is damn well going to do it. But how will he do it? Will he bring the Crooked Man in, to face justice, a fair trial? Or will he exercise the rights he is so itching to and simply kill him where he stands?

The decision, on that front, is yours. And it is this knowledge which makes the series so compelling. Bigby has been consistently presented in such a way that any decision, any at all, still remains absolutely consistent with his character. The morality here is so beautifully opaque. An act of kindness is never as simple as doing a good deed and coming across like a nice guy underneath a rough exterior. It is nothing more than a kind act. Because, after all, you do not have to be a kind person to do a kind thing. But nor do you need necessarily be an evil man to commit evil.

So the choice is yours and yours alone. Those of us crying out for moral choice with genuine gravitas to them, this is our opus, a love letter to our twisted need for shades of grey. It is never black and white. It is both, and it is neither. Simply a muddy mixture of ambiguity and uncertainty. Did you give Faith your money in the first chapter or not? Why? Did you want to help her, did you take pity, did you think she wasn’t even worth the effort? Only you know that. Bigby, no matter what, is just being Bigby. He’s an asshole through and through. He just happens to be your kind of asshole.

So we come back full circle. Which way will he jump? Which way will you jump? When the final chapter arrives, and it is time to follow through on your duties. Which will you follow? Will you kill him? Is that what you intended to do? Is that what you said you would do? Did you change your mind and see the distressing, but undeniable truth in what he was doing all along? Interesting questions to ponder. Or you could just play through this chapter to enjoy the slick, cel shaded visuals, superb voice acting and so complexly simple narrative.

You decide.

The long and the short of it folks, is that In Sheep’s Clothing is precisely what we have come to expect from the series. By now you already know whether you like it or not. It’s more of the same. Which is either going to make you sigh with exasperation or gush with over brimming excitement. It looks, sounds, feels and plays like the three chapters before it and does not deviate from the path it has chosen to walk. It was a little shorter, perhaps the shortest yet, than the previous chapters. Though that was partly because I played episodes 3 and 4 back to back. I was so caught up in what was happening that I had no patience for being given the run around and ploughed ahead with reckless abandon.

It is still a little on the short side, clocking in at just over an hour. Which is off-putting to some, but in context of the price versus quality debate...five episodes at approximately 80-90 minutes apiece will still equal out at more than six hours of gameplay. Which is nothing to be scoffed at considering games with far larger price tags are offering the same, without the replayability. Speaking of which, by now, it’s clear there are some genuinely divergent branches to follow. Much of the details remain static regardless of your choices, with end results being pre-set. But the path to them offers some great opportunities for an exploration of branching narrative.

From simple things like choosing which location to visit first, to much larger divergences such as the death of certain characters. Lesser characters, mostly, but you are still given the power to choose their fate. And who’s to say they were minor? Perhaps even that insignificant act of kindness can have greater repercussions as time goes on. Into a second season perhaps? Time will tell.

The Verdict

If it is not obvious by now, this is a gripping, powerfully thought provoking piece of interactive storytelling. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, but dude, Telltale know how to tell a tale. Gloriously ambiguous tales at that. Which has me giving this my official stamp of approval and asking, why are you still reading this? Just go play the damn game already!

Case Review