A Plague’s Tale: Requiem | reconsidering

The sequel to the acclaimed movie A Plague Tale: Innocence is finally here. With this game, the French studio Asobo Studio has done a great job creating an interesting world full of misery and anguish. However, there was also a small light of hope in all the darkness that the pair of siblings had to endure.

Once again we play as Amecia. She does everything in her power to protect her brother, Hugo’s illness, and find a cure for it. This is regardless of the consequences.

Since the second game is now held in 1349, it has been one year since the events of the first game. During this quieter period, they all began to return to a quieter daily life from chasing thousands of mice every five minutes. Sooner or later, this naive idealistic view of the world is shattered. Then we have to go out again on a personal crusade to treat Hugo at all costs.

Sometimes the presentation of the game is unparalleled thanks to its beautiful environments that are dazzling and very dark which can surprise you. IA Plague Tale: The Requiem game engine has been upgraded to Unreal Engine 5. This is very evident in a lot of the technical aspects of the game. Sometimes I find myself staring at my surroundings for too long. This also had its drawbacks as the game refresh rate (FPS, frames per second) could drop drastically at times.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter to me as the pace of the game is relatively slow. Nothing that would directly make the game more difficult, but unfortunately it spoils a bit of the experience. Despite some technical issues, you can’t help but drop your chin every now and then to see how much is going on on the screen. For example, every pixel of the screen literally crawls with mice. Their number has increased from 5,000 to 300,000, which is a frightening number, but also an impressive sight to the eyes.

Olivier Derivière returns as author to once again do an amazing job. The music perfectly reflects the environments and darkness, which is a constant factor in both games. In the really stressful and dark parts, there is complete darkness all around you in every tone. Then the music makes your pulse rise a little. I don’t know of many composers who would be so successful at it.

But to continue the soundtrack, voice actors Charlotte McBurney (Amisia) and Logan Hannan (Hugo) also do an impressive job at times portraying a pair of siblings who are constantly forced to fight for survival. I can’t help but think Charlotte McBurney does such an exceptional job in the final chapter of the game that I can only commend her for her performance during that segment. I don’t want to say anything about her as her best experience is playing the game.

A Plague Tale: Requiem has also received some changes when it comes to the mechanics of how to upgrade your character. For example, a skill system based on three different types of games has been added: prudent, opportunistic and aggressive. He shows you that Prudence is in disguise and that’s what makes you unleash these skills. Opportunity is to take advantage of your surroundings and the different chemistry you can create. The third is aggressive, which in itself is self-explanatory. But this system is very poorly explained in the game and does not work at all as you think. For example, if you want to achieve opportunism in a battle, you should kill no more than 67% of the enemies in your current area. Thus, the game is completely against itself and how it explains its own system. It is assumed that you must use alchemy to achieve upgrades to that ability.

To clarify: 0-33% is prudence, 33-67% is opportunistic and 67-100% is aggressive playing style. Since you can only sign one of these three playing styles of yours in a battle, it becomes very confusing for you as a player. It took me a while before I clicked it, which is why I didn’t open what I thought. So the new upgrade system has its drawbacks, but once you know how and why it works the way it does, it works, although I wish it was better implemented.

I don’t want to reveal too much about the story because it’s the strength of the game. So I stay as vague as possible about certain aspects. Plauge Tale: Requiem is an adventure that has quiet moments amidst all the chaos and misery, but that can spin just as fast and show you the absolute worst sides of humanity. The brotherhood bond between Amecia and Hugo which has strengthened a lot since the last game in the series. Hugo is now more confident in Amecia’s choices and decisions than ever before. Being a couple siblings has gone through a lot in the short time that has passed since the last match in how their personalities are shaped and developed. Amecia is now having panic attacks and a few tantrums. Every now and then she has obvious signs of PTSD. Hugo is getting a little better at listening, but sometimes you notice that his childhood disappears as he gets older and understands the consequences of his illness. It all culminates in a story that somehow stirs emotions and leaves an impression on you whether you like it or not.

The good

• the story
• mice
• Music
• voice acting
• Nice

bad

• skill system
• Technical concerns

8

written by: Tony Thornqvist