A Plague Tale: Requiem (PC) Review

A Beautiful World Corrupt from Within

What started as a fascination with the tech involved to make swarms of rats a terrifying force of nature resulted in A Plague Tale: Innocence becoming one of my favorite titles on the PS4. Considering it was one of the more praised titles from publisher Focus Entertainment, a sequel makes a ton of sense, even though I wasn’t sure if the narrative warranted more from these characters. Thankfully, A Plague Tale: Requiem carries the torch bravely into a bright, but often scary world creating some of my favorite characters in games while also still having a bit of indie charm to it.

A Plague Tale: Requiem assumes that the player is familiar with the previous title, making both of these games recommended as a pair and it is a far better experience if one plays Innocence first. As a duology, we are suscept to the tragic events in the lives of the adept Amicia de Rune and her much younger brother Hugo. Torn apart by an explosive representation of the plague in 14th century France called the Bite, the two barely escaped being cut down by the French Inquisition and discovered new strengths that led to saving their mother, Beatrice. At the start of Requiem, Amicia, Hugo, Beatrice, and the teen alchemist Lucas are looking for a new home, one devoid of fanatical knights and hordes of rats. Of course, trouble follows our heroes, eventually leading to another outbreak of the Bite, new factions to be wary of, and a strange dream that may be the key to healing Hugo of the Macula, a sickness that grants him strange, physically taxing powers. 

While A Plague Tale’s draw has always been surviving being chewed up by vermin by using fire and light to keep them at bay, Requiem sets itself apart by being a tour of an incredibly realized and varied southern France. The landscapes and scenes in Requiem are breathtaking even on an older PC rig and playing in 1080p resolution. I can only imagine how gorgeous this game looks on 4K hardware. Please note that my screenshots don’t do the game justice but the art direction in general is fantastic. There were a few technical hangups in my playthrough but the game ran mostly great and the story kept me compelled to overlook many of the game’s flaws. 

Requiem is in no way a perfect sequel and there are certainly areas where I find Innocence to be stronger but the imperfections are buffed away by the wonderfully realized characters, played by a stellar voice cast. There’s still that weird disconnect that video games have where characters talk in turns but there were moments that pulled on my heartstrings more than most games have in a long, long time. This resulted in a conclusion to the story that left me aching for these characters and I do hope a third game gets created; although this tale is perfectly fine as a duology. 

Funnily enough, the mechanics in either title rarely breaks conventions and arguably are some of the safest approaches to stealth I have ever seen. Anyone familiar with the pacing and perspective of The Last of Us or God of War (2018) will feel right away comfortable with A Plage Tale. Requiem does add new tools to handle the various soldiers and spread light around in new ways but there wasn’t a single mechanic that felt particularly unique. That said, the level design is perfectly paced, opening up some areas for multiple paths and solutions. I imagine one might be able to play the entire game with minimal killing, though there are moments that specifically touch on the fact that Amicia is forced to take lives and the moral implications of these actions. There are sections where Amicia has to take out waves of soldiers with different methods to take them out which does create an interesting resource management puzzle to most combat scenarios but often these can get overwhelming and frustrating to start over. Anyone pushed to the edge though could make themselves invincible to enemies in the game’s options. I’m not sure about the extent of this system, especially in boss fights, but I was able to push through with minimal worries. 

While there are villains in Requiem, I didn’t find them as interesting as the ones in Innocence. There are several amazingly dark moments and characters that show just how brutal this world can be but Requiem does not feel as grim as Innocence; there’s an underlying hope and beauty to everything in Requiem. 

There is a fantasy element to make things more dramatic but this era of history was full of danger. The rats in particular remain a constant threat in Requiem but their force of nature element has been cranked to such an extreme that it almost feels silly. Tidal waves of rats are impressive but they are fun in the same way that movie monsters are fun. Surprisingly, the nests of the rats lean on the settings so prevalent in Alien, showing the dreadful way the rats affect their environment. These scenes are wonderfully gross and grandiose but we ultimately only get the setting and don’t have to do much within a nest aside from staple gameplay tropes, such as running away from waves of gnawing teeth. 

Where Requiem is best is when the player is given more freedom. This happens in a few combat sections but it is most felt in Chapter IX which enables Amicia and Hugo to explore a town and the outlying communities and ruins. Granted, the pair move pretty slow for an area so large so expanding on this would probably need a horse or an increased run speed but it was fun to solve a few optional puzzles. 

While I would love a third game to see where these characters go next, I would much rather see more freedom for players in a sequel and more experimentation mechanically. Arguably the biggest weakness of A Plague Tale: Requiem is that it feels like a AAA action game, a style that a lot of players really enjoy. Again, the characters and setting elevate everything. The character writing is often layered and the characters are so well realized that we can get different meanings just by their tone or the circumstances they’re in. There are definitely enough positive elements in either game to make for an enjoyable experience but it would be cool to see something outside of the AAA framework in this story. 

This may not be the end of A Plague Tale but Requiem is a satisfying conclusion to several characters’ stories, creating a dark fantasy drama with bite and heart. 

Overall, I absolutely adore these two games and I hope more people have the opportunity to play through them. 

SCORES

GAMEPLAY - 8/10

VISUALS - 9/10

SOUND - 9/10

CONTROLS - 9/10

REPLAY VALUE - 8/10

OVERALL - 8.6/10

Learn more about A Plague Tale: Requiem on the official website. Screenshots were captured via native Steam features.