A Plague Tale: Requiem

In my opinion, the first opus offered an optimal experience: an adventure in the sumptuous landscapes of Provence, a few moments of heroism and around ten hours of gameplay, which was quite sufficient. This sequel impresses with its artistic direction and the quality of its graphics, but struggles to tell a compelling story in the twenty-odd hours or so that it takes to play. You keep going from one memorable moment to the next, thinking you've reached the end, but it just keeps on going and it's hard to get back into the swing of things. After 15 hours of play, I was tired and the next 10 hours were laborious. The gameplay is just as rigid as ever, and hardly changes at all. The studio wanted to do too much, to the point of irritation.

You said "a game", I say "a masterpiece".

This game is an absolutely unforgettable experience, but the slower pace may not be to everyone's taste. If you are the type who loses patience and isn't able to slow down and take in the dialogue, atmosphere and setting in deliberately paced encounters you may find yourself getting bored or impatient. This would simply be your loss however, as it is ludicrous to ever call such a tense, emotional and densely packed game 'slow' paced. In terms of combat/gameplay, it is largely the same as it's predecessor - you are required to stealth, scramble and improvise through tense encounters with soldiers that are significantly more challenging than those in Innocence the first time through, and navigate encounters with rats which are essentially environmental puzzles. Amicia has a more streamlined and imo effective toolset to deal with them however (despite actually being less mobile - there is no ability to dodge this time around) and overall I felt they took everything good about the gameplay in Innocence, and improved on it. However it is not fundamentally different so if you didn't enjoy Innocence's gameplay, I wouldn't expect to feel differently here. The graphics, lighting and environments are jaw-dropping and the soundtrack is unforgettable. But the true heart and soul of this game lies in the bond shared by Amicia and Hugo and every beat of the story is built to naturally reinforce that, which is why the final act is so devastatingly effective. The cinematic storytelling is simply some of the best that has ever been delivered in the medium. This story and these characters will stay with me for a very, very long time.

The story completely ruins this game. It insists on re-hashing the same "Amicia is forced to kill and people don't like that and she starts to lose herself to rage" theme that was already covered in the last game only now Amicia is also an unbearable brat on top of it. Even though she already slaughtered hordes of knights in the last one, this is apparently a new concept. Which is corny in the first place, a 15 year old girl overpowering fully grown men in armor. I can excuse that as rule of cool, though. But its not like there are even any consequences for killing so its not really a choice. In fact there are a bunch of forced killing sections that are more like battle arenas where you're locked in until everything dies. It would be cool to approach the game how you want (stealth, item usage, killing, etc.) but that doesn't really feature here. There are a lot of scenarios with only one solution so you can't experiment. Even if you put tar on a guy then throw fire on him, he doesn't get lit on fire. So there is no point in trying to get creative with items, which by the way are also more limited in this game. And when you do need an item, the game is sure to leave materials around to craft it nearby. Its your typical scripted AAA garbage that has grand spectacle and photorealistic graphics but holds your hand the whole time. The worst part is the story has no point and the way it ends cancels out everything Amicia and Hugo did. Were you hoping to learn about the Macula? Too bad. Nothing gets revealled, its all still just a big unsatisfying mystery. Which is amazing because the plot jus tgoes on and on and on but does it arrive anywhere interesting? No. But you can bet your ass there is sequel bait because money. Skip this one guys, the series is dead.

There is so much in Requiem to love. The original game was a masterpiece, and Requiem largely reproduces the basic gameplay mechanics of Innocence but with fun new upgrades and twists. At its best, the stealth sequences, puzzles, and battle mechanics are both challenging and satisfying. Given that this is included in a world of unbelievable beauty, detail, and horror, Requiem is a truly marvelous experience. And yet it really does fall short of the original in some significant ways. The most concerning to those thinking about buying the game is that the developers went overboard with the cinematic "feel" of the game. Too many cutscenes and walking sim sequences bog the game down in what is basically just eye candy with a few taps of the E button. Some of these go on for a very long time that really pulls the player out of the action. Like I said, when it's good it's good, but there can be real spells between them, and the final three chapters are largely just walking sim sequences. Sadly, Requiem does not maintain the clever and cohesive plot and storytelling that made the original so brilliant. This game felt like a splatter of disconnected ideas, and there was no rational reason for the characters to move from one sequence to the next. Again, the visual set pieces were stunning, but they had no real reason to exist other than the developers wanted them too. The story is chaotic - for instance, a long sequence has the protagonists descending into the bowels of the earth where nothing good awaits, only to discover that nothing good awaits and then have to escape. This, plus a lot of really banal dialogue, makes this game far inferior to Innocence. It gets four stars because there truly is so much here to love. I just wish they had gone for something a little less bloated and a little more tightly structured. At it's finest moments, it's one of my favorite games. But at 27 hours, there was too much bloat time filling up my total hours. Hope the next one is better.