#gamereview Set in the 13th century France, two children find themselves in a desperate struggle to survive. Their parents were all killed by the Church hunting them all down. And there’s also the plague that ravaged the land with rats – massive ******* hordes of rats that will eat everything alive. A Plague Tale: Innocence is a third-person stealth adventure game about the journey of having been born at the wrong place and the wrong time. PROS: ● Fantastic overall art direction, almost a Renaissance painting come to digital life, with detailed environments and excellent atmospherics, until you get to the part with the rats and the game just turns to a ******* horror show ● The plot is well-written and pretty gripping, two children on the run from the church over the mysterious affliction of the younger brother in the midst of the rat infestation ● Characters are well-acted, designed and animated, and you will definitely feel their pain should one of them die or something ● Plenty of sequences of just pure horror and violence, like walking through a pile of mauled humans underneath a building where like dozens of dudes hang by their necks ● Those rats are just horrifying, and remarkably well-rendered and behaving properly considering millions of them appear in the screen at once ● Puzzles, primarily light-based to escape the frightening rats, are pretty nice but nothing really to sweat over, except maybe two ● That violin soundtrack is pretty cool, especially when mixed up with the rats ● Most boss fights are pretty cool and frantic, requiring active knowledge of what your arsenal can offer ● Thankfully, controlling two kids hanging on each other for dear life isn’t as cumbersome as expected CONS: ● Facial animations, though well-sculpted, lack just a tad in emotions and the lip-sync, or maybe they’re stuck in the French lip-sync ● The stealth system is pretty basic, with tons of conveniently placed cover to hide from enemies with a pretty inconsistent cone of vision and an easily exploitable fixed patrol route ● Pretty low enemy variety ● That auto-aim sure is helpful but still, PC nerds would probably want it turned off

Innocence is the beginning of a plague tale. Young siblings were cast off by unfortunate events in 1348 and are constantly in danger of a plague. Amicia and her half aged brother Hugo from de Rune family have become the target of the most evil they intend to avoid. However, the story of two gets more complicated as they must fight these enemies till the end. Game is story

Innocence is the beginning of a plague tale. Young siblings were cast off by unfortunate events in 1348 and are constantly in danger of a plague. Amicia and her half aged brother Hugo from de Rune family have become the target of the most evil they intend to avoid. However, the story of two gets more complicated as they must fight these enemies till the end. Game is story driven with lots of cut scenes and dialogues in between, heavily based on stealth rather than combat which is streamlined into using sling as a main weapon and alchemy as essential additions. Amicia is able to craft these potions on the go while upgrading her weapon and equipment only at the crafting table found throughout each section of game. Story Great. 5/5 Beautifully romanticized tale of evil versus good which is accompanied by great fully voiced performances, new characters giving it the proper spice of feel for believability. It spans to 1349 over the course of chapters towards the end. Game has got real fantasy features, like bloodthirsty rats, secret magic and seems to be set in realistic world. Details of pictures and symbols on the walls are also serving the story purpose, collectibles adding up to the educational level towards historical and factual grounds. Gameplay Great. 4.5/5 3rd person view. Female protagonist. More than a dozen of linear chapters with side roads for achievements and collectibles. There is so much loot all the time, essentially making each situation solvable. Puzzles are rather easy, in any case you have got enough time to think of them, no pressure. Enemies are mostly pretty passive or walking predictable paths with various options to distract or eliminate them. In case of disturbing enemies, there is fast action and movement required. There is no pacifist approach to most situations, making you lose the innocence in the process. However, Amicia leading her brother is teaching him something useful as well. Your inventory items and their respective recipes are being unlocked as you proceed, they are limited by maximum amount which can be improved by crafting bigger backpacks. Replayability Good. 3/5 I was looking under each stone besides the first chapter, while avoiding dangers I missed 11 achievements. I could find more flowers, gifts and even more peculiarities. To collect them all might be the reason to play the second time because otherwise the story and approach would be the same, unless maybe taking out more enemies and discovering interesting side stories. Graphics Nice. 5/5 Colorful and shadowy environments contrast each other. Sometimes blurry, sometimes very sharp. Daylight giving you chills, nighttime feeding you horrors. The stories are also much more lighthearted once the sun is up, stumbling across the dark areas filled with more scruples to overcome. Music 5/5 It is rather dynamic, emotional, mostly in the melancholic background, supporting storytelling and indicating something happening during moments. Hardware requirements Mid range. It ran very smooth and probably even lower range gaming PCs might run this. How difficult Easy. Normal. How long 10-19 hours. Verdict 9/10 Approachable adventure with kids and rich fantasy story with curses, easy puzzles requiring a little bit of patience, your companions will indicate solutions for you, linear world reminded me of Metro Last Light, enough space for running around and collecting interesting objects, beautiful atmosphere, smooth performance.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a narrative-heavy action-stealth game set during the Hundred Years’ War in 1300’s France. You play as a young woman named Amicia de Rune as she finds herself and her little brother Hugo caught in the middle of an invading English army and a nasty plague of flesh-eating rats. You soon find out that their desperate expedition isn’t simply happenstance, and the fascinating plot had me guessing what was really going right until the credits rolled. There are two main gameplay loops that become familiar throughout the many distinct chapters. First is the stealth that has you sneaking past enemy soldiers using a repertoire of handy equipment, while the rest of the game has you puzzling your way around hordes of horrific rats. Various abilities unlock throughout the story and it was fun to use a wide assortment of them during the final few acts. Using fire/light rays to circumvent the hordes of rats was fun to solve as well, and some encounters were surprisingly clever. Both gameplay concepts are well designed with really good checkpointing, so even if you fail an encounter it puts you right back into the action fairly quickly. You’ll also be accompanied by other secondary characters frequently, but thankfully the game never feels like a giant escort mission. The presentation really needs to be commended here because it’s remarkable. Most of the voice performances are really good—Charlotte McBurney’s performance as Amicia is especially terrific—and the game’s atmosphere is fittingly bleak. The main narrative does lose a little steam in the last few chapters and there’s one late-game mechanic that felt a little under developed, but A Plague Tale is a shockingly great game. It’s not super long too—you can easily finish it in just a few sittings.