64hoops Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy Review

I’m glad Asobo went off the beaten path with this entry versus making another regular Plague Tale game. A lot of the swings connect, while a few miss….. My biggest takeaway of this versus the previous entries is this feels like a “Tomb Raider Lite” action adventure game that empowers the player. This is more about exploring and taking in the surroundings vs the feeling of trying to survive. The quality of storytelling is the same in Resonance. An intriguing mystery, a strong main character, and an emotional ending is all here, just in a different setting (A mysterious Greek Island). The story does take awhile to get going, but it’ll leave you with tears in your eyes at the end. Speaking of setting, the graphics are GORGEOUS! Their in house engine just cooks with this one. The strongest moments are when you’re outside on a cliff’s edge, looking out at the island’s beautiful green landscape with white and blue Greek marble structures while the sun is shining bright in the sky. Just impeccable. The gameplay is unfortunately a mixed bag. While I thought Resonance’s puzzles were my favorite of the series….. I thought the combat was pretty meh. I don’t hate it, but I don’t enjoy it as much as Asobo expects me to. I just feel there needed to be more complexity to its mechanics and an actual need to parry, as I never felt like using the parry feature was beneficial to me (Once I learned the dodge skill). More often than not I was button mashing, which got me through almost all the combat sections (Excluding the Boss battles). The charms and different swords you can find don’t really add anything to the gameplay either, I never felt like they did anything significant. This reminds me of South of Midnight’s combat, but not as bad since the puzzle and monster sections bring variety to the gameplay. The monster stealth moments were absolutely the shining moment of this game. It’s a nice twist to the stealth formula from Alicia and Hugo’s entries, while blending in a horror element to it. My only other gripe is I wish there was more trinkets and collectibles in the game that built up the world’s setting better. I’m not sure if I was missing them or some thing, but I really felt like these were few and far between, almost like they’re supposed to be secrets or something. But overall, it’s a great package from Asobo that I’m glad I played, and I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m excited to see what they make next, whether it’s in the plague tale universe or a separate series.