The Wolf Among Us 2 Gameplay Preview: Bigby's Back!

The best time for The Wolf Among Us 2 to release would have been, I don't know, not well over ten years after the original game released. Some time while the iron was hot, perhaps. But, thanks to Dispatch proving there's still an audience for these big-budget choice-based adventures, now does feel like the second best time to get stuck back into Fabletown. We got to check out some (mostly) hands-off gameplay at Gamescom for The Wolf Among Us 2, and while the sequel is still very much taking shape, it's looking like that shape is going to be what fans wanted and more.

We pick up six months after the events of the first game. Bigby's on the case of a serial killer, this time joined by an NYPD cop known as Faye. She's completely unaware of the world of Fables, and it's up to us as Bigby whether we keep that secret from her, or let her into the magical reality hiding behind her "real world" so she can help us even more with the mystery at hand. The demo portion had that decision made for us, so we could see more of the dialogue options available if Faye does know about magic, as her and Bigby explored the apartment of the serial killer, finding more questions than they had answers.

What was interesting about the demo shown at Gamescom was how raw it was. I wouldn't call it unpolished or unfinished, but design director Jessica Hara Campbell and principal scene coordinator Leslie Harwood acknowledged that what we saw was an early version of a lot of things. Dialogue, animations, and entire backgrounds were missing, but peering behind the curtain in this way gave a great insight into the things Telltale are focusing on right now. The flow of the story, and making player decisions matter. It was better to show something a little more rough around the edges, so that the finished product could come quicker, than create a demo that would've been thrown out after Gamescom anyway, according to the devs, and I'm inclined to agree.

What stands out even in this early version of the game is how much focus Telltale is putting into making puzzle or wider gameplay sections feel more interactive. The Wolf Among Us was a great story, but between cinematic setpieces and conversations it didn't really feel like you did or decided much as a player. That changes in the sequel, where the biggest onus was on showing how the player is given different responses from how they interact with the serial killer's apartment. They can have their hand held as much or as little as they like, and in some instances asking for a hint can have a direct impact on the story. For example, when solving a puzzle requiring you to shift some circles around on an altar, if you decide to ask for a hint and get a picture of what the symbols should look like when they're matched up, this led to Faye producing the picture in our demo. But, if earlier in the game, Bigby had chosen to keep that picture for himself, he then has to produce it in front of Faye, showing he'd stolen from her.

The way decisions overlap in The Wolf Among Us 2 shows why it has taken so long to see this game release. It's something that players may not notice until their on their second or third playthroughs, but as a developer it sounds like a tonne of extra work to keep all those plates spinning. It keeps a sense of classic Telltale around The Wolf Among Us 2, even if so many of the developers working on the game weren't around when the original released. Still, from being able to remain silent in dialogue options to seeing an upgraded but preserved cel-shaded look, it doesn't feel like we've been more than a decade without Bigby in our lives.

Where perhaps I draw some slight concern is in the strength of the main plot being enough to carry us through the entire game. It doesn't look like our old friends and enemies from Fabletown will be around too much in this sequel, even if they feature in the trailer. Instead, we're getting the unlikely buddy cop duo of Faye and Bigby through most of it, with new faces taking up much of the screentime. After seeing what I saw at Gamescom, I'm much more excited than concerned, though. Throwing on a winter jacket, lighting up a cigarette, and roaming the crime-riddled streets of New York feels just as immersive as it did all those years ago. With player decision mattering much more outside of the obvious choices you make through dialogue, too, I'm intrigued to see where Bigby's next mystery takes him, and I hope we won't wait too much longer to see the game in full.