The Wolf Among Us - Episode 2: Smoke and Mirrors (PlayStation 3) Review

By Drew Hurley 27.01.2015

Review for The Wolf Among Us - Episode 2: Smoke and Mirrors on PlayStation 3

Warning: Each episode review will contain spoilers for the previous one.

Bigby went through a lot in the first episode - a grizzly fight with an old nemesis, "The Woodsman," a bond built with a new Fable, "Faith," only to find her severed head left outside his door… and, on top of that, some lesser problems with his boss, being generally disliked by some inhabitants of Fabletown, a bar brawl with "Grendel" from Beowulf, being stuck between the arguing marital couple of "Beauty and the Beast," and then finally the cliff-hanger of finding his friend Snow's head much the same as Faith's...

After the shocking conclusion of the first episode, this picks up immediately afterward. Faith's grizzly murder and the investigation around it sets up the story arc for the entire season, with Snow now dead, too, Bigby is hit hard... The story escalates quickly at the start, with Bigby having to deal with some major twists and very dark moments.

There are some extra characters from the comics introduced here, most prominently Bluebeard who is somewhat of an antagonist for Snow, seemingly after her job, as well as favourite from the comics, "Jack" from "Jack and the Beanstalk". Jack plays a large role in the comics, with even a spin-off series; he's a fantastic character and hopefully one that will appear more in this series as his appearance during this episode is very brief.

Screenshot for The Wolf Among Us - Episode 2: Smoke and Mirrors on PlayStation 3

Outside of the comic characters appearing, there is also a new original one: a strip club owner with a bad mouth and a bad attitude called Georgie. Based on Georgie Porgie from the nursery rhyme, the Georgie Porgie design is superb, with nods to the original tale. "Kissed the girls and made them cry" fits so well with what the designers create here - a great and original dark take on his character.

The choices in this episode really allow the player to craft their Bigby, whether he should be a little more lenient with who he has to deal with or if he's the type to smash faces and property to get his answers. There are a number of occasions allowing for Bigby to choose to be very aggressive or to play the "good cop." The "bad cop" Bigby can be surprisingly harsh, and some of the physical hits he lays out to Fables can be very cringe-worthy.

Telltale Games has hit the mark fantastically thus far. Already choices the player makes matter, for instance - it's a positive start and hopefully a theme that continues. During dialogue choices in a conversation, a pop up will often show saying how the person Bigby is talking to "Will remember that," and they really do, altering how they deal with Bigby in later interactions.

Screenshot for The Wolf Among Us - Episode 2: Smoke and Mirrors on PlayStation 3

Cubed3 Rating

8/10
Rated 8 out of 10

Great - Silver Award

Rated 8 out of 10

After an initial burst at the start of this episode, The Wolf Among Us - Episode 2: Smoke and Mirrors feels a little slower compared to the first. That is fairly understandable, however, as the episode concentrates on world crafting and establishing the story for later episodes. Despite this, it's still very enjoyable and worth replaying to experiment with choices.

Developer

Telltale

Publisher

Telltale

Genre

Adventure

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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