The Wolf Among Us: Episode 4 - In Sheep's Clothing Review (PS3)

We’re just one episode shy of wrapping up the debut season of Telltale Games’ episodic Fables adaptation, and while we look to the final instalment to tie up loose ends and answer burning questions, it’s equally important that the penultimate chapter takes the time to set it up properly – and that it seemingly does.

Picking up a few hours after the events of its predecessor, The Wolf Among Us: Episode 4 - In Sheep’s Clothing kicks off with the titular sheriff licking his wounds, which, graciously, allows us the opportunity to pop a compound fracture back into place – with little success. From there on, the vast majority of this edition is spent touring Fabletown, methodically dispensing Bigby’s unique take on justice unto whoever might refuse to co-operate with the final stages of his investigation.

As a result, this outing can be played almost entirely with your right hand, as the vast majority of your time will be spent selecting dialogue options. There are a couple of instances of action, and Wolf will occasionally require steering around a location, but far less so than in previous episodes, which results in a rather lethargic feeling chapter.

Don’t get us wrong, it’s still an engaging couple of hours, but given what’s come before, we expected a little more. Still, the slower paced focus covers a lot of narrative ground, so we’re certain that this is going to be the necessary evil required to provide a truly gripping finale.

Of course, the more deliberate pacing means that, if you ignore the painful loading times and immense slowdown at times, the performance issues are somewhat less prevalent this time around. We doubt that this will continue into the inevitably more action packed Episode 5, but it’s nice to get a bit of respite from the series’ usual flaws.

Alas, the dialogue heavy approach does result in issues elsewhere, as we didn’t find the dialogue options all that clear at times. While we understand why these selections are truncated, we regularly found that Bigby would act in a manner that we weren’t expecting based upon our choices. Of course, this issue is worsened when the title proudly proclaims that the character will remember your incorrectly selected decision, leaving us eager to actually restart the entire chapter on a couple of occasions.