While I am a big enthusiast for video games, to the point where I am literally scrounging the web for underrated titles to play, one thing I do like to talk about to people is world history. I am highly fascinated with the many civilizations that came before us and the many cultural traditions which would go on to inspire the ideologies of today. Good old Ancient Rome is probably one of my most favorite time periods in history due to how advanced civilization was for its time. The Romans forged structures capable of both providing clean water and protecting the people from threats, one of the very first calendars full of landmarking events, a government and system of laws that maintained balance and order, tools that other societies probably haven’t thought of yet... well maybe besides the Mongols, and of course their records of history and the gods they worship. Who wants to hear the tale of how Achilles got shot in the heel again? Then there is 13th-14th century Japan which is my second favorite time period in history. The many government structures that the Japanese developed, the many rulers that came, the warriors with a code of honor, the sights, and the many beliefs the people had.
Those two are my most favorite time periods in history, but what about my third favorite time period? One of the more commonly used settings in history? Enter the medieval times which took place a few years after the fall of the Roman empire. You had knights in shining armor patrolling the lands, huge spiraling castles with numerous chambers, kings and queens who governed the people, large-scale warfare with fire lighting the sky, knights in armor again, and more! Okay, I’m gonna be honest with you. I have no knowledge of any major events that took place during medieval times, but the thought about it is what gets me interested. Especially when you combine the time period with fictional ideas. Now we have something interesting. The steel plated knights we know are now fighting dragons! Mad kings may be sorcerers in disguise with evil plans. There are trolls that live in caves and eat people in one bite. The dead can come back to life and haunt you. Shooting fire out of your hands, magical swords, traveling bands, and tripping on wooden boards! Most of this sounds like stuff from DnD, but trust me it sounds cool when imagined in your head. This is what we like to call "fantasy" and it’s one of my favorite genres of all time with science fiction being second.
There’s just something really special about fantasy and how other writers have found a way to put a twist on it. Through books, movies, stage play, and even video games. Both fantasy and medieval times are pretty amazing, but they are not perfect. One idea can only be reinvented so many times, and soon you can predict the genre standards. Of course there's going to be magic, a mythical race, and the hero meeting the love of his life at some point in the story. We've seen it done hundreds of times before, so why is it special now all of a sudden? Then there's the fact that by looking more into the time period fantasy stories take place you notice there was a lot of messed up stuff going on. Like the corruption of the church, the holy cursades, child labor work, rape, poverty, and more. We could try to ignore these factors and let's be honest I'm killing the mood right now, but we still have to remember the horrifying events that transpired during medieval times like the bubonic plague. Why are we mentioning the bubonic plague specifically? Well it’s because it fits in with the game we are reviewing today.
A Plague Tale: Innocence developed by Asobo Studio and published last year. Asobo is a very weird game studio. Asobo was founded back in 2002 and the team that made up the studio was extremely small. They didn’t have the funding to make their own video game so they would have to work for other companies until they had enough to do so. They helped develop several licensed kids games.....which is probably how you should not start off! These were their early days of development and they were probably the studio’s worst days since they were forced to make poor quality games that they obviously didn’t want to make. Then they decided to start partnering up with actual video game companies, people like Microsoft and Ubisoft. They helped with the development of The Crew series, Quantum Break, and Recore which were all kinda... well meh games. Then Asobo Studio finally did it. They had enough money and experience to develop their own full fledged game. It would take a lot of time, but the payoff would hopefully be worth it. The studio kept working and working and eventually partnered up with Focus Home Interactive. Focus is known for publishing a lot of Double A games, video games that could be considered Triple A due to its quality but don’t have the size to be one. Focus helped publish Greedfall, The Surge, and more. Asobo Studio let Focus market their game and in 2017 their new game was revealed to the world. The game was still in development, but the audience was quite impressed.
Finally in 2019, Asobo Studio’s final product was released. A Plague Tale: Innocence. The game just came out of nowhere and everyone was considering it to be a flop since it came out in a year full of big releases like Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5, but it turns out A Plague Tale: Innocence was a hit! Critics praised the game for its narrative, survival-stealth focused gameplay, how the game effectively used tension and horror, and how much quality was packed in. A Plague Tale could be considered one of the few sleeper hits of the generation so far, but is it truly tremendous? I heard a lot of good things about A Plague Tale: Innocence and it wasn’t until recently that I finally decided to play the game during a winter sale. More than one year after release. I had very low expectations for A Plague Tale and thought the game would be decent enough. I can report to you that A Plague Tale: Innocence is quite good. I didn't love it as much as everybody else and there are a couple of problems which prevent me from giving it a strong recommendation, but it is a solid designed game a majority of folks should enjoy. Today we’ll be talking about why I liked A Plague Tale: Innocence and why it deserves your attention! A child who was taken away from their innocence.
Story
The game takes place in 1348 and we follow the footsteps of a young noble girl named Amicia de Rune. Her family lives in a nice fancy house located in Aquitaine, which is now ruled by the English Army due to England winning the long and brutally violent Hundred Years’ War. Amicia’s father is a knight who often has to leave their home to serve the order he works for. Her mother is a skilled alchemist who spends most of her time in doors, and her brother Hugo has been kept inside ever since birth because he was born with a mysterious disease that has never been seen by man before. One day while her father is home, they both wander into the woods to look for a meal their family can dine on. Amicia spots a wild boar and chases it deep into the woods along with her dog Lion. Amicia then wanders into a strange part of the forest and from here concerning events start to transpire. The atmosphere is dead, black roots cover the ground, and she finds the corpse of the boar she was hunting for eaten all up. She finds Lion stuck in the ground and when her father tries to pull him out he is bloodily eaten into the ground. Amicia’s father is concerned of what may lie underground and states that something like that mustn't spread throughout the rest of Aquitaine.
When they get back to their cozy home a special religious militia known as the Inquisition immediately gallops onto their doorsteps. Amicia’s father tells her to find her mother and Hugo so Amicia does just that. Amicia’s mother tells her to take Hugo and bring him somewhere safe. While hiding Amicia witnesses the Inquisition killing the servants throughout the house and her own father in the courtyard. Turns out the Inquisition is in search of Hugo. The reasons for wanting him are unknown, but they will slay anything that stands in his path until they find him.
Amicia and Hugo escape the house and eventually regroup with their mother who tells them that they need to meet up with another alchemist named Laurentius. Their mother helps them finally escape, but they are eventually caught and their mother sacrifices herself to protect them. The Inquisition is on their tail and Amicia makes a run for it. They are shot by arrows coming from every direction and the people running around them are swallowed up by the mysterious pit that Amicia encountered earlier in the woods. Amicia and Hugo finally escape the Inquisition and wander into a nearby town where they learn that they are now wanted by the Inquisition.
They escape the town as well and finally learn what has been terrorizing people and eating them whole. A deadly infestation of rats and these aren’t your ordinary rats! They come in swarms, pop out during the night, and engulf people like a massive typhoon. These rats are deadly and Amicia wonders why there are so many of them huddled at once. So Amicia has to avoid the Inquisition, avoid the rat infestation, and prepare for an unexpected journey to protect Hugo and find out what the hell is really going on.
Gameplay
A Plague Tale: Innocence is a very hard game to describe in my opinion. I could say it’s part of one particular game genre, but then again certain aspects of the game make it sway over to being part of another game genre. It’s a random mixture of action, stealth, and horror that blends together to make one genre mash of a video game. It's not survival horror, but at the same time it's not a stealth adventure. Is it good though? Yeah, I say it’s pretty good and a majority of the time encounters are fairly designed.
There are countless moments in the game where Amicia and Hugo will have to sneak past human enemies and navigate around the ginormous rat hordes that block their path. Stealth is pretty basic as in all stealth games. Take the paths that will not get you spotted by human enemies, and try to make your way from point A to point B or just fulfill a certain objective that allows you to progress. If you do get spotted by a human enemy they will start chasing you down. If they catch you it’s instantly game over for both you and Hugo. However, Amicia is armed with a sling that allows her to fight off enemies and interact with certain objects. The sling takes time to prepare, but with a well timed shot you can instantly kill an enemy with a rock to the head. She doesn't have to use a sling for all the throwable items she has, she can also simply throw them. Tossing objects on certain surfaces can distract enemies allowing you to bypass them.
Throughout the game Amicia learns different types of alchemy that allow her to brew several mixtures to solve any problem that stands before her. This includes flaming projectiles that can light flammable surfaces, a toxic substance that burns metals forcing helmeted enemies to reveal their weak spot, a projectile that puts out fires, a substance that puts enemies to sleep if you can sneak up behind them, and many more. These mixtures are crafted using resources found out in the field, and you'll want to use them carefully as some of them are sparse or hard to come across.
There are also the rats which is where both the puzzle solving and horror come into play. The rats appear in dark places and are attracted to anything that contains meat, so they can eat you and any other human beings within seconds. They are however afraid of any source of light and can be scared off with it. The rat and the way they function help create puzzles that force Amicia to make use of her surrounding environment. By knocking out light sources she could use the rats to dispatch enemies that stand in her way. She could use fire to create a light source and clear a path for her and her brother. She can find objects to distract the rats like sacks of meat or dead bodies. Or she could find higher surfaces that allow her to avoid the rats. A lot of planning comes into play when traversing the dangerous world of Plague Tale, but that's the joy of having a tense atmosphere. Feeling rewarded for when you finally pull through and reach the other side. That’s all I can say about A Plague Tale’s gameplay. Hopefully you can outrun the Inquisition and get your little brother to safety.
Thoughts
A Plague Tale: Innocence is a pretty good game and it does what it needs to do to nail each thrilling moment and carry you forward through the narrative. I thought the game would look really bleak due to the depressing atmosphere and overarching themes, but the environments are really pretty and the lighting helps the world shine despite what is going on within it. Speaking of which, the way the game makes use of light and darkness helps set each scene perfectly. When it’s sunny out the game reminds you how beautiful the world can be with breathtaking scenery, forest paths, once prosperous towns, and the ruins of great fortresses. Then they go back to dark lit, tight cryptic environments during the night where knights patrol with long edged swords and rats huddle in hordes. Waiting in the corner only for you to show up.
I really like how they animate the rat hordes and make them work mechanically. It must have taken them a really long time to get them to specifically work, but it was worth it as they created an entity truly worth being afraid of. The gameplay like I said earlier works in mysterious ways. Making sure you get a good serving of a little bit of everything it has to offer. The levels are laid out in a way where they guide you towards where to go. You always know where to go, never get led towards the wrong direction, and that you are always on the right track. I say “always” but we’ll get to that later.
A Plague Tale really nails those stressful moments when you're trying to run and hide. Unlike most video games where the main character is some badass armed to the teeth here the developers like to remind the player that they are defenseless. You are playing as a child who has no skill in using any type of weaponry. She can literally be killed instantaneously by anything around her, and the adults that stand in her way can kill her even quicker. This defenselessness is made more stressful with the fact that you have to protect her brother. You can literally feel the weight of your brother dragging you behind as you try to sneak past a heavily guarded area. Knowing if you're not the one making things go wrong then he will, but you can't blame him because he's a child and he hasn't faced such a scenario as the one you see right now. There are times where you have to outrun enemies and you feel like you are about to die because your brother just keeps dragging you behind! The game does an incredible job at making you feel anxious and the setting as mentioned is handled wonderfully.
I do have a few gripes with the game. I know this is the first game Asobo Studio has developed by themselves, but don’t expect it to be perfectI. in fact this is a really flawed game which I struggle to recommend. Some substances you can craft are probably used only one or twice throughout your playthrough, because the developers kept in mind that not every scenario should require a specific tool. However, they forgot to use the tools at all and that's why they are heavily underutilized. Plus, why would I use a complex option when sneaking past an enemy is the much simpler and more fun option? Some levels have you working with allies who have special abilities, but they feel underutilized as well. Not saying the linear design of the game is bad, but it requires you to play in a specific way and it leads to some moments only working once.
Finally there's the story and don't take offense to what I'm saying. The story has some good ideas, is well presented, has a mostly likable cast, and the performances from each character are great. I respect the themes they try to address, but overall it's not a very well written story. The game is trying to address innocence and what it feels like for a young child to lose it at such an early age, but they don't really do a good job at it and they just throw it out the window later on. Side characters are interesting, but they never explored that much and your time with them is short. There are these two thief siblings and their main purpose really is to stay by your side. One of them gets killed off later on and I lie, "Okay, I mean I didn't really get enough time to care about you so this felt almost meaningless." The story also tries to get you to care about Hugo and remind you how important it is to protect him. Well they did a really bad job, because the way they wrote Hugo made me hate him more than I should have. He constantly bickers, moans, and whines. I get he's a young child, but around hour five he should have an understanding of what is going on. He doesn't and that only frustrates the player even more. Then there's the confrontation with the antagonist. It's dumb. I'm not even going to spoil it, but it's really dumb and the final fight is lamer than expected.
Those are complaints with A Plague Tale: Innocence. While a severely flawed game it's fun at times and nice to see what Asobo Studio have acquired with their first successful attempt. It only takes 7-10 hours to beat, well paced, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. I am going to wait for a sale, because in some places they sell this game for a full sixty dollars which doesn't justify how short the game is compared to other big titles. In the end I am giving A Plague Tale: Innocence an 8/10 for being pretty good.
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