Epic gives out free games on a regular basis, but this week is a little different. While most of the other weeks we get one or two random games, this week's freebie - The Wolf Among Us - gets on the free shelf for a reason: its sequel - The Wolf Among Us 2 is getting resurrected after canceled due to its developer- Telltale Games was forced to break up.
The Wolf Among Us is a must-try if you are fans of heavy narrative games, as it brought a unique choice-driven mechanics and an intriguing story based on a famous novel. If you haven't heard of this masterpiece yet, here is the trailer for you to have some look while waiting for the download to complete.
The story of The Wolf Among Us
The Wolf Among Us is a video game taking the inspiration from an American comic book series - Fables. In detail, its story starts in 1986 - almost 20 years later than the main event of Fables, when almost all of the mythical lands (the Homelands) in many folklore and legends were taken over by the mysterious dictator - the Adversary.
Inhabitants in those lands want to escape from the evil regime of the Adversary, so they've fled to America and together formed a shelter namely Fabletown in Manhattan. However, they can't just live there as their original forms, so the non-humans refugees need to buy a magical item called the 'glamour'. It will disguise them with the appearance of humans, allowing to settle down in a human rural area - "The Farm".
In there, the game will put you into the shoes of the main protagonist Bigby Wolf (originally Big Bad Wolf), working as a sheriff of Fabletown in an office full of mythical characters like Snow White, Magic Mirror and a winged monkey namely Bufkin. The people here, well, don't seem to like him due to his wicked looks, but that's not preventing him from his job anyway.
However, his ordinary life changes forever after he saved a prostitute from a drunk forester. Escorting her to his safe place, the girl told him that he's not a bad person like many is telling - that's some rare nice words that Bigby received for a while.
Unfortunately, that nice woman didn't live long, as her head was found hanging on the woodman's door stairs that night, shocking the Big Bad Wolf. Due to her death, her identity was unveiled - Faith from Brother Grim's fairy tale Allerleirauh. Now, the big bad sheriff will have to embark on an extraordinary adventure to find the truth behind this bloody murder case.
Gameplay features
The most special thing of The Wolf Among Us - its story - is waiting for you to explore, and I'm not going to spoil everything for you. However, it's safe to give you some information on its gameplay features - which went far ahead of time even if it was released now.
The most outstanding feature of all is its choice-driven mechanic, in which the outcomes of your decisions do not only depend on the choices themselves but also the time you choose to commit. You'll investigate all of the people from famous folklore and fairy tales in the third-person perspective, trying to pull off some clues from their words through dialogues. They might come from completely different stories, but The Wolf Among Us tie them up very tightly and reasonable in the most unexpected ways.
Apart from the characters, you can also find important clues by interacting with the objectives on your way as well. It doesn't require you to use fancy control mechanics, just simply use your cursor against the objects, and Bigby will give some comments on them. The only thing that requires reflexes in this game is the quick-time events, which I've mentioned earlier.
Claim it for free and keep it forever
The Wolf Among Us is this week's freebie on Epic Games Store, and you can feel free to add it to your library and download it at any time you want. It will stay on the shelf until the next Friday, so take your time but don't forget about it.
And here's another good news: its second installment - The Wolf Among Us 2 - is now being developed again from the hands of LCG Entertainment and the help of AdHoc Studio - the one created by former Telltale's developer. Here's it reveal trailer at The Game Awards 2019, which you can have a look:
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