Warning: this review contains spoilers for previous episodes of The Wolf Among Us.
A Crooked Mile, being the middle-chapter and the third episode, which usually acts as the climax in Telltale-series, definitely serves it’s purpose as the turning point in Bigby Wolf’s story. It’s probably the most impressive episode to come from The Wolf Among Us as well.
A Crooked Mile follows up immediately where the last episode left off, and now the hunt is on for Crane. Whether he killed Holly or not isn’t up for debate, it’s more focused on getting a grip on the situation, and finding out what really is going on. Though Episode 3 doesn’t actually provide many answers, it definitely sets up a much larger conspiracy and problem while giving you enough tidbits along the way to keep things very interesting.
The huge focus of A Crooked Mile is time, as you have several leads but not enough time to find or investigate all of them. There is a sense of urgency here that drastically changed the dialogue and tone for every conversation I carried through the episode. It felt like I really emulated Bigby here, in that there was no patience, and no time to even consider being patient. I, as the player, became anxious when characters would bounce around the questions I asked in the conversations carried, and Bigby would in turn lose his patience as well.
To touch on the dialogue, A Crooked Mile has the best this episodic series has had yet, which is saying something. Whether it’s Bigby ferociously losing his head or trying to hide his impatient tone, Snow masking her horrible discomfort at the premise of the current investigation, or everyone else being complete assholes or obstructions to the answers, it was all spot on. Every character you’ve seen before get’s their moment to shine, too. Whether it’s small or a full dialogue sequence, all are done and delivered excellently.
There is only one real combat scenario in this episode, and it happens at the very end. It may be the best Telltale Adventure combat scene as well, which features Bigby at his finest and his most ferocious. It feels completely different then the scenes before it, and helps introduce the new looming threat.
Closing Comments:
With a sense of urgency constantly pushing you forward in A Crooked Mile, there is a whole new feeling for this chapter in Bigby’s story. The dialogue is at it’s best, the combat is at it’s best (and least) and this serves as a fantastic and dark middle chapter.
