The seriesA Plague Tale: Requiemkeeps reminding me of is Uncharted, and I didn’t expect that.
Requiem, it turns out, is every bit a game about uncovering lost legends and their secrets.
It’s a treasure hunt.
Only here, the treasure you’re hunting for is a cure.
It was the plague carried, infamously, by rats.
And so it is that A Plague Tale is also a series about rats - wonderfully and gruesomely so.
This is how Requiem - much likeA Plague Tale: Innocencefrom 2019 - begins.
But it isn’t long until before you run into trouble and find yourself chased by murderous adults again.
And then come rats and the Plague.
And suddenly there’s death and repugnant gore all around you and you’re literally knee-deep in it.
And as before, the nuts and bolts of the game are stealth.
Why would she want to do that?
Because rats can work for you as much as they can against you.
That means if you extinguish an enemy’s torch, the ratswillget to them.
Requiem goes a step further with a couple of new tools.
But bolts are rare.
Hugo, meanwhile, can directly control hordes of rats.
So companions are enormously helpful.
But they won’t always be with you.
Think of them more as variation than a gradual layering-on of tools.
But I’ve softened a bit having played the full game.
There’s also a deal more leniency built into the formula than I’d realised.
The companions in particular are wonderful - well rounded, believable and brilliantly performed.
I particularly like the game’s tendencynotto over act and get swept away in melodrama.
And she’s still only 20 years old.
I hope she’s recognised for it.
It’s Amicia’s desperation to save Hugo that underlines everything.
You are the main characters, but is what you’re doing right?
it’s possible for you to feel the game questioning you, questioning your actions.
Innocence, really, was a game about running away and staying hidden, perhaps as the title suggests.
It’s a deep and moving exploration of love and fear.
It gives the game a substance that will linger long after the spectacle of it.
And it is spectacular.
Requiem, simply put, is one of the finest adventures around.
