A Plague Tale: Innocence

After reading about this game and watching some reviews I was looking forward to playing it myself, because it was praised by everyone. When I played it myself however, I failed to see why. It's got no depth, no character, no emotions, no nothing! The characters are pretty shallow and most of them are annoying rather than interesting. I didn't care for anyone or anything in this game and the overall story - aside from being pretty nonsensical overall - left so much open to interpretation that the game might not have bothered with any explanation in the first place. The only good things about A Plague Tale: Innocence, in my book, are the graphics and the music, but the stuff I usually care about most (story and characters) are a completely insufferable.

there is one and only one way to solve any given problem. the game looks amazing with so much detail. but it is only that, a game to walk from one nice scenery to the next while you listen to the story and hear the little boy complain. if you like choice, this is not for you.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a game with great qualities but notorious flaws that hamper the potential this game had. Pros: -Graphics: Very beautiful, At times practically photorealistic. They could have had had some polishment in character models but don't compromise too much 1.07 version included Photo Mode, which could have been better (manually adjust the settings every time sucks) but is a great feature to take many ggreat screenshots. -Art direction: A fantastic organic mix between beauty and horror producing fantastic enviroments. -Narrative: By far the very best thing of the game, no wonder got indicated for The Game Awards, is very compelling, the characters are extremely human and there are several genuinely touching moments I played english voiceover (in spite of Frech setting) but the voiceover is fantastic, it was a fortunate choice to cast a teenager and a child to dub Amicia and Hugo, respectively. Very well made cutscenes. -Music: Very fitting throught the game. -Crafting: The best part of gameplay, since greatly encourages exploration for upgrades and ammo. -Collectibles: They have a narrative appeal (flowers, gifts and curiosities) but nothing more. Cons: -Graphical flaws: Devs were negligent with character models in-game and completely with facial animations, bland all the time. -Linearity: Despite a few bifurcations, there is only one path to take everytime. Time wasted with dead ends. -Underwhelming stealth and combat: The most disapponting features. There are some improvisations, but most of the time they are mostly easy and annoying at best. Nothing really difficult. -Puzzels: They have more appeal, but they lack creativity and ingeniosity most of the time. -Little replay value, unless to collect missing collectibles and upgrades. A Plague Tale: Innocence has an average gameplay with fantastic narrative and graphic appeal. Unfortunately it didn't reach the full potential it had. Wait for a sale to but this game.

I remember reading reviews of this game and wishing it. Then, it got added to Origin Access and it was the perfect opportunity to try it. The first hour or two, it was pretty underwhelming. Acting was very good, but the gameplay could be summarized by uninspired stealth and beautiful setting. Luckily, I kept going past this, and what I found was a truly unique game in a truly unique setting with a strong story telling. It's all children and older teen there, and their story is both dark and beautiful. It's a true story of brotherhood, and the main protagonists grow on you quickly. It never becomes perfect, as few games ever do, and the game can rely on unique mechanics as much as it can rely on boring ones, but the developers managed to get the rythm just right so it never gets too repetitive. Your skillset enriches itself as the game goes on, and whereas your option are severely limited in the first few hours, they are plentiful by the end. It never ceases to be a story game though, in the sense that the gameplay compliments the story rather than the opposite. If you don't fancy the story, the gameplay has little chance to grow on you. It is, for all story lovers, a masterpiece. A must have. If it's not your thing though, if you skip cutscenes and ignore dialogues, this is probably not for you.

- There is no explicit saving, just savepionts. But there are also only a few segements where that might become a problem. So this isn't really a con. - Overall, the balancing is fine and the linearity of the game makes sure that it's almost always clear how to proceed. - Control with mouse and keyboard is okay. - The story is the usual gifted/tainted child stuff and fine early and mid game but becomes sortof ridiculous later on. Overall, it's okay. - The unique twist of the game is the rat swarm mechanic, which is a nice homage to the Dishonored series and mostly works good and adds to the game. It is combined with casual stealth and assassination mechanics. Overall, the game is a linear casual stealth adventure in the medieval fantasy period with an acceptable/likeable story, some light puzzles and mediocre graphics (it's primarily a console title after all). Not great, not bad. It's a game to play while waiting for better stealth experiences. If you missed one of the Styx, Dishonored, Thief titles, play that instead. Also, check for new The Dark Mod missions. I got the game for free on Epic in their weekly giveaways (boy do they lose money on me, got tons of games there - didn't pay for any).