A Plague Tale: Requiem is a gorgeous game, especially when exploring its brightly-lit, masterfully detailed wilderness areas. Whereas A Plague Tale: Innocence was dark and gloomy, A Plague Tale: Requiem is vibrant and full of life, which actually amplifies its more sinister moments. There’s some incredible attention to detail, with injuries the characters sustain remaining visible through the duration of the game, and little touches in the level design to help each area feel not only distinct from one another, but also alive.
Something that players should prepare themselves for, though, is that A Plague Tale: Requiem occasionally suffers from slowdown and a certain jankiness that was not present in the next-gen version of A Plague Tale: Innocence. Most of these issues are fleeting graphical oddities that come and go without much headache, but there were a couple of bugs that required a checkpoint reload, like Hugo getting frozen in place when attempting to interact with an object and an invisible wagon blocking the path in one of the early chapters. As far as the slowdown goes, it was most readily apparent during the game’s calmer sections, oddly enough, and did not happen at all whenever the screen was engulfed by 300,000 rats, so players don’t have to worry about the more visually-impressive scenes being hampered by performance issues.
Sometimes developers make outlandish declarations about their games that aren’t really backed up in the final product, but Asobo Studio’s claim about A Plague Tale: Requiem having 300,000 rats on screen at once wasn’t an exaggeration. The massive swarms of rats are a jaw-dropping spectacle whenever they appear, leading to moments of sheer terror and heart-pounding set-pieces. A Plague Tale: Requiem features multiple instances where players have to run from literal rat tsunamis, zipping around obstacles as buildings collapse beneath the impossible weight of the rodent hordes.
A Plague Tale: Requiem has more action than its predecessor, resulting in faster-paced and more engaging moment-to-moment gameplay. Amicia has a crossbow to go with her trusty sling this time around, and both weapons are perfectly capable of taking out enemy guards. Alchemy still plays a big role in combat, with Amicia able to craft helpful items to augment her gear. For example, Amicia can prepare flammable tar in a pot, break it at an enemy’s feet, then sling a fireball to engulf them in flames.
As players fight and sneak their way through enemy soldiers and hordes of rats, they will find that A Plague Tale: Requiem is still primarily a linear experience, but it offers far more freedom than the original game. Areas are larger and more open than before, with players allowed to tackle most situations in the way they see fit. Players can get through most areas stealthily with little killing, but they aren’t punished as severely for getting caught this time around.
Amicia is more capable of defending herself in A Plague Tale: Requiem, so being found by an enemy guard in a restricted area is hardly a death sentence. Amicia can fight back against her attackers with a counter-attack, and if players are fast enough, they can usually escape before they’re killed. The game recognizes the playstyle that players are using to deal with most situations and upgrades Amicia’s skills accordingly to cater to it, so those that aren’t really into pure stealth games can still fight their way through and make genuine progress.
Even if players are not thrilled by A Plague Tale: Requiem’s gameplay, they will want to see the story through to its conclusion. A Plague Tale: Innocence was recognized for its well-written characters and engrossing narrative, and Requiem is even better. Set some odd months after the events of Innocence, the sequel sees Amicia and Hugo traveling the countryside with their mother and alchemist friend Lucas in search of a cure for Hugo’s disease.
For those that didn’t play the original game, Hugo has special powers that grant him some measure of control over the rat hordes. This revelation came fairly late in A Plague Tale: Innocence and so it wasn’t utilized much in gameplay, but A Plague Tale: Requiem fully embraces Hugo’s unique talents. Having control over small rat hordes opens the door for new puzzle-solving opportunities and combat, with players sometimes able to guide the rats directly at unlucky guards, devouring them in seconds.
Death isn’t something that’s taken lightly in A Plague Tale: Requiem, though, and the game is sure to highlight the impact that all this murder and destruction has on Amicia, Hugo, and the rest of the cast. The actors all do a tremendous job in their roles, with their stellar performances ensuring that the game’s hard-hitting emotional moments land as they should. Charlotte McBurney’s performance as Amicia is especially impressive, and one has to imagine that she is on the short list for Best Performance at The Game Awards this year.
This year has not had many options when it comes to high-quality narrative experiences. Most of the big game releases have been multiplayer-centric or focused on other things, so those who have been starved for a good story to sink their teeth into should rush out to play A Plague Tale: Requiem as soon as possible. The story is briskly paced with shocking plot twists and constant forward momentum bringing everything to a powerful conclusion that will stick with players long after the credits roll.
Those that really love A Plague Tale: Requiem and want to fully complete the game should note that collectible-hunting is easier than ever before. Not only can players choose which chapters to go back and play, but they can also choose from specific subsections within those chapters. This seriously cuts down on the tedium for achievement and trophy hunters that are trying to find all of A Plague Tale: Requiem’s collectibles. A Plague Tale: Requiem has a New Game+ option as well, so players can choose to replay the entire experience with all their upgrades intact while searching for collectibles if they’d rather do that instead of hopping between chapters.
A Plague Tale: Requiem is everything that one could want from a sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence. It’s more ambitious and action-packed than Innocence, and is quite easily one of the best new game releases of the year. The fact that A Plague Tale: Requiem is a day one Xbox Game Pass game adds significant value to Microsoft’s subscription service, and anyone with Game Pass should be sure to play it as soon as they can. Those on other platforms shouldn’t miss out either, as A Plague Tale: Requiem is easily worth full price. Simply put, A Plague Tale: Requiem is a must-play game.
A Plague Tale: Requiem launches on October 18 for PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant was provided a PS5 code for this review.
