A Plague Tale Innocence: Rats Along Our Backs

 

Story: Two siblings, Amicia and Hugo journey across the sick ridden Aquitaine lands running away from the Inquisition while trying to find a cure for Hugo. Hugo is naïve since he was trapped in his room for most of his life while Amicia is trying to protect Hugo from the dangers of the world and being someone that Hugo can look up to. They meet some allies along the way allowing some great interactions and character development. Some don't shine as much as others which can cause some predictable deaths. The story plays well on how corrupt the Inquisition can be while also providing moments of clarity and peace when needed. I do find Hugo annoying since he would cause trouble in places that could have been avoidable.

Gameplay: The game is heavily stealth based with some small combat sections. Starting with the combat, it is not very good but passable. Your main weapon is a sling shot which can be finicky at times but can make a quick kill when needed. The main issue was when you would try to hit an enemy during active combat. One wrong shot can turn bad quickly if you are not prepared for the enemy coming close. The enemies would kill you instantly if you couldn't dodge fast enough or don't have a back-up item that can put your enemies to sleep. As I said previously, stealth is the main gameplay mechanic of this game. You would need to think methodically on how you would deal with enemies while conserving the resources you have. There are many different items around the areas you roam that can help you. Some examples include a fire-shot that can light up torches to keep the rats away. Another is a water-like throwable that can extinguish a torch or campfire allowing the rats to swarm your enemies. Speaking of rats, staying in the dark in rat ridden areas can be deadly. You would need to light up torches, campfires, or any other source of light to travel through these areas. This will allow some great puzzles rooms which are not complicated and easy to solve. The areas and gameplay that revolve around the rats were my favorite since you can use them to your advantage when traversing certain areas. The way they swarm and move around amazes me.

Setting/Music: I don't find the music to be memorable. Instead, the settings takes most of the credit here. You can roam around towns that are destroyed by war and plagued by rats. You can wonder around the wilderness and avoid the Inquisition as rain falls on the ground creating a beautiful yet tense scene. There are memorable areas that can make beautiful screen captures as shown above. 

Design: The direction of the story was done well and the rats were the main stars of the games for me. The way they swarm around people and eat their flesh is still engraved in my mind. The areas are linear but allows great exploration to find resources and different approaches to get to where you need to go. Your allies are not stupid either. They follow you lead and try to stay out of sight from the enemy. With areas that are swarmed with rats, they would stay close to you or the light to avoid getting killed. The story is goes at a steady pace allowing time to react to the world around you. The voice acting is okay at best but that didn't bother me too much. There are some collectables you can pick up along the way providing some information about the world. I did not collect them all but they were not much of an issue. 

They game is beautifully designed and well made. I was surprised on how your allies reacted to some situations but I did hope for more help during some combat scenarios. I expected more annoying death scenarios but that wasn't the case allowing more seamless progression. The world is eye catching and the gameplay was done well. This game gets an 8.5/10. I mainly had an issue with Hugo and found him very annoying but that didn't stop me from liking the other characters and the story. There is a second game called A Plague Tale: Requiem, which I plan to go through after I spend some time playing other games in my backlog. Don't expect a review of this one anytime soon.