A Plague Tale: Requiem - A New Rat Infestation

The developer of the game is the French company Asobo Studio SARL, which for 20 years of its existence has released 17 games. Among them Fuel 2009 is worth mentioning. Although Fuel in the car racing genre did not become a discovery, but was honored by the Guinness Book of Records, for the largest area of game locations.

The release of games based on animated films of Pixar studio, Asobo Studio did not bring special fame. But in 2019, the studio releases A Plague Tale: Innocence. The game received positive reviews and sold 1 million copies. A sequel was only a matter of time, and in 2021 the studio announces a sequel. And, almost 4 years later, on October 18, 2022 A Plague Tale: Requiem is released.

Into the world of dreams

Requiem is a direct sequel to the first part, where the focus was on 15-year-old Amitia de Rune and her 5-year-old brother Hugo.

Amitia and Hugo are forced to hide from the Inquisition that has invaded their home in order to find a cure for a disease that has afflicted Hugo since childhood. And all this against the backdrop of fourteenth-century France, black death and a century-long war between England and France.

The disease contains a sinister power - Hugo can control packs of rats that spread the plague. This is the power the Inquisition, which is pursuing them, wants to get its hands on.

In a dream, the Phoenix bird, a symbol of rebirth after death, shows Hugo a lake whose waters can cure his illness. Hugo's illness has receded, but it has not disappeared, and desperate to find a cure, Amitia decides to find the island and save her brother.

Growing Up Characters

If in the first part the emphasis was on the extremely difficult relationship between the main character and her brother, in Requiem more attention is paid to the heroine's inner feelings.

Despite the fact that Hugo grew up separately from Amitia because of a progressive disease, the heroine is ready to do anything to save her brother, exterminating not only rats, but also other enemies that get in their way. Because of this, she doubts the rightness of her actions. Subsequently, this affects the characterization of the character. This gives you the opportunity to unlock skills either in stealth mode or in combat with enemies. You will have to explore the French provinces by hand with Hugo.

The mechanics are uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it quickly. Even though Amitia is the central game character, there will also be an opportunity to play as Hugo. Most often, when you need to penetrate quietly and stealthily in tight places. Stealth is one of the game's leading mechanics.

The most effective is the appeared crossbow, but do not rely on it too much. Yes, it is quieter and faster to cope with the task, but bolts for it fall out less often than other resources, although there are no problems with the latter. That's why you can improve your equipment without straining. Map is quite generous on the chests. The map itself has become larger than it was in the first part, and has a lot of open locations. To familiarize yourself with the story in search of geocaches makes no sense, so the characters are not involved in the course of the plot is static. Invisible walls or just a stuck wagon will push you to follow the linear plot. But the scenery is still colorful and has become a little more juicy, and brighter, unlike the first part.

The authors are not afraid to show France of those times in all its glory: dirty streets, disfigured by the consequences of the events of that century, the corpses of animals from meetings with plague rats, a furious Inquisition, destroying everything in its path, the consequences of bloody battles.

A special entourage is given by the rats. Being not a direct enemy of the heroes, they bring a lot of trouble. But also dilute the game, not only silent escapes from the guards and dynamic battles with them, riddles and puzzles. To escape from them a simple stick with fire is not enough, sometimes you have to calculate and use the nearest objects by solving puzzles, so that the area for escape is larger.

The instrumental music in the game follows the moment. In the markets it's cheerful, conveying the vibrancy of the location, and in tense moments the strings add even more suspense. The game is already replete with creepy footage, but if you could hear the crunch of bones underfoot and corpses reacting to the wind blowing, it would more colorfully convey the horror that the young protagonists faced.

Speaking of sound, I would like to mention the original voice acting. It is quite emotional and perfectly conveys the emotions of the characters.

Conclusions

Is A Plague Tale: Requiem worth the time and money? For fans of the medieval setting - definitely. But it's better not to break the narrative and enjoy the full picture of the story and pass both parts. Passing Requiem will take 18 hours, when passing Innocence - only 8 hours. Asobo Studio SARL paid a lot of attention to plausible renderings of medieval France, and it seems that the story has more to tell.