The Wolf Among Us: Episode 5 - Cry Wolf (PC) review "And they all lived happily ever after."

The Wolf Among Us' finale is more of a beginning than an ending, as you might expect from a story that is a prequel to a comic series that's set to last 150 issues. But that doesn't mean there's no closure to be had. It's about time to close this particular case, whether you want to do things by the book, or get your hands dirty.

This is a review of the season's big finish, and while it won't badly spoil the ending, you might want to stay away if you haven't played the episodes leading up to it. You can find reviews for Episodes one, two, three, and four elsewhere on this site.

After the previous episode's cliffhanger, you won't be surprised when the episode opens with Bigby coming face-to-face with the Crooked Man and his goons. Of course, this is where the episode begins, not where it ends, so it won't be long before you'll have to fight your way out to chase your target down.

This episode has plenty of action, and while once again the QTE inputs don't matter very much at all, and the guns full of silver bullets never seem to be that threatening, these scenes are a lot of fun. With two melees and a car chase, things never slow down for very long. The second fight in particular is perhaps the most basically “fun” scene Telltale has produced, bringing out the true strength of all characters involved. There are enough final forms to make Dragon Ball Z jealous.

There aren't too many loose ends left at this point in The Wolf Among Us and it's no surprise that Cry Wolf manages to tie them up nicely. You probably won't leave dissatisfied with anything. Georgie and the Pudding N Pie get some much-needed context. Bloody Mary gets dealt with. The Crooked Man is confronted, bringing us to the most important decisions you'll make this episode. You'll have quite a few options regarding what to do about him, and they'll all have different effects on how Fabletown views Bigby. The citizens of Fabletown are diverse, with differing opinions and different levels of bloodlust. You can't please everyone, but do you really want to? Is there still hope for Fabletown to be run as a civilized society? How far will Bigby have to go to protect the Fables from each other? What rights does he have, legally and morally, as the person in charge of upholding the law? These are your questions to answer.

Bigby laments that nothing he does ever seems to be good enough. One man can't save a community. Fabletown's problems are not ones that can be huffed and puffed and blown away. All anyone can do is their best and hope it's enough to make a real difference. In this case, at least, it makes a difference to someone, who will tell Bigby as much. Perhaps that will offer some comfort. Bigby will need it, as there's always work to do.

Cry Wolf seems to make Telltale's practice of producing short finale episodes into a habit. It took me about an hour and twenty minutes to make it through. It almost feels like this episode and the previous one could have cut out some of Episode 4's filler and been merged into one. This particular finale doesn't disappoint, however. It says everything that needs to be said, ties up any remaining loose ends, and acts as a good lead in to the Fables comic series. I hope there is eventually a Season 2 of The Wolf Among Us, as there are always plenty of stories to be told about Bigby, Snow White, and the citizens of Fabletown. That's what Fables has always been about, after all: stories.

Staff review by Rhody Tobin (July 11, 2014) Rhody likes to press the keys on his keyboard. Sometimes the resulting letters form strings of words that kind of make sense when you think about them for a moment. Most times they're just random gibberish that should be ignored. Ball-peen wobble glurk.