Looking for a comprehensive A Plague Tale: Requiem Review? We’ve got you covered! Six months since the nightmare of the Bite, six short months of peace shadowed the lands, and for six dormant months, the Macula lays in wait. Here is our A Plague Tale: Requiem Review.
Continue the Tale of the De Rune family as they continue to battle the hand that fate has dealt them. With the horror of the Bite a painful memory and an all too recent wound for the De Rune siblings, Amicia must find her role to help her brother survive the Macula.
Story:
Set just six months after the events of Innocence, the game follows the same formula that made the first game so impressive. Sprawling landscapes and vibrant environments are common place like in the first game, this goes hand in hand with the darker and terrifying underside of the world. The difference this time around is the choice of palette. The colors and atmosphere in Innocence are dark and saturated colors and scream terror, whereas in Requiem the color palette has been shifted to show a vibrant and alive world with colors being bright and contrasted.
Familiar characters and concepts return in Requiem, however, finished with things as they may seem, the Macula in Hugo’s blood becomes active and reaches the next stage early on. With the help of the ancient order of Alchemist the surviving De Rune family, along with Lucus, make their way to find help to save Hugo. Early on, a concept is introduced to the player that seems way more important but is pushed aside until later in the story, that being the Island from Hugo’s Dreams. Although this is referred to and even becomes an objective it seems that the planting of this concept right at the start of the game is a deliberate trap. This makes the player feel that the Island is a safe place, when in reality Plague Tale should teach you very fast that not everything is as it appears.
One thing that I personally felt about the game was that each chapter was a considerable amount longer than its predecessor. Where in Innocence chapters could be run through most of the time when you knew what to do and skipped the cut-scenes, in Requiem this felt like even doing that would still take maybe double the time.
Graphics and Gameplay:
Like the first game, Requiem is just as visually stunning as the first, if not more so. The gameplay has had a shiny new approach and has been refined to make it more streamlined. Examples are in Innocence you needed to pick up Rocks to use as ammo for throwing or the Sling, in Requiem you seem to have an infinite amount. The sling and throw mechanics have also been split making it two separate commands in the weapon wheel.
As stated in A Plague Tale: Innocence Review, one of my favorite mechanics is the Flame mechanics, and in Requiem, this feels like it has had an enhancement. It feels more of a fluid motion and smoother to make the actions of holding a torch. This is more apparent in the crafting system. Additionally to this, the new weapons that you get, the crossbow and flame whip, make a considerable difference to the game. Before when you were caught in a rat swarm you had an explosive-type bag that was thrown at the ground to force rats away. In Requiem, there is a whip-style weapon that will let you walk safely to a source of light. Although this is un-craftable it is a powerful tool. The crossbow on the other hand is a deadly silent ranged weapon that can dispatch light armoured infantry. In combination with this is the melee, initially Amicia can strangle unarmoured enemies with her sling and stun armored ones, things can be changed up when you have a knife which will act as a shiv for you to kill a single enemy.
In regards to graphics, the game is really impressive. Everything looks like you could just walk through the screen to interact with it. Characters look more real than in Inocence, however, that could be to do with the method employed in development. Animations are also more varied with the ability to hide under carts and tables, making stealthier options even more varied. Every part of the environment feels alive and touched by humans, unlike in Innocence where it felt like the rats had dominant reign over everything.
Conclusion:
Overall the game is a fantastic sequel to the incredible story that Asobo Studio crafted. There is way more depth than we dare to go into detail about, like the enhancements to the companion system, trophy/ achievement variety, and even the spoiler aspects of the story. We recommend you just enjoy the experience with A Plague Tale as it really is something else. Like the first game, this follows a similar formula to that of God of War, with the relationship between Amicia and Hugo being like the bond between Kratos and Atreus.
As a whole the game is stunning, visually, mechanically, and narratively. The game has flaws, but they can be overlooked for the most part with how good the experience is as you are playing. The characters are more rounded than in Innocence and have adapted to the new situations and roles they must portray. In addition to this, the environments have been radically reenvisioned, taking a color pallet from the dark and grimy world of the Middle Ages shown in A Plague Tale: Innocence to a more colorful, vibrant, and living world of Requiem.
Within the Six months since the fall of the Grand Inquisitor, and the end of the Bite, at the end of the first game, this seems like a really drastic change. The world would be recovering sure but the speed that, on the surface, it seems to have recovered from something so devastating is near unreal.
Although the game is impressive, we have to address some bad points that were experienced. For this author at least, glitches occurred pretty nastily within the first few attempts that were made to play. Missing cinematic events, gaps in the world, trophies not unlocking, and even falling through the level were common on my first runs. It was so bad that I opted to purge my save game and start over. That all being said it is a fantastic game, and despite my problems on initial attempts to play, I thoroughly enjoyed it. In hindsight using the chapter selection would probably have been able to fix most of the problems rather than deleting the save.
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