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It's a tall, rotting order to follow in the bloodied footsteps of one of this gen's greatest adventure series, The Walking Dead. So can developer Telltale deliver? Enter The Wolf Among Us...

It's got a lot to live up to; first, the new game is based on the much admired comic book series Fables (and its inevitably hardcore fans will flame any developer into smouldering cinders if they get it wrong). Secondly, this is from Telltale Games, the makers of the acclaimed The Walking Dead series - so we expect great things as standard.

On the first issue, Telltale has neatly sidestepped a potential sticking point by creating a story that is set before the events detailed in the Fables comics. And on the second, it has a track record stretching back before The Walking Dead that proves it knows how to deliver.

So with those fears abated, we can all unclench our fists and smooth out those worry lines because The Wolf Among Us is a cracker - you play a hard-boiled New York 'sheriff' Bigby Wolf tracking down a killer while keeping tabs on a wide selection of fairytale characters plucked (and twisted) from your childhood bedtime memories.

This surreal blend of fantasy and grim noir fiction is perfectly framed by the cel-shaded presentation, creating a genuinely fascinating parallel universe where everything looks familiar but utterly different. And like The Walking Dead, making decisions and facing their consequences loom large through out the game's two-hour running time, creating a compelling set-up for the remaining four episodes. Unlike the undead fest, there's more physicality in The Wolf Among Us as you pummel bad guys, kick down doors and behave like the big, bad wolf your character is supposed to be.

Fans of both The Walking Dead and Fables series can rest easy then that they are once again in safe hands - and in for an experience that shows all signs of lingering long in the memory after completion. Just like any good fable then, we reckon.