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dkirschner's A Plague Tale: Requiem (PC)

[June 5, 2023 07:43:16 AM]

This was an improvement over Innocence (a game I certainly liked) in every possible way. It picks up shortly after the events of the first game, as Hugo's symptoms have calmed, and the family is seeking shelter with The Order, an ancient...order...that knows about the Macula. But things are not calm for long! You get a couple rat-free hours of playtime, but then all hell breaks loose.

I remember thinking that the story in the first game was mediocre, that it was a bland medieval tale that took a left turn when it started talking about the Macula. This one is more coherent. It's a story about the Macula and rats from the very beginning--you know what you're getting into, you know it's going to be over-the-top. Indeed, while the first game ended on a high note with a boss fight featuring rat tornadoes, this one gives you rat waves. The rats are far greater in number, though they don't do anything different than Innocence in terms of gameplay. The rats are still afraid of light, and that's primarily how you get past them. But due to the story, the rats seem more sinister to me now.

The gameplay is similar to the first, focusing on stealth, but with more options for combat, which I enjoyed. The first game was too linear, and while this is still a linear game, I no longer found the stealth sequences boring. The areas are expanded too, so there are often multiple paths through an area and multiple options for dealing with human enemies. Amicia's sling can throw rocks (which one-shot kill enemies without helmets) and she can douse the rocks in alchemical substances for varying effects. She can throw fiery rocks, rocks that put out fires, rocks that give off odor and affect rats, rocks to coat surfaces in tar (though I never figured out how to use this one...). She also gets a crossbow and can find knives for one-off kills.

Different enemy types force you to use different strategies. Enemies with helmets can't be killed by rocks to the head, for example, while some of the bigger, armored guys require use of jars of tar or other things in the environment to weaken and kill. There are a few boss fights, which are cool, but none quite so exciting as the rat tornado boss at the end of the first game. There are, however, many exhilarating chase sequences, and the last couple hours of the game I found absolutely thrilling.

Locations are gorgeous, the music is top notch, the voice acting is outstanding. I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. The after-credits scene drops a teaser for what happens next in the story, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited for the next-level rat carnage of a potential third game.