[Rerun!] A Plague Tale: Requiem review
Kia ora, friends!
I am sorry to say there is no new big update again this week, life is just generally kinda hard for me right now. But instead of being content-light this week, I thought I would repost my ‘A Plague Tale: Requiem’ review from last year for any folks who might not have been here to see it at the time, and/or have maybe heard of the game since my review went live and are on the fence about checking it out.
For everyone else, I promise I will have something new for you next week!
Have a great week everybody. 💚
A Plague Tale: Requiem is a survival horror game about hope and loss, released on October 18, 2022, and it earned the number two spot on my Game of the Year list for 2022. The main draws here are the story and the setting; it has one of the most heart-wrenching plots I have ever experienced in any medium, with a very small but beautifully detailed and realised world.
In this review I will do a semi-brief spoiler-free overview for those who have yet to play it, followed by a very spoiler-heavy section (I will warn you, don’t worry!) where I will go into how this game and its story made me feel, and which story beats hit me the hardest. Full disclosure, I played this game via Game Pass Ultimate subscription which I did not receive for free. I have not played the first game, so I won’t be able to make any direct comparisons on that front, sorry!
This game starts out in an absolutely gorgeous, idyllic 1300’s French countryside – even running at 1080p on my ageing LCD TV, it looks stunning. It runs really great on the Xbox Series S too; loading times are minimal thanks to the NVMe SSD inside. There are equal amounts of beautiful and charming scenery and people, and horrifying and scary moments.
The first time I saw the rats move like water, I laughed because I was taken by surprise, I wasn’t sure how to react! And it never really gets less horrifying to see them, because the game is always upping the ante; no matter how horrifying you think each section is, it can and will always get worse. The rats themselves as a mechanic are great, though. If you’ve played or watched the Dishonored games, where it’s possible to summon swarms of rats to distract or kill your enemies, this is like that, but much, much bigger. Throughout the game there are several different ways you can interact with them, too, and that’s one of the things that makes this game so great.
But the thing that really stands out the most to me in Requiem is the relationship between Amicia and Hugo. It goes beyond just a brother-and-sister relationship, because Amicia is so much more to Hugo; she’s his protector, his own personal Guardian Angel. These two go through hell together, but they also have many small moments in the quiet where they play and laugh together. There’s a scene where Amicia is mad at Hugo, but Hugo being a child just continues to joke and play, oblivious. But in every moment, it’s clear that Amicia loves Hugo like he’s her own son, and she would die for him. And Hugo adores his big sister, and believes she could fight the whole world with just her sling if she had to.
There are several systems at play here, including several companions you can have with you in this game; Hugo is almost always with you, and he can fit through small gaps to go behind locked doors and open them for you, but you often have one other companion as well with a unique ability you can use to interact with the environment and distract or disable enemies. The first is Lucas, who can throw an invention of his own making that he calls a Stupefaccio, which causes a bright flash and a cloud of dust when it comes in contact with fire. I won’t list the others in this section though, that there is spoiler territory.
If you’re not particularly good at stealth games, A Plague Tale: Requiem might frustrate you in some sections – but I’m happy to let you know that there is an Invincible Mode you can turn on in the settings. It makes Amicia invulnerable to soldiers and other enemies (including bosses!), but watch out for fire and rats, as it doesn’t do anything against them. The game will warn you that it “degrades the experience”, but in my opinion it actually makes some parts more fun, albeit much less terrifying than it’s supposed to be. There’s one section where a bird is trying to attack Hugo and Amicia, and you have to quickly move from cover to cover while also deftly distracting the bird, so it doesn’t tear Amicia’s eyes out. I found this super difficult, but with Invincible Mode enabled, you’re free to walk around and do whatever you like in the area, while the bird swoops over your head over and over again, which was pretty funny to me.
I think the cover and stealth mechanics in this game are pretty solid, I rarely felt like I was being unfairly spotted – and most times when I did feel that way, I quickly realized that there were more soldiers in the area than I realized. It can get a bit frustrating at times because Amicia can’t take very much punishment at all, and if a soldier manages to get hold of her, it’s almost always game over.
The weapon mechanics are also great, and it’s a lot of fun using the sling not only for combat, but also for solving puzzles. I would definitely recommend you upgrade the sling first, when you are able, because being able to fire two projectiles without stopping is very handy when you’re backed into a corner.
This was in my GOTY top two for many reasons, and I would absolutely recommend it. If you’re looking for a single-player experience with a deep emotional story, a little bit of action, and a big helping of stealth, this may be the game for you. Right now it’s on Xbox Game Pass for Xbox Series X|S and Cloud Gaming, and you can also find it on Steam, Microsoft Store for PC, Playstation 5 and the Nintendo Switch cloud service.
Okay.
If you do not want to read any spoilers for A Plague Tale: Requiem, here’s your jumping off point, folks.
Spoiler time
The opening to this game is one of the better onboarding areas I’ve seen lately. I failed the stealth stuff the first time around abysmally because I enjoy stealth games, but I’m not very good at them. But the reveal that Lucas is the one chasing Amicia and Hugo is funny and sweet, and it’s cool how it immediately establishes the relationships between the three characters. And the moment where Hugo and Amicia encounter Tonin is great at indicating what kind of people the De Runes are. It’s also great at foreshadowing what will come next, with only the ever-so-slightest bit of foreboding.
The next scene inside the castle with the beekeepers is the first time Requiem shows you its other side. The dark, dangerous, and scary side. I was terrified the first time here, and as Hugo and Amicia managed to escape and return to Béatrice and Lucas, only to immediately be stopped on the road and chased by the same people from the previous scene – well it was a ride.
With the arrival of the De Runes and Lucas at the Red City, I really believed that Magister Vaudin would know how to help Hugo, and I desperately wanted to find him. I think it’s brilliant how the developers here set this expectation that one thing would happen, only to take it away, time and time again. The reveal that what he does to Hugo ultimately makes the Macula worse is reflected again and again throughout this story, a constant cycle of hope followed by deep despair, as the Macula grows stronger and stronger each time an attempt to help Hugo fails. Not gonna lie, I was not sad to see Vaudin killed by the falling rubble.
I’ll admit I thought it was quite strange to see Arnaud so quickly turn from adversary to companion – I understand his personal reasoning, but I feel like the reason why he was being hunted wasn’t explained well. I really like him as a character though, once I got to know him better. When he betrays Amicia and Hugo on La Cuna, I was surprised, but once the Count tries to murder Amicia and keep Hugo for himself, all… er, some, was forgiven. It’s cool having him as a companion as well, being able to just tell him “Hey Arnaud, go kill that guy!” is fun because he can easily kill enemies that Amicia can’t. And I really enjoyed the moment with him in the cave full of rats, where he has you shoot a flaming arrow at his shield so he, Amicia and Hugo can move through – it was a really interesting and unique use of one of the games core mechanics.
Now, I adore Sophia. I cannot say enough nice things about her. I found her super endearing from the first time you meet her in her hideout; when she tells her crew she’s disbanding them and one of them says “So it’s that time of the year again when you call it quits?”, to which she replies “I’m afraid it’s for good this time,” and the crew member is just like “Okay, we’ll stay here and play cards til you get back.” It’s a genuinely charming and funny moment. And when Amicia saves Sophia’s life from a soldier, her quip “We’ve only just met and I already owe you,” I knew I was going to like her a lot. Sophia’s unique ability was fun to mess around with, though I was a bit annoyed that if you use it more than once in the same spot, the guards immediately become suspicious and start looking for you and breaking their usual pathing. It’s realistic, sure, but I wasn’t super looking for realism in a mystical 14th century France full of evil rats. I’m glad that she stuck around until almost the very end, too. Watching her interact with Hugo and complain about the heat and the mountains was all very funny and sweet.
I found the discovery of the resting place of the previous Carrier of the Macula quite disturbing, but also really well written. Finding out for once and for all that there is no known cure, that the Order including Vaudin have absolutely no fucking clue how to stop the rats, and Amicia realising much too late that if she had just protected him and kept him safe from harm Hugo would have been fine, it was heartbreaking. But not as heartbreaking as the end. I tried as much as I could to just keep fighting while Hugo begged Amicia to stop, but of course the encounter is designed to be impossible to win. Amicia gives up, and lets the enemies engulf her, and it’s so sad! Hugo tells her that it’s too late, and that she knows what she has to do. In my playthrough I was the one to take the shot, thought I put it off for what felt like ages – Amicia standing there with Hugo in her sights and her sling at the ready. I even spun it up a few times and then stopped, waiting to see if something else would happen. I read online later that if Amicia just stands there doing nothing for long enough, Lucas will kill Hugo instead – on my New Game+ playthrough I plan to test that to see if I get a different ending. But the first time, I cried. A lot.
The final chapter that takes place a year later, with Amicia with a new hairstyle in her little mountain cottage was maybe the first time during the latter half of this game that I actually breathed. Seeing her come outside and potter around, nothing but the forest to keep her company, it was so serene. And when Sophia showed up, I clapped, and cried again a little bit. When Amicia tells Sophia that she plans to track down the next Carrier and his Protector, I was so proud of her, and it gave me hope that there will be a third game sometime in the future, though I have not personally read anything that would confirm that. When I saw Hugo’s shrine, I knew immediately what it was and sobbed. It’s such a beautiful moment to sign off with at the end of this story.
As I said above, I am absolutely looking forward to the possibility of a third A Plague Tale game, but I also wouldn’t be so sad if this was where they let the story end. It’s hard to imagine what they could do next that would feel natural, and not just a more-of-the-same if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix it re-quel.
So that was the first game review I’ve ever written! How’d I do? You can comment on this post on gamerswift13.substack.com, or you can hit me up at the social media links at the bottom of the page - let me know what you liked or didn’t like, or just chat with me about the game or other stuff I’ve written. If you want to see more of my writing, I do movie reviews on Letterboxd every now and then.
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Ka kite anō au i a koe! I’ll see y’all again really soon. 💚