Dispatch, produced by AdHoc Studio, has put out its first two episodes. And if I can tell you anything, it’s that it’s better than most full-blown hundred-million-dollar TV productions, both in terms of storytelling and, most surprisingly, the animation.
Being so good in all aspects, I had to go back in time and revisit those games that made AdHoc into what it is today, then functioning under the Telltale Games umbrella before it went dark. Not being much of a fan of either Borderlands or The Walking Dead, I naturally chose the one game that I adored as a kid: The Wolf Among Us, based on the Fables IP from DC’s comics.
And man, it’s been a decade since I last fired it up, but one thing hasn’t changed at all. The game is still, to this day, absolute perfection.
Usually, when I go back and take another look at stuff I loved as a kid, I would end up not liking it at all. Most recently, I binge-watched a lot of my childhood classic movies, including Terminator 1, a film I saw countless times as a wee lad. However, I would come to find out that the movie isn’t actually that good and that I am misremembering many of its scenes, replaying them in my mind as some pinnacle of cinema that they ultimately never were.
But when it comes to The Wolf Among Us, I find myself equally excited about the mysterious and intriguing story about murders in Fabletown, the reimagining of various fairytales and characters, the deep and dark and conflicted nature of its protagonist, Bigby (Big Bad) Wolf. Every aspect of the world, the story, the visuals, still enthralls me, makes me want to continue playing and uncover a story that I had already experienced and can predict.
The gameplay elements, though light, also lend themselves perfectly to a more laid-back experience where following the narrative itself takes precedence, though the quick-time events do bring the player into the fold every now and again. I actually like the QTEs in The Wolf Among Us more than I do in Dispatch, but the latter includes new and unique mini-games and other elements that TWAU does not have.
And though the animations are far simpler, even for the time, The Wolf Among Us manages to convey emotion and character a lot better than most contemporary games, chiefly due to its focus on facial expression and reaction. Whether a character is happy, sad, angry, or anything else, the game makes it its job to truthfully and clearly state that through animation, emphasizing the “show, don’t tell” rule of narrative to the utmost.
I haven’t ever played a game like The Wolf Among Us since. Well, at least until Dispatch. But even this latter does not offer that same feeling, a similar vibe. It’s its own thing, shares a lot of DNA with its predecessors, but The Wolf Among Us truly is a one-of-a-kind game that could’ve gotten a sequel (AdHoc even wrote a full script for it) if it weren’t for, as always, money problems.
Telltale has since been revived, and with it, the prospects of TWAU 2 have also been resurrected. But we haven’t heard anything of it in years, and given that it’s not being handled by the most talented team for this kind of game, I’m not so confident it could ever match the first. That is, if it does come out.
So, yes, The Wolf Among Us stands firm as one of the greatest games of all time, and a wild ride that you can only ever take for the first time once, but one that still never gets dull.
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The post Dispatch has me revisiting The Wolf Among Us after a decade, and there’s still nothing quite like it out there appeared first on Destructoid.
