I still remember the moment when I tried A Plague: Tale Innocence for the first time, when hardly anything was known about the game and how satisfying it was to try something that in the end ended up becoming one of the best video games that were published in 2019. That itself was a great joy for me to know that Asobo Studio wanted develop a sequel.
If the original title managed to become a true masterpiece, the team wanted to put all the meat on the grill to make A Plague Tale: Requiem one of those games that is worth being part of anyone’s collection . At least the sensations that it has generated in me after having thoroughly tested it have been very positive.
They have only been a couple of main story chapters which I have been able to test. And if I had been wanting to enjoy this second part for a long time, my desire to have the final version in my hands, which is already in the gold phase, has increased considerably after playing this preview.
The young pair of brothers gets back into a very dangerous adventure
The plot of this continuation takes place a few months after the last events. It’s still too early to know how everything is generated, but the chapters that I have been able to play have placed the action at a fairly advanced point, so it is even more difficult to find out what has happened so far. At least it feels great to be back with Amicia and Hugo on their new journey.
From the little that has been hinted at, the pair of brothers is looking for a way to reach a mysterious Mediterranean island. A place that has appeared in the dreams of little Hugo and where our protagonists could find a cure for the disease he suffers from. However, it looks like they’ve gotten into quite a few troubles so far that have put their lives in jeopardy.
So, it didn’t take long for me to start running into some soldiers who are looking for this pair of young heroes to finish them off, since Amicia seems to have killed several of their comrades-in-arms. Therefore, the road will not be a bed of roses at all, since we will feel constantly threatened wherever we go. That itself is something that I have noticed when seeing more enemies than normal everywhere.
The artificial intelligence of these has been increased or perhaps the difficulty, because the truth is that there have been several occasions that they have noticed my presence or have heard me crawl, even if I was quite far from them. So that, stealth touches will be the order of the day again and they will require more than ever that we interact with the stage and be very attentive to everything around us to divert their attention or go unnoticed.
Luckily Amicia has become braver and now she will have the tools to get rid of the soldiers or even to kill them. In this sense, she will once again have her slingshot, which will allow her to throw stones or other materials previously made with alchemy. Even so, the enemies must have also become tougher, because it has been impossible for me to finish them off with stones or burn their bodies by creating flame-covered stones.
The shots have only served to leave them stunned, which does not mean that it has come in handy several times to put my foot down and thus find a place to take shelter or directly to access the next area. However, if there is something in which it will be noticed that Amicia has become more mature is because now she will be equipped with a crossbow capable of killing anyone with a single shot.
So that the adventure does not become a shooter, it should be noted that the ammunition is extremely limited, as well as the materials to create special stones or to throw vases that also cause secondary effects. In fact, there have been times that it seemed that I was facing a survival horror due to the tremendous shortage of materials that forced me to reload the game to an earlier point because otherwise it would be impossible for me to solve certain puzzles.
Likewise, Amicia will also be able to perform melee blows with your slingshot or take advantage of knifes to go collecting to crush those soldiers that we have left stunned. But something that has also been curious to me has been the fact of setting fire to giant bushes (those used to hide) while an enemy was looking for me for them and then hearing their screams as they burst into flames, which caused after a good while his body was completely charred.
In any case, although I have only been able to see part of the story, it has been enough for me to realize the potential that this sequel aims to have with which we will live again the most exciting and tense moments due to the chases and the action-packed parts. . All this accompanied by the presence of new characters along with the same dubbing actors, without forgetting that the final version will arrive completely localized into Spanish in voices and texts.
The fearsome horde of rats is back at it again with some very convoluted puzzles
While Amicia’s abilities have been expanded from the previous game, she hasn’t been the only one to become more powerful. More than anything because now Hugo will be able to control the infernal rat hordes in his favorwhich will do their thing again, putting us against the ropes on more than one occasion and even devouring us in just a couple of seconds if we don’t have anything to illuminate around us.
The point is that these rodents are extremely fearsome, although they cannot attack in broad daylight or if there is fire near their position. This itself implies that the soldiers have learned their lesson and now it will be rare to find one that does not have a torch equipped, although it is also understandable because otherwise we would use the horde of rats at every step we took so as not to have to worry about anything else .
The moments in which Hugo will take advantage of this invocation are not too many so that it is not a piece of cake. On top of this, we must add that control over them is somewhat limited and we cannot get into their skin forever. Regardless, this ability also gives Hugo the ability to see through walls and thus realize if there is an enemy near us.
I’m not going to deny that, as cruel and ruthless as it may seem, I’ve had a great time gobbling up the enemies with the rats and the excellent artistic section that the game happens to have when switching to a first person point of view within the game. group of these wild little animals. Of course, it shows when the team said that the number of rats that we will see on screen has multiplied from 5,000 to 300,000 rats on screen at the same time.
So much so that there was even a part where I had no choice but to flee in a hurry because I was being chased by a real wave in the form of rats that covered each and every one of the corners of the stage. Secondly, the puzzles in which these creatures play an important role they will be present again, having to carefully examine the scene to look for places with torches or objects that we could set fire to serve as temporary protection.
I have to say that there have been some puzzles that have seemed too convoluted to solve, something that makes me happy on the one hand because the game does not take you by the hand at any time and does not tell you exactly what it does at each moment. However, there was a part where a couple of characters told me that I had to break something that was located on a ship we were on, but due to my lack of naval knowledge I had no idea what they were asking me to do.
What’s more, when there are characters that ask you for something in particular, you’d better pay close attention to the instructions they give you, because they do not repeat it twice and there is no way to consult the requests in case for whatever reason you have forgotten or you have not paid attention to what they said. Either way, I’m glad A Plague Tale: Requiem not be a simple game in general to better represent the cruelty of the world that surrounds our young protagonists.
In short, Hugo’s innocence will again be in charge of shedding some light with touches of sweetness in a ruthless world, while Amicia’s feeling of protection and maturity will make them form a perfect combination that will allow them to overcome any adversity. We will have to wait until October 18 to discover how the story will continue and what else it will offer us, although for the moment it has been clear that it is a sequel capable of surpassing the previous one in all its aspects A Plague Tale. And that set the bar really high.
- platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC
- multiplayer: Nope
- developer: Asobo Studio
- Company: FocusEntertainment
- Launch: October 18, 2022