Anton Chekhov, the famous Russian author and playwright, once explained how to write a play.

In the First Act, the wolves chase the hero up a tree.
In the Second Act, the wolves circle the tree while growling menacingly.
In the Third Act, the hunters arrive and chase off the wolves.

The Wolf Among Us, a five-part adventure from Telltale Games, uses this classic formula, but with an interesting twist – it is the wolf who is chased up the tree.

The game is based on the Fables comic book series by DC Comics. The characters from all the different fables (Brothers Grimm, Mother Goose, Washington Irving, Lewis Caroll, etc.) are forced to leave their Homeland in Europe and settle in a seedy neighborhood of New York City. They keep their identities secret by magic and by staying local. But life is anything but pleasant.

The game is dark, gritty, urban and violent. You play the part of the sheriff of Fabletown, Bigby Wolf. The game starts with you getting into a fight with The Woodsman. You barely recover from that when you discover the murder is the first in many years. Your job is to restore order and bring the perp to justice, but it feels like you are just sinking in deeper.

The game is pure noir. The graphics look more like the comic books than the comic books do. The story is gripping. The voice acting is professional. In fact, the acting is the level of quality you’d expect from TV and so you don’t even notice how good it is.

The game plays as one continuous cutscene interrupted by the occasional dialog choice, fight or scene investigation. This makes the game very story-centric with no exploration and a minimum of puzzles.

Dialog choices are just that. A question or decision comes up and you have to choose which of the four responses to make while the clock is ticking. If time runs out and you haven’t made a choice, then you choose to say or do nothing. The action then continues based on your choice. There are no trees.

Fight scenes require you to quickly click on a target (to attack a weak spot) or press a specific direction button (to dodge). Failure to complete the indicated task results in something bad happening. Enough badness leads to death. But death simply causes you to go back to the last auto-save point (usually just before the fight starts) and you get to try again.

Scene investigation is the only place you have time to breathe. You walk around the area and actions are indicated when you get close. For example, once you get close to the knife, you have the options of examining it or taking it. This is also where you will find the few simple inventory puzzles in the game. Once you are done, you simply leave the scene and the action continues.

The episodes progress very nicely. It is obvious that the entire game was scripted up front. There is no feeling of something being tacked on, left out, rushed to completion or otherwise compromised. And Episode 5 gives a very satisfying conclusion with just enough wiggle room for a sequel.

Bottom line? If you like story-centric games with lots of action and a ticking clock; urban dystopia filled with crime, drugs and violence; and being the hero whose knuckles are constantly bruised from fighting, this game is for you.

Final grade: A. They nailed it.

Final Grade: A  + Action packed and gripping story + Fantastic voice acting