PC Review Code Provided by Focus Home Interactive
Sequel titles can sometimes be a cautionary moment for a new video game series as they not only have to live up to the original title, but preferably they need to bring an even better experience than the first one did. Asobo Studio definitely knew what they were doing when they had Focus Home Interactive publish A Plague Tale: Requiem because this series continuation title was definitely better than A Plague Tale: Innocence!
That said, I strongly suggest that anybody interested in playing Requiem needs to first play through Innocence. While you can get the gist of the lore without playing the first title, the pure impact of everything going on and the strong bond between Amicia and Hugo would simply be understood so much better than if you were to jump straight into Requiem. Not to spoil anything, but the ending would be so much more impactful if you had played through Innocence first as well.
Please note that the section “Story” will contain spoilers for A Plague Tale: Innocence.
Story
Picking up where the first game left off, Amicia and Hugo are traveling the world in search of a new place to settle. They find a new town to settle in, but it isn’t long before tragedy erupts and the rat plague finds its way there. However, this time the arrival of the rats appears to be directly influenced by the macula taking over Hugo’s body.
In fear that the macula would full take over, their mother suggests that they head out to find a specific alchemist in hopes of finding a cure. Upon finding him, they realize that he is part of an organization simply known as ‘The Order’ and in his attempts to cure Hugo, he instead hurts him and deems him a lost cause.
Once again, the pain and fear drove the macula further into Hugo causing him to become sicker and for the rat plague to arrive once more. Fearful that they will continue to destroy towns and hurt more people, they take to the sea. Their destination: an island that Hugo sees in a constant dream he has almost every night where they hope to find a cure or at least some answers.
The majority of the game takes place on the island and details around what they find or experience here would be a spoiler to the overarching plot. To avoid this, I will simply state that this island brings about so many answers about the macula, the order, and the truth regarding the history behind them and the rat plague as a whole.
Gameplay
A lot of the mechanics of this game are similar to the first title. You have your sling which can be used to throw rocks or alchemic compounds that you can craft to create fire or smoke. Of course, you can simply throw these items as well. Aiming is simple in the sense that if the arrow is gray, it will miss, but when it is yellow and locks onto a target, it will hit no matter what. Granted, this does make for some physics-breaking throws when you land the throw on a yellow arrow but the target goes out of range just after you have thrown it and that game registers that you should have hit.
As you make your way through the world, you will find a bunch of collectibles. This includes components needed to craft alchemic compounds, which I will always suggest making the compounds when you have the material so you can hold as much backup material as possible. Other than components, you will also find neat things such as feathers that you give to Hugo who collects them, and memories which are key findings with their own bit of lore and animation to present them.
There are the upgrade workbenches again. This time they have slightly different options. In order to upgrade, you need to gather scrap material and a number of tools. However, one of the options for upgrading helps with the workbench itself. Once fully upgraded, you can upgrade from anywhere without a workbench and even upgrade without the need of finding a tool, but rather just using scrap. Other than upgrading your workbench usage, you can upgrade your sling, crossbow, and ability.
They added a photo mode to this game which is actually a handy tool. While you can grab some great screenshots, you can also use it to check your surroundings with the game paused. If you ever get stuck or are wondering where you are supposed to go, using photo mode can be a way to look around the area. You are limited by how far you can go away from Amicia, but it has enough reach that you should be able to find the path you need to take.
Once you beat a chapter in the game, you can find it in the “select chapter’ section on the main menu. Here you can highlight a chapter and it will show you how much of each collectible or finding you missed. From there, you can actually start the chapter from different checkpoints within it meaning you don’t have to play the whole chapter if you missed something at the end.
Once you beat the game, you will get the option to create a New Game+ which lets you start the game over with all your upgrades and collectibles intact. However, New Game+ is its own difficulty, so be ready for a harder experience. Also, it will create a second save file for this New Game+ which I think is a great aspect so you can still go to different chapters in your original save file if you prefer.
My only complaint about the gameplay section is that we didn’t get to use Hugo’s rat-controlling power as much as I was hoping. It was cool that we got to at all, of course, but I would have enjoyed a segment featuring only Hugo where we got to use our powers a ton. In fact, there was a moment in the game where I felt a Hugo-focused chapter would have fit and was surprised the developers didn’t act on that. It makes me think they might be planning a DLC, which isn’t something I would ask for in regard to the main game experience.
Audio and Visual
As usual, the music quality of this game is simply stunning! I can see why Lindsey Stirling took the time to record the music video of the main theme on the violin because the acoustic styling of this game is beautifully crafted. And it isn’t just the main theme as every moment in this game is properly and dramatically brought out by the music played behind it. Partner that with accurate sound effects and well-done voice acting and this game is a top runner for best audio work in the game industry.
Graphically, this game is an upgraded visualization of the first game. The world is more colorful, the water is amazingly crafted, and everybody has a fitting art style to go with the world around them. While it isn’t a game aiming for realism, they did an amazing job making it look like a top-notch CGI film. Having character models with a graphical quality that matches the world they are placed in is always a must-do aspect for game development and the fact that they made the world itself a beautiful sight to behold should say enough on its own.
Replayability
From what I could tell, there is only one true ending. So, other than wanting to head back in with a harder challenge, aiming to find every collectible, and wanting to max out your upgrades, there isn’t much reason to play through it again. However, just like a movie with a great story, you might want to experience it again just for the lore alone.
What It Could Have Done Better
As I mentioned in gameplay, I felt like a Hugo-focused chapter was missing near the end. Something that would have let us use his rat-controlling powers a lot and let the player experience the moment that takes place first-hand.
Also, while the ending fights were tough, it didn’t feel like we had a chance to face a true final boss. The final boss moment was replaced with a heavy lore moment, which is a fine replacement, but I feel like the fight with the Count could have been drawn out just a bit more to make him feel like a true final boss.
Verdict
A Plague Tale: Requiem is a must-play for those who enjoyed the first title! Everything about this game is simply stunning and it is one of the most beautifully crafted games with matching dark lore to go with it. Getting to know the history behind everything isn’t what I expected, but it turned out to be exactly what a fan of the series could need. Best of all, I love that the history, the order, and the overall lore didn’t seem to have cliches behind it but rather a truly new experience. This is simply a game series I can not recommend enough to those who are up for a heartstring-pulling action adventure!
A Plague Tale: Requiem releases on October 18th for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, and in Cloud Version on Nintendo Switch. It will also be available on Game Pass for both Xbox and PC.
