A Plague Tale: Innocence Reviews

A Plague Tale is a game that evoked emotions in me. I immersed myself in this harsh world and empathized with the characters. I held on as best I could, but at the end of the game, I cried. The musical accompaniment is 10/10.

An interesting well rounded experience. It has some minor rough parts, there were a few encounters I found a little frustrating. The story gripped me from the start and the graphics are gorgeous even in 2025. The gameplay is all about stealth and predicting enemies path and behaviors. The levels do not overstay their welcome and it is well paced, the puzzles are straightforward not overly hard which is nice since you die with ease. I don't know why I held off on playing this one, I guess I thought it had horror elements-- it is dark and twisted at times but horror is not the category this game falls in. I can see why people may complain it is a rather short game for the price but there is some replayability, you can revisit levels from the main menu once beaten so you can go achievement hunting with relative ease. Though these levels are rather linear, it is doesn't allow for a lot of creativity as it is clear the game wants you to beat these a specific way. Also if you are squeemish it may not be the game for you but I thought of the swarms of rats get less disturbing over time. If you feel like that 10 hrs is rather short for a game this price, maybe wait for a sale. But this is a gem of a game, and I can tell the developers put a lot of work and love into this. I can't wait to play Requiem next! Pros: - Great story - Beautiful graphics - Fun levels that can be revisited Cons: - Linear levels - Simple Ai - Short game TLDR, Recommended, full price or maybe on sale if uncertain about price.

Best narrative game I've played since the Last of Us and is clearly influenced by that great game. A super super game! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Starting the game in the beautiful French countryside the developer Asobo Studio works hard to connect you with Amicia De Rune - the main protagonist. Hunting with her father and dog you begin to track a boar through the forest when you discover the blight (plague) which will become the central plot obstacle which you will be tasked to overcome. Amicia witnesses her beloved dog "Lion" dragged and devoured by a burrow in the Earth. The first of many disasters she will have to witness. Lord De Rune, more wise about the world decides to return home with haste and it is there as you try to find Amicia's mother that rumours of a plague circulate around the castle's staff. They all hush and address you halting their murmuring about evil. Amicia finds her mother and brother, Beatrice and Hugo De Rune, Hugo is sick but before you can gain any understanding of his illness the Catholic Church's Inquisition attacks the De Rune castle. Beatrice guides her children out of the castle and this acts as a tutorial of the stealth mechanics. This game at its core is a stealth game and although you can be more brash in the final act the majority of the game is spent skulking in the shadows. You must choose to sneak past enemies or manipulate the environment to eliminate them. Amicia watches her father and castle servants be killed by the Inquisition and their imposing Captain Nicholas. Every instinct I had was to take out the enemy and exact revenge but I couldn't. The game won't facilitate your instincts, you just have to keep going and let those good loyal people die. The De Rune's reach the edge of the castle gardens, the forest and safety is in sight but they are spotted by Captain Nicholas. Beatrice De Rune pushes her children out into the forest. The wooden door closes and moments later a blade impales through the door. Amicia De Rune must find a cure for her sick brother and somehow keep them both safe. I thought the opening chapter was the best introduction to a game I had played since the Last of Us in 2013. The main body of the story is about Amicia and Hugo searching for a cure to his sickness called the "Makula" (Spelling may vary). The journey takes them to settlements across the French countryside, forming a band of renegades to help them and learning how to fight the rats which carry/represent the blight. The story captures how the De Rune children are hardened by their environment, Amicia grapples with her morals after she kills for the first time and Hugo is extremely upset when the children sacrifice a pig to save their lives. The helplessness of innocent children is very apparent in the early chapters and it is consistently saddening to watch the characters go through the turmoil of their journey in the cruel Middle Ages. A sad story of the loss of innocence in a cruel world is however permeated by good individuals who buck the trend and give the De Rune's hope e.g the woman in the blight infested village who provides refuge to the children as they flee from villagers who wanted to burn them alive. I was very impressed with the accurate deployment of history. It brings the game to life, set during the 1340s Asobo has created a counter factual history scenario. What if the rats that carried the Black Death were murderous and more numerous? Nothing is omitted, the God fearing nature of the people and the violent tyranny of the Inquisition in the pursuit of their goals reflects the religiosity of the age. The urban areas visited in the game have white X's on the houses of infected families and they lie desolate either through death or migration. Even the 100 Years War is represented in the game and all these little things in combination create a really accurate background meaning I could make allowances the artistic decisions surrounding the rats in the plot and get immersed in the game/story. The last historical praise I wish to lump on Asobo is the importance they placed on including detailed and relevant medieval artwork. In an age where few can read and the internet obviously doesn't exist paintings were the main way the Church could communicate the Bible's teachings to the peasantry. I thought it was interesting that the game explores the ideas of class struggle. It's done very subtly through banter between Amicia De Rune and Meile, a thief who becomes an ally of the De Rune children. It is an important fact that the De Rune children are in the 1%. If Hugo De Rune was the son of a blacksmith he would have been taken by the Inquisition at a much younger age. A blacksmith's wife would not know about the Makula and would be unable to read anything about it (most likely). The laity often sought the help of the Church to cure sickness and this is reflected in Christian doctrine. Jesus Christ among many things is a healer of the sick. The fact the De Rune's are of the noble class is what allows this journey and story to take place. After finding the cure for Hugo it is revealed to him as it previously had to Amicia that their mother Beatrice was not killed on the night of the Inquisition attack and is instead being imprisoned at the Bastion. In the night Hugo leaves the safety of the groups castle and travels to save his mother. Chapter 13 and you now play as younger, weaker, smaller and less equipped Hugo De Rune. The equipment and crafting items you have built up as Amicia are lost and you are back to Chapter 1's gameplay. You must rely on stealth alone to find and save Beatrice De Rune. This is an excellent reset of the gameplay loop and it rehooked me back into the story just as "game fatigue" was setting in. Chapter 14 unlocks a new skill, after being reunited Beatrice teaches Hugo he has the power to control the plague rats. They will move where he wants and more importantly they will kill for him. Asobo makes Hugo into a killer just like Amicia, the cruelty of the Middle Ages strikes again. Beatrice and Hugo are captured once more by Captain Nicholas and brought before Vitalus, the head of the Inquisition. He is an Emperor Palpatine style character who brainwashes Hugo De Rune (Anakin Skywalker in our Star Wars analogy) to join him and continue to harness control over his sickness/superpower. They see the Makula as a gift. Captain Nicholas and Hugo attack Amicia and the others using the rats to breach the castle defences. Hugo appears different, with hate in his eyes and clear skin for the first time in the game he looks about to set his rats upon the group. Amicia embraces him and sibling love overcomes the Makula, reunited as brother and sister the player now uses Amicia and Hugo's skillsets in tandem to defeat Captain Nicholas, the man who murdered their father. Then the finale of the game has you storm the Bastion and face Vitalus in one final boss fight set in a cathedral. The credits roll. Amicia and Hugo are in a village once more - it's unclear if it is the same one from earlier in the game. Amicia plays a fair game, she has to knock down six rat targets to win an apple. Mirroring the game she played with her father at an apple tree in Chapter 1. You have come full circle , the village is back to life and they are hosting a fair. Hugo wants to go and play but the villagers apologetically shoo the De Rune's along, there is still a warrant for their arrest but this time the villagers don't want to capture you. Amicia races Hugo back to the cart where their mother is being cared for by one of your companions, you set off and it is revealed your other long term companion separated themselves from the group after seeing Hugo's powers in the showdown with Vitalus. I was left wondering if the De Rune's would ever be accepted in a post blight world or would they forever be pariahs?

One of the best game I've ever played. The graphics & the story of the game are top notch and is also well optimised.

everyone who loves story games MUST play this. you'll be hooked at the introduction, and it only gets better from there. enjoy a beautiful story, puzzles (nothing too difficult), characters, and fantastic 'combat'. i completed this game on the PS4 and as of writing this comment I'm working on 100%-ing this game. please, play it. worth every penny

A Plague Tale: Innocence indisputably placed itself among my favorite games of all time right away. I wish I could play it for the first time again. There is something so, so compelling to its story and characters, and I am utterly entranced by the music score. The gameplay, for the most part, feels so natural to learn and so rewarding to master. My biggest criticism I have for it lies merely in the lack of exploration allowed. There are invisible walls everywhere to keep you on track, and multiple times when it breaks its own logic to prevent you from deviating from the path it has set for you. This really comes to a head at one point in the story where it almost feels as if you can do something to change the course of events, and from looking online I am assured I am far from the first to try for hours. Those who have played through already will probably know what I mean, but I am being deliberately vague so as not to spoil those who haven't. But, I do wish the player's choices and actions mattered slightly more... perhaps not insofar as multiple endings, but merely small outcomes throughout. Anyways. All that can easily be forgiven as it is ultimately very strongly story-driven. And what a story it is. I struggle to explain it when I have been asked. I just... I love this game and I have listened to its score so, so often since playing it through.

Overall a good experience and worth playing from start to finish, consider using French audio with English subs Gameplay itself is alright but not the main focus Story is interesting and pretty good The music is great, some of it I really really enjoyed Heard the second one is even better and will be playing that next If you like story games, get the bundle on sale

a lot of rats, great game, love the story and characters

[h2] A grim heartbreaking tale about medieval France gripped by the plague and war: the concept so good, even the game didn't manage to fully pull it off[/h2] I replayed this game on PC a few years after my first playthrough on console, and my feelings about it are still pretty much the same. [u]It’s an incredibly beautiful game that combines breathtaking visuals of gorgeous nature with some of the darkest, hopeless and grimmest scenery in games[/u]. It’s a game which major strengths are focused on the plot, immersion and deep emotional involvement with its characters. In that regard, the game’s beginning and first half are its strongest narrative parts, where you care for what’s going on the most. The relationships between brother and sister who were basically strangers to each other before they had to form a bound in order to survive, are written quite well, although some of the character’s writing starts feeling kind of off or even flat by the end of the game [spoiler](the whole Hugo turning himself in to the Inquisition in order to find his mummay thing was very HUH? to me. He did that after all his sister went through for him, not thinking about how his escape might affect her and nearly drive her mad? I don’t believe Hugo the person whose development I’ve seen, would actually do that, it was just a very lazy writing to push the final encounter with the Inquisitor to the main characters).[/spoiler] Unfortunately, the game can’t keep up with the same level of quality and gripping writing it started with. It might be a bit over-bloated with chapters in my opinion, and it really starts to drag by the finale. [u]By the end of the second act of the story more and more bizarre moments start to arise, the gameplay starts feeling really repetitive and stale, characters behave out of their initial moral and emotional bounds, and the plot... Well, it grows more and more surreal, which culminates in the last two boss fights[/u] (that are also the worst parts of the entire game) where any sort of connection to gravity, realism and seriousness of what’s happening ceases to exist entirely. [u]What started as a very grim, dark and heartbreaking tale about medieval France gripped by the plague, war and the religious hysteria, ended as… a very, very feverish B-horror movie plot line[/u]. Although the concept is still unique in the current gaming sphere, its execution rises many, many questions after you see the ending credits. The story aside, the gameplay is infamously the worst part of this game. If you dislike linear paths and games that want the players to pass its levels exactly it was intended by the developers, no step aside is accepted, then think very thoroughly before buying this game. Personally, I have no hard feelings about game movies requiring you to pass its gameplay sections in the very scripted and even boring manner if the story and atmosphere are still worth it, but if you are not a fan of it then it will most likely drive you mad very soon. The AI of both rat waves and human enemies is genuinely horrendous, it’s even worse than Horizon Zero Dawn used to have… But if in case with HZD dumb human enemies were just puppets to play around, as the game had amazing stealth and battle mechanics to have fun with, then Plague Tale suggests a very tedious brain-numbing experience of dealing with them, over and over, in the same way, with any fun sucked out of the process entirely. All in all, this is still a pretty unique game that righteously got the attention for its interesting concept, vulnerable humane characters and amazing atmosphere and soundtrack. It has no real replayability (I mean, you can come back to it after a few years as I did to refresh the memories about the story, but no ‘replayability’ in the traditional sense). So in case you want to get all the achievements for it, you better do it in one run, thankfully they are extremely easy to get. I am still interested to play the sequel, but I hope gameplay-wise it did improve from the first part.

I took my time for playing it, but it was worth it. This game is way more impressive than AAA(A) nowadays. Nothing to envy the new 2025 games, and beyond.