A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019)

A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019), directed by Kevin Choteau, written by Sebastian Renard, developed by Asobo Studio, published by Focus Home Interactive

It is a beautiful autumn day in 1349, in Aquitaine, France. Amicia, a young noble girl of the de Rune family is on a hunt with her father Robert. As she is chasing a boar with her dog Lion, Amicia encounters the first signs of the plague which is about to roll over the country. First, she finds the corpse of the boar, bones scraped clean. Then, she finds Lion in his death throes. 

Robert takes Amicia quickly back home, where he tasks the girl to fetch her mother, Beatrice, an alchemist who is feverishly taking care of Amicia's young brother Hugo, whom the girl knows only the be seriously ill. But Amicia doesn't manage to deliver her message, as there's a ruckus outside: the inquisition has come to take away Hugo.

Beatrice orders Amicia to fetch her brother and the three try to escape. But, alas, Beatrice doesn't make it and can only usher her children to look for a doctor Laurentius from the nearby village. But, as the beginning has already proved, the journey is not going to be easy. Amicia has to take care of her brother who's prone to fits and is too young to fend himself.

Amicia, as she is a young girl, can't fend herself on hand to hand combat, but she is well versed in using a slingshot. While the sling doesn't do damage on armoured foes, she can take care of enemies who aren't wearing helmets. A good deal of the gameplay, especially on the first half of the game is based more on stealth than actually attacking the forces of the inquisition head-on.

As the story progresses, the children encounter allies. The first is the apprentice of the doctor, Lucas, who tags along and is trying to help Amicia to cure Hugo. Lucas is an alchemist, so he can teach her a couple of tricks, like the extremely necessary Ignifer that can be used to repel the plague rats with fire. These alchemical shots can be thrown either by hand or by slingshot. You do have to be careful in using the sling, as it makes an audible crack each time it's fired and alerts enemies towards Amicia. 

Later, they meet thief twins Melie and Arthur, who add new skills to the usable roster. Of the two, it's Melie who is usually tagging along and her speciality is opening locks. The last one to join the group is Rodric, a son of a smith, who is a smith himself as well. His speciality is his strength and he can tackle armour-clad soldiers as well as lift heavy objects.     

From the early on, Hugo provides a challenge as well. He is a 5-years old after all, so he can't be left alone for long periods of time or he can get scared and starts shouting for Amicia, which in turn can alert nearby enemies. So, while Amicia can leave her brother for a while, she can't go too far and spends a good portion of the levels holding his hand. Surprisingly enough, this isn't as annoying as it sounds and it did manage to, me at least, make protecting Hugo feel even more important: he wasn't just someone seen during cutscenes, but an active part of the narrative even when they were in the thick of problems.    

Towards the end, Amicia has gathered quite a few alchemical tricks she can use during her quest of seeking the cure and justice. Hugo isn't that helpless either, as his symptoms are a cause of an ancient curse running in his veins, the Prima Macula, which allows him control over the plague rats and is the reason why the inquisition wants him so badly. It's actually the head of the inquisition, Vitalis, who wants the Prima Macula for himself so he would have the power of ushering a new age. Amicia and Hugo end up battling the vile inquisitor at the cathedral. Vitalis has used his powers in sinister researches where he has transformed the light fearing black rats into species that can relish the light as well.

Through the game, you control mostly Amicia. On one point, you do get to control Hugo as well, but his segment is wholly based on stealth, as the 5-years old isn't much of a threat on anyone, not in that point of the story at least. Amicia has her sling, but again, she can't tackle hordes of enemies on her own, as while she can improve her equipment, she isn't quite that deadly and if she wants to kill someone with a helmet, she will have to use appropriate alchemical shot first in order to force them to take off their gear. So most of the time, stealth is the way to go.      

At different points of the story, Amicia and Hugo are joined by one of the companions, who will give their specific brand of assistance. Some puzzles require two or more people to be solved but are simply laid out and there is no need to guess who can give that help. The levels are quite straightforward as well, so usually, there are only one or two ways to proceed. There are some additional locations, but those are mostly for collecting either material for equipment or for gathering collectables. 

The balance of the action and stealth is pretty good for most of the game. It's only during the last couple of stretches this balance falters a bit, as the tactics begin to favour more straight offence, mostly thanks to Hugo's ability to control the rats. This would be fine if not for the feeling many of the final encounters are built more on trial and error rather than a genuine tactical approach. Especially the final battle against Vitalis feels like a giant trial and error combat, where you die multiple times only because you really do need to see what Vitalis' next attack is going to be. As the battle is tightly scripted, you can easily memorize what attack he uses at what time and how many times he does it. There are no variations on the order Not the greatest battles out there, especially in contrast to a couple of other boss fights the game had earlier and offered some genuine attempts in tactical approach.

As a whole, I feel the game could have been better had it had an even stronger leaning towards pure stealth, as this is where it really shines. It never feels quite at home the times it ramps up the action. Even with the improved equipment, the head-on battles feel a bit clunky.

Some gameplay issues aside, the graphics, voice acting and the aural side of A Plague Tale shine. The game looks amazing and the voice acting is overall very high quality. All this add into a moody game that is at the same time horrific, gruesome and beautiful.  

 That said, A Plague Tale is a good game. It does have some issues, but the pros clearly win over the cons and it's definitely worth a try. Though. I can see this being a bit too much for some, especially if you are squeamish in seeing children placed in perilous situations. 

A Plague Tale is available for Windows, PS4 and Xbox One.