The company has not denied the employees’ accusations that held them responsible, but it has looked for the typical reason to get away with it and that really means nothing: the famous “current market conditions.”
You might be thinking while reading this headline: “Telltale Games? Didn’t they close five years ago?” The answer is yes, but also no: two months after the closure of Telltale Games, another company specializing in graphic adventure game development was created, also named… Telltale Games. And it turns out, this new underlying company isn’t doing well either, because they have just laid off a significant portion of their team.
The company has not denied the accusations made by the employees holding them responsible, but they have found the typical excuse to get away with it, one that doesn’t really mean anything: the famous “current market conditions.” However, to reassure some unscrupulous gamers, they have also made it clear that their games currently in development will continue. They may have destroyed a few lives, but you can still look forward to ‘The Wolf Among Us 2’; everything is going smoothly.
It was Jonah Huang, a cinematics artist who came from the original Telltale, who spilled the beans on Twitter, stating that he signed “an agreement not to harm Telltale’s business as part of my severance. But I have legal permission to talk about being laid off, and this statement is not an attempt to cause harm or trouble for the company.” In the midst of massive layoffs in the world of video games, this revelation has hit like a boiling pot of oil, realizing that practically no one is spared from the cuts.
Huang took the opportunity to make it clear that “I don’t want Telltale to fail. I genuinely want to see it succeed. Telltale offered me a good salary this time, but it ended the same way as most jobs in the industry: a layoff, not a retirement.” Meanwhile, the company, known for games like ‘The Walking Dead‘ and ‘The Wolf Among Us,’ has announced that their “commitment to storytelling and exploring new ways to do so remains the same.”
The public’s response has been mixed, pending more information: some believe they did the right thing if they had no other choice, while others think every layoff should be met with joining a union and fighting back. The United States is at a crucial moment in its labor history right now. We’ll see how it all unfolds.
The penultimate episode of The Wolf Among Us will be released May 27th for Mac and PC. Xbox 360 users will get the episode May 28th and iOS users one day after.
Telltale Games released a spoiler filled trailer, which you can watch below. If you haven’t caught up with episodes one to three, don’t watch the trailer!
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If you’re not familiar with the Wolf Among Us, it’s a game that takes place in Bill Willingham’s Fables comic series. It’s a prequel to the comics that follows sheriff Bigby Wolf as he tries to solve murders in Fabletown.
Telltale teased us with a trailer for The Wolf Among Us Episode 3: A Crooked Mile yesterday but didn’t give us a release date. Today, the company announced you’ll be able to play Episode 3 on April 8th.
The game will be available on PC, Mac, and North American PlayStation 3s on April 8th. European PS3s and Xbox 360s will have to wait an additional day. An iOS version will be launching “shortly afterward” during that second week of April.
Telltale Games is planning to bring The Wolf Among us to the PlayStation Vita as well but has not announced a release date. The company is also bringing its games to the new Amazon Fire TV media streaming box.
Check out the trailer for The Wolf Among Us Episode 3: A Crooked Mile if you haven’t already. Be sure to read our read our review as well.
If you haven’t caught up with the first two episodes of The Wolf Among Us, don’t watch this trailer! The trailer picks up immediately after the big reveal in Episode Two titled “Smoke and Mirrors.”
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Without spoiling the game, the trailer shows Bigby and Snow on the hunt for someone they thought they could trust. The rest of the trailer is cryptic, showing an encounter with Dum and Dee Tweedle and Bigby getting violent with Jack.
Episode 3 “A Crooked Mile” doesn’t have a release date yet. We expect its release sometime in April if Telltale’s monthly release schedule is on track.
Be sure to check out our review for The Wolf Among Us.
A new “Red Band” trailer for The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 shows the dark side of Fabletown. Episode 2, titled “Smoke and Mirrors,” walks players through new mysteries to solve around Fabletown, the fictional town in New York City where Fables reside.
The trailer shows a much darker side of Fabletown than the first episode. We can see sheriff Bigby Wolf using torture to get information from a Fable. “Everyone has a weakness. Just have to find where it is and push,” says Bigby.
Episode 2 of The Wolf Among Us will be released the first week of February (next week) so it won’t be long until you can solve the mysteries of Fabletown for yourself. If you haven’t played the first episode, make sure to do so as your decisions will influence the gameplay in “Smoke and Mirrors.”
You can view the trailer below, but there’s some nudity and swearing in the trailer so view at your own discretion.
The second episode of Telltale Games’ The Wolf Among Us series will arrive the first week of February, according to a post written by Telltale founder, Kevin Bruner. The episode is called “Smoke and Mirrors” and continues after the shocking ending of the first episode.
According to Bruner, the game is already complete but the company is working with its partners at Xbox, Playstation, Steam, and Apple to make sure the game is ready to ship on every platform. Bruner goes on to apologize for the delay with Episode 2, but only offered a vague about why the game was delayed. “I won’t dive into the details, but it’s been an unusual and specific set of circumstances and we do not anticipate it happening again as we go forward with the rest of the season,” says Bruner.
For those who haven’t played the first episode, be sure to check out our review of The Wolf Among Us: Episode One (Faith). Episode 2 will be available for iOS, Mac, Playstation 3/Vita, Windows, and Xbox 360.
Telltale’s episodic point-and-click adventure game will be going mobile this fall. The Wolf Among Us will be coming to iOS and the PlayStation Vita sometime this fall. The first episode of the game, “Faith,” is currently out for Windows, Mac, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
The game will require iOS users to have an iPad 2 or newer or an iPhone 4 or newer to run the game. It’s great that Telltale is supporting older iOS devices, though it’s not surprising as their previous game, The Walking Dead, also ran on these devices. The Wolf Among Us should work well on mobile as touch is a natural way to interact with point-and-click adventure games.
There is no pricing announced but Telltale says they will reveal that information “in the near future.”
Be sure to check out our review of the first episode of The Wolf Among Us, “Faith.”
After The Walking Dead’s release in 2012, there’s been huge anticipation surrounding Telltale Games’ The Wolf Among Us. Garnering many Game of the Year awards, Telltale has brought back the point-and-click adventure genre.
Fables is a story about characters from fairy tales who are forced out of their Homelands and are living in the “mundane” world of New York City. The Fable characters are given life by the popularity they have with people in the real world, so characters like Snow White have survived for centuries since fleeing the Homelands.
Over five episodes, The Wolf Among Us will dive into DC Comics’ Vertigo series, “Fables” by Bill Willingham.
The first episode, “Faith”, is an introduction to key characters like Bigby Wolf, formerly known as The Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, and the area known as Fabletown.
An intense point-and-click adventure
The Wolf Among Us is a point-and-click adventure game. Following the success of The Walking Dead, many elements of the series were implemented into Telltale’s newest game.
Featuring an overall linear quest, The Wolf Among Us includes branching dialogue trees. The experience in Episode 1: Faith will differ depending on the decisions you make, the responses you give, and how you handle specific tasks.
This creates a compelling reason to replay the game to see how different decisions will change the gameplay. This gameplay formula is made even stronger because of Telltale’s understanding of the property its using – Fables has over 100 issues and a massive history. The Wolf Among Us happens before the series begins so players are introduced to recognizable characters before their original appearances in the comic books.
As The Wolf Among Us is part of a five-episode series, it doesn’t take long to complete a single episode. The decisions you made throughout the game are broken down at the end of the episode and the completed save file will be imported into the next episode so all decisions continue to affect your experience with the game.
More action than expected
It was surprising to go from The Walking Dead to The Wolf Among Us. The game moves at a faster pace and the experience you go through as Bigby Wolf feels like a crime drama. The use of the mouse and keyboard work well when exploring and during the more exciting scenes they’re also very effective.
Since The Wolf Among Us is generally linear, you don’t have much exploration outside the predefined boundaries but tight writing keeps everything interesting. The small details in each scene show the focus on detail in the Fables universe.
Stylized Fables universe
Telltale has really defined the look of its games. While The Wolf Among Us doesn’t look exactly like the comic, it does look like a comic book. The animations of characters like Colin Pig and Mr. Toad are amazing and fluid. Bigby’s action scenes are also very satisfying.
The writing in the first episode surprised me. I had expected something more adult, but the dialogue in the first few minutes had tons more cursing than I anticipated. It’s definitely a game meant for adults and even though the game includes fairy tale characters, it’s not for kids!
The PC game doesn’t have high requirements to run but it still looks impressive with the Telltale art style. On PlayStation 3, there are long load times which breaks the immersion of the game, but still provides a great experience. It’s actually a little easier to control with a controller than mouse for some events in the game.
Go into The Wolf Among Us knowing nothing
The story of The Wolf Among Us starts with an unexpected encounter and continues to ramp up the tension with each scene. The best thing to do is dive into the game knowing little about the story, playing completely from fresh.
At the end of the episode when you get your statistics of the decisions you made, you realize just how gray the world of Fables can be.
An emotional ride
If the first episode of The Wolf Among Us is an indication of the rest of the series, it’s going to be very intense. With more characters to introduce and a deeper mystery to explore, the remaining four episodes are likely going to be crazy.
The influence of past decisions carrying over to new episodes is going to tailor the experience to each player, but also provides great replayability because the experience can change completely with a single decision.
Telltale Games has taken another property and created a compelling and enjoyable game experience. It may take elements from The Walking Dead, but The Wolf Among Us could prove to be even better.
The Wolf Among Us, Telltale Games’ latest episodic point-and-click adventure game has been delayed for Mac. Telltale was planning on releasing the game on Mac, PC, Xbox Live, and the Playstation Network all at the same time but an “unforeseen issue” has delayed the game for Mac users. Still, the company promises to get the game up and running “within the next few days.”
The Wolf Among Us, is Telltale’s take on Bill Willingham’s Fables comic series, featuring characters like Snow White, Bigby, and Red Riding Hood. Episode 1 of 5 was released on Friday on all the mentioned platforms except Mac.
Telltale Games had a hit with 2012’s The Walking Dead. The company is now preparing for the launch of its newest episodic series, The Wolf Among Us.
Based of off Bill Willingham’s comic series Fables, which takes the idea that characters from various children’s stories are real and living in the real world, The Wolf Among Us will be starting with the first episode titled ‘Faith.’
The game takes place before the comic series starts and places players in the role of Bigby Wolf, a detective formerly known as The Big Bad Wolf. Fans of the comics will likely see prominent characters like Snow White and a member of the Three Little Pigs among many others during the entire season.
Over the course of the five episodes, expect decisions made in the game to impact the entire experience with the game, just like The Walking Dead.
The full season will contain five episodes and will be launching on Steam, PSN, and Xbox Games Store on Friday.
