A Plague Tale: Requiem Review

The original Plague Tale was one of those games that had all of the promise in the world, but didn’t quite manage to nail things down 100%. It was a great game, don’t get me wrong, but there were a few aspects – such as the use of stealth – that definitely felt like they needed just one more crack at it to get it spot on. Well boys and girls, as far as I’m concerned Asobo have done just that. A Plague Tale: Requiem is a fantastic sequel that improves on the original across the board, and could well be a contender come GOTY selections later this year.

Let’s start with the stealth, shall we? I felt that before it was far too restrictive in the implementation, with enemies and areas only having one real route to beat. In Requiem, things feel far more open and free-form, with multiple angles of attack and even the ability to choose whether we engage in combat at all or simply sneak through an area without being noticed. There are alternate routes, long grass to hide in, and the option to counter attack before an all-out assault begins. We even have limited use knives for stealth or counter kills to help preserve our cover. This is easier said than done of course, but we’re also able to lose our pursuers in the large ‘wide-linear’ areas should we get spotted. There are still a few set-piece sections, but for the most part I enjoyed this part of Requiem much more than Innoncence.

This kind of improvement has been applied across the board. Amicia feels far more capable and fluid to control, and interaction with the world far better implemented. Whether she’s sprinting for her life or simply enjoying a stroll through a village as we get some exposition, the game as a whole feels much better to play.

Combat leans on Amicia’s sling, with her abilities pretty quickly returned to her through the first few chapters. Enemies are far more vicious though, and more often than not protected by full suits of armour. We need to make use of Ignifier, Odoris and more to best them, and in Requiem we’re given much more control over how to use them. No longer are we restricted in the amount of basic ammo we have (something else that frustrated in the first game), but we still need to find the ingredients to make the various concoctions needed to alter our attack.

Handily, the sling is but one part of our arsenal. She can now simply throw rocks with modifiers attached, or fill a pot with them to create an area of effect attack, or attach them to her crossbow to for a different attack. This opens up the options for getting through areas, but enemies are still more than capable enough to avoid traps set up for them.

One slight niggle is that I found quick selecting the right ammo and weapon combo – done via scrolling with the d-pad – to be a bit too fiddly, with me often finding I’d accidently equipped the wrong modifier. We can open up the menu with LB to slow things down and select things this way though, so I ended up just using that for the most part.

We gain several upgrades for the weapons and equipment at workbenches much like Innocence using found materials, but Amicia can also be improved by performing in a certain way. Do a lot of sneaking and avoiding combat, and she’ll get better by learning to move more silently, for example. Or go full on assault and gain to ability to kill more efficiently. This is a great system that rewards everyone’s playstyles rather than giving them arbitrary upgrade paths and points to spend.

Visually, Requiem is utterly gorgeous to look at. Amicia, Hugo, and the rest of the main cast have all received massive overhauls in fidelity, while the world and areas we visit are absolutely stunning to look at. One area in particular about half way through was packed with detail and colour, only further immersing me in the story at hand. Of course, the rats return in their thousands too. Asobo don’t shy away from flooding the screen with them any chance they get, with entire buildings being knocked over or towns decimated in front of our eyes. Swinging a torch around in the dark, watching the rats ebb and flow in our rhythm is almost hypnotic. Requiem is also not afraid to shower the world in gore, with the rats victims – as well as victims of others – strewn about the place…well, what’s left of them. It’s not gratuitous, but helps seal the deal in getting across the griminess of the world and story.

Speaking of which; Amicia and Hugo are back after having seemingly halted the Blight’s progression at the end of Innocence. At they travel with their mother and alchemist friend Lucas in search of more answers to Hugo’s illness, things naturally take a turn for the worse. What follows are tense and emotional scenes that I won’t spoil other than to say once more that even here Requiem far supersedes the previous outing. Acting and storytelling are excellent, even getting someone like me who’s generally not all that bothered by stories in games invested.

Conclusion

A Plague Tale: Requiem has improved on the already great Innocence in basically every way, giving a game that feels, plays, looks, sounds, and flows absolutely brilliantly. A worthy sequel, and one that is not to be missed.