A Plague Tale: Innocence

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for A Plague Tale: Innocence for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[oni-link]

I didn't really expect this game to be 'The Past of Us' but that's essentially what it is. However, that's not to say it's derivative. The story, tone and setting set this game apart from Sony's classic, and for a game with a much smaller budget it does still look spectacular in parts, with a story that keeps you on edge until the very end. The only negative is a difficulty spike right near the end, where for a while the game turns into 'Cart Souls'

[markfm007]

Plague Tale is a stunningly beautiful game that tells a generally engaging story of siblings struggling to survive as the world falls apart. It has a similar feeling to the Last of Us in its story, presentation and stealthy gameplay, and its focus on companionship. The voice acting is generally excellent, particularly Charlotte McBurney’s Amicia, and I liked all the companions. The animation and soundtrack are also top draw.

The swarms of rats are more of a puzzle mechanic in gameplay, but appropriately unnerving and evocative of plague and disease. These often lead to somewhat disgusting or nervy moments that emphasize the horror and threat of the disease, like forcing the rats on a farm animal, or walking through them with a light. Overall the gameplay is fairly simple, but enjoyable, allowing the characters and situation to take precedence, and the fear and lack of power are emphasized well.

The game does eventually get a bit too silly for me, with rat tornadoes and evil religious overlords losing some of the grounded, intimate approach that made the rest of the game engaging. It makes me unlikely to check out the sequel, in spite of its qualities. But overall if you like Naughty Dog style games then I think this game is well worth checking out.

Three Word Review: Help me Amicia!

[Seph]

A Plague Tale: Innocence is half a great game. The early stuff that focuses on stealth and character interactions is really strong and engaging. While I found myself almost becoming overwhelmed with the despairingly bleak situations our young protagonists find themselves in, I enjoyed the attention on puzzle solving and staying hidden. Once Hugo basically turns into DC's Ratcatcher and the game focuses more on action, it lost me. Once you get to the end sequence with the evil Pope guy and the pillars of white rats, it just became ridiculous. It's a shame, because there is a good story to tell here without the nonsense of the final third.

The imagery of this game is disgusting, but effective. I've rarely experienced any media where it felt like all hope is lost and the world has been destroyed as much as this game. I can't imagine what this game much be like for musophobes, as the design and movement of the rats is just vile.

Also, a shout-out to Olivier Deriviere's amazing score, that adds so much weight to the incredible darkness that makes up this game's atmosphere. The way the cellos hits especially is incredibly eerie and makes my skin crawl (in a good way).

[Tleprie]

Here's a game I wish would've been a bit less 'game-y'. I loved the atmosphere, the settings were gorgeous and the music is top tier, but the moment to moment puzzle solving oftentimes took me out of it. Cut the runtime in half and give me more or less a walking simulator and I'll be happy as a rat in a plague.

I spent a lot of time in photo mode, especially in the earlier parts and extra especially in the area with all the corpses. I'll probably check out the sequel at some point to see if the gameplay has improved, and if nothing else to be back in those environments with that music.

[Hyperdeath84]

I enjoyed the setting and characters of A Plague Tale: Innocence quite a bit, the gameplay danced between fine and frustrating for the most part. Amicia is a compelling protagonist and seeing her forced to grow up faster than anyone her age should was genuinely affecting. It was also refreshing to play as a female lead supporting a younger male companion, with Hugo proving to be a mostly likeable kid in an awful situation. Amidst a sea of grumpy dad simulators - many of which I adore - playing as a girl looking after a boy was a nice change up to the formula. The game's presentation is impressive, especially knowing it came from a relatively modest team when compared to AAA studios making similar titles.

Some of the locations and set pieces were genuinely impressive, and the puzzles were mostly enjoyable. The combat was the sticking point for me, I liked the idea of Amicia's sling based bag of tricks more than I did actually using them. Certain sections towards the end like the cart section with Rodric were rage inducing, feeling unfair and inconsistent. Sometimes the game seemed to send enemies at you faster than you could be expected to respond. This isn't really the case as I did finish the game, but there were times when I felt overwhelmed because of unresponsive mechanics rather than lack of skill, but maybe that's just me. I found the rats to be less frustrating than the humans as enemies, with most deaths to them coming from my own lack of patience rather than poor design. They were a suitably gruesome foe but nonetheless paled in comparison to the evils of humanity, as is always the case with these stories.

Three word review: impressive but frustrating