With the surprising reemergence of Telltale Games, fans who found enjoyment in the likes of The Walking Dead and Tales From The Borderlands were given hope that the studio could be back to its best. Telltale enjoyed much critical acclaim thanks to its episodic, narrative-focused titles, and with The Wolf Among Us 2 promising to be an intriguing follow-up to the 2013 original, all eyes are fixed on Bigby Wolf’s next adventures in Fabletown.
The Wolf Among Us 2 has had a tumultuous development cycle, but with its release window of 2023, there is no better time for such a seedy and mysterious noir story to unfold. The detective genre of games has seen a boost in popularity over recent years with the likes of Return of the Obra Dinn, Disco Elysium, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, and AI: The Somnium Files leading the charge. The Wolf Among Us 2 has the heights of its predecessor to live up to, so being propped up by a thriving genre could do wonders to help it succeed.
The Detective Genre’s Offerings
The detective genre’s best years are firmly in the rear-view, with the point-and-click titles that made it popular having been largely forgotten as hardware limitations grow less prevalent. Frantic action has replaced careful crime scene investigation in the AAA space, and through the 2010s they were overlooked by many big developers. However, toward the end of the decade, more titles were released in the genre. While The Wolf Among Us will surely be in the same gameplay vein as other Telltale offerings, a 2023 release could be the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the detective genre’s more recent popularity.
The first game released hot on the heels of the universally acclaimed The Walking Dead, and though it provided a very different story, its presentation, art style, and somewhat inconsistent performance all remained. The Wolf Among Us took fundamental gameplay of The Walking Dead and wrapped it in an intense, neon-strangled story that offered an engaging mystery to uncover. Its mechanics were different from other, more traditional detective games, though its nuanced point-and-click formula made it feel akin to what makes the genre so appealing.
The Wolf Among Us 2 Will Release Among Other Gems
The current year is a decidedly different landscape to that of 2013 when The Wolf Among Us hit shelves. Playing as a detective unraveling The Wolf Among Us’ tight-wound mystery felt like a new direction compared to a sea of zombie-focused games and annual shooter releases. The game succeeded largely because its story was very engaging, and as the 2020s continue there are more detective titles that offer narratives to keep players guessing. The Wolf Among Us 2 will have to stand out in an increasingly crowded genre, but if the 2023 offering can maintain the same level of quality as the first Telltale Fable entry, it absolutely could compete.
With five episodes running a couple of hours apiece, The Wolf Among Us doesn’t require a significant amount of time to complete. It can be finished in a weekend, and in a world where each AAA game seems to be dozens of hours in length, the follow-up could provide a perfect break between sprawling open worlds or endless loot-based titles. Bringing an engaging mystery to audiences in a way that isn’t overly time-consuming would surely be a welcome change of pace as other stellar games in the genre like Her Story, Return of the Obra Dinn, and The Sinking City do much the same. The Wolf Among Us 2 is already in esteemed company, and riding the wave that such games have whipped up could be a great opportunity to succeed.
The Wolf Among Us 2 releases in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
