| Developer | Publisher | Platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Asobo Studio | Focus Entertainment | Microsoft Windows-Xbox Series X/S-Nintendo Switch-PlayStation 5 |
A Plague Tale: Requiem is a shining example of AA games. A game that does not have a huge budget and large development team behind it, but has the near quality as AAA games. This title once again demonstrates Asobo Studio’s extraordinary ability to produce games with minimal cost and time. This studio made not-so-important games based on Pixar’s animated movies in the past. Still, they have recently proven themselves as one of the important developers of the game industry by making A Plague Tale series and the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator. According to the director of A Plague Tale: Requiem, this French studio was able to develop the game with only a team of 70 people in only three years, which is fantastic considering the quality we have seen.
Let’s get to the game itself. Requiem happens exactly six months after the previous game. You still control Amicia, who is accompanied by her brother Hugo, and her mother Beatrice. Hugo is still struggling with the curse that we learned about it in the previous game. Again the danger of rats hordes, plague, and of course, soldiers and mercenaries are the most critical dangers you are dealing with. In terms of the story, the game is even more emotional than the previous version, although some of the events that happen are not very logical.
For example, the sequences of being arrested and escaping from prison that happen at the early levels are very unreasonable and clichéd. Of course, you may say those odd events are one of the main characteristics of action games. Nevertheless, you should expect many surprising and breathtaking scenes that add value to the game narration. A Plague Tale series story ends in this second game for now, but the developers mentioned that based on the feedback of the gamers, they might go for a third game too.
One of the major improvements of this game compared to the previous one is the graphics. The game has had many improvements from the point of view of gameplay, which we will discuss further, but what shows that we are playing a completely new game is its visuals. This game uses very high-quality scanned 3D models. Also, the design of the characters and especially the details of their faces are very good. However, minor characters and some minor 3D models have less quality. But this is compensated by impressive lighting, complex visual effects, and stunning views.
As someone interested in video game photography, the scenery of the game attracts me a lot. Therefore, during the game, I used the photo mode many times and took many photos. Interestingly, the levels have different atmospheres. Some scenes, such as the life of ordinary people in the city, have a completely different atmosphere from the scenes of burnt lands or war-torn environments, etc. Some are fully alive and warm, and others are quite ominous and deadly. One of the most breathtaking scenes of the game is the attack of hundreds of thousands of rats that do not get uninteresting until the end of the game. In general, the developers have done a masterpiece in designing the appearance of the levels and created wonderful images. But this beautiful graphic is unfortunately played for you only in 30 frames per second.
As we said, the game has seen improvements in the gameplay, but the whole thing you are dealing with is not different from the previous game. You are still witnessing a stealth action game with a third-person perspective, where precision in facing enemies and solving not-so-difficult puzzles are very important. But all these are wider than before. First, despite the linearity of the stages, the environments you are in are wider than before, and now you can escape from the enemies or fight them with diverse strategies and more ways. Especially now that Amicia’s tools and weapons have increased.
Amicia can even kill enemies with a knife or shoot them with a bow from a long distance. Your homemade bombs and traps have also increased. Fortunately, these abilities slowly become available to you during the levels, so you gradually become skilled in using them. In the game itself, according to your playing style, Amicia’s skills increase. For example, if you play stealthily or directly attack enemies, Amicia will gain more capabilities in the approach you have chosen. Of course, you can still make better tools by collecting a bunch of items.
As we said, solving puzzles is still an important part of the game. Here many of them are related to the attack of rats and the way you have to safely cross the waves of these creatures, in which fire plays an important role. Also, you can use rats to your advantage and kill enemies with their help. The puzzles are varied, but in general, the game becomes a bit repetitive both in the action sections and in the puzzles department at the late levels. Because the gameplay is generally a continuation of the previous game and has not undergone fundamental changes.
Another thing that the game struggles with is bugs that cause the gameplay to crash. Among the things that happened to me were sometimes the enemies getting stuck in obstacles and the rats became invisible and appeared again.
A Plague Tale: Requiem was released only for PC and new-generation consoles and also has a cloud version available on Nintendo Switch. If you have access to the PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass services, you can download the game right now.
| GAMEPLAY | ART | VALUE |
|---|---|---|
| 90% | 90% | 80% |