A Plague Tale isn’t a bad game, but it isn’t a good one either. I’ll begin with the gameplay. Many reviews say the gameplay is lackluster calling it a basic stealth game and nothing special, and while that is true to an extent, the gameplay is satisfying and rewarding at times. The main draw of the combat for me is balancing what items and strategies to use, and what enemies to prioritize attacking first. There's a lot of fun to be had in learning that. Speaking of combat encounters, people say this a stealth game, but you don’t really need to use stealth after you amass enough gear. This is a good thing because the stealth encounters are very much a drag. There are no unique stealth mechanics, so the stealth gameplay consists of waiting for predictable enemy patterns and slowly crouching past them. Oh, and don’t worry about making noise the guards are basically deaf. As I said earlier though, you quickly amass enough gear to avoid this. The process of going from skulking in the shadows to dominating every enemy with your slingshot quite satisfying. However, it's still too simple for my tastes. Especially due to the auto-aim that can’t be turned off ruining any chance of your mechanical skill improving. Outside of these combat encounters are the puzzles. They are extremely simple, and as a result, boring. Of course, the gameplay (especially the puzzles) is only the backdrop for the story. The writing is good. However, there were issues I had that kept me from really getting invested. Mainly the general scuffed feeling of the cutscenes. Sometimes before one person is done talking the next talks, and it just sounds off. And it feels like the animations don't match what's going on sometimes. Also, sometimes the voiceacting on the children sounded rather lifeless. However, I did love the characters, and the game does a good job of developing each of them. If the issues I've mentioned don't sound like deal breakers to you I would recommend.
The game is pretty good and its fun to play. But I really can't enjoy 30 FPS and its locked at 30 FPS. I thought I could handle it but this isn't the kind of game where 30 FPS works. Also the GOG version is out of date so I'm going to give 3 stars but if none of those bother I'd say it's very worth playing.
The best way to describe the gameplay woud be satisfying. It makes you feel really cool with all the risky moves you can do whenever you slow time. It's also got a story that really engages you and encourages you to play the game, and the music is perfect and compliments the game nicely. Also the sound is good as well and makes getting kills even more satisfying. If you're wondering why its only almost perfect it's because the AI is a bit weird sometimes but thats barely worth mentioning or taking a star off for. One other thing I should mention is that the game has not concluded the story and they are still updating it. Also if you're concered about playtime don't worry with the hard mode and secrets to find you'll get at around 20 hours of content and probably even more (Like I did). Now that I've talked about the game I think we should look at some of the negative reviews (which there were only 2). The first one I found was one that was calling the gameplay monotonous and that it goes from really easy to almost impossible. I disagree with this as the gameplay is very tense and action packed and the difficulty goes up at a pretty normal rate. The game does get challenging by the end though but thats how I like my games. The second negative reviews says the game is great but it's weighed down by bad gimmicks like boring stealth sections and lackluster boss fights. There's actually only one stealth section that's required by the game and its really easy (It took me 5 minutes at most) and the only other section barely does anything to change the story and is just there if you like the stealth. I disagree on the boss fights I think they're great but this is just difference in opinion so thats all I can say in response. In conclusion I think Katana ZERO is a great game that you shouldn't hesitate the pick up ESPECIALLY if its on sale.
