Come traveler and sit around the fire. It is a dark night like these times, devoured by the plague and banished by the inquisition. The guards have other poor souls to hunt down, so sit back and warm up for a bit. Don't worry, I won't bite, the mice are already thinking of that, I just want to tell you the story told me by Asobo Studio, in this review by A Plague Tale: Innocence.
The origins of the plague: from reality to play
THEaction adventure of Asobo Studio came a bit like this, suddenly, like the epidemic of Black fish which affected Europe from 1347 to 1352, the period in which the game is set. There has been a few videos of the game's development since the announcement at E3 in 2017, when the game was still called “The Plague,” but never anything that really caught my attention. A few days ago, however, the game arrived in the editorial office and, taken a while from these months in which the Middle Ages returned to prevail, due to the latest Game of Thrones series, I decided to take care of its review.
The title opens with a walk in the woods. One of those quiet and relaxing videogame moments where you just want to enjoy the view and the dialogues between the characters. Amy De Rune and his father joke while the dog does not give up on dinner, a succulent wild boar that continues to flee between one bush and another. The noble De Rune challenges his daughter to hit apples on the tree while a short tutorial teaches me to use the slingshot. All in one beautifully crafted forest, with models of trees, leaves and bushes that are always different and with plays of light and shadows capable of making a triple A pale. A delightful moment, which immediately made me frame the game as a walking simulator, but which was about to be troubled by a relentless series of events and dynamics aimed at making me change my mind.
To tell you more about the history of the game would be cruelty, almost like the ones that Amicia and her brother will have to suffer Hugo, a child afflicted with a mysterious disease and haunted by the inquisition. However, I assure you that the story told by Asobo Studio has an exceptional strength that intertwines primary and secondary narratives, protagonists and surrounding characters, real events, legends, alchemy and fantasy places, painting a truly exciting adventure. A story of loss and sacrifice, in the shadow of war, plague and the Church, where finding a way to shed light, both literally and what is happening, will be of vital importance.
A Plague Tale: Innocence Videorecensione
The spread of the disease: the beauty of darkness
The historical context recreated by Asobo Studio is clear right away: we are in the midst of the Hundred Years War, in a France battered by the black plague and shaken by the whims of the inquisition. The developers create environments rich in detail, each different from the other with curated elements and which never make you feel the feeling of déjà vu. Each chapter on develops on large fully explorable scenarios, or on multiple scenarios composed of multiple settings. The panorama of France that moves around the protagonists often leaves you speechless and more than once I admit that I simply stopped to observe everything around me. A castle resting on the top of a cliff, an ancient and imposing aqueduct, a dilapidated church, a medieval village but also death.
In A Plague Tale: Innocence, death permeates every corner of the game, sometimes it has the features of a cliff, sometimes a fire and still others a dark and nauseating field full of corpses, but in any case it is always a spectacle. There is a lot of beauty in the darkness with which the sore is painted. There is almost pleasure in seeing some of the structures in the game or some of the landscapes being marred / embellished by disease or simply by the passing of time. Some villages are so well defined that they seem real almost as much as their source of inspiration, the French departments of Gironde and Dordogne. While other scenarios seem to recall different pictorial works, such as those of the classical landscape painter Claude Lorrain. There is no interaction, this is something that hurt me, because I wanted to be able to “touch” so much beauty and instead I was unable to break even one of the many bottles I found on my way. In addition to the designated objects, unfortunately, you cannot interact with anything else, a pity that, however, is forgiven given the large visual sector of the title.
Even the characters have been created with great attention to detail ranging from the expressions to the stitching of the clothes. A care that, just like for the settings, makes the game alive and full of depth, except for some animations a little out of place. In this context where reality is almost palpable, some movements of the characters seemed unreal and quite woody to me, such as when we crouch down to hide behind cover with Hugo or simply when we run. Nonsense in comparison to the rest, which, however, are out of tune and which the eye cannot help but look at, just like when there is a broken pixel in the screen.
Continuing on the path of excellence, just like done with Vampyr, the publisher Focus Home Interactive hires the composer again Olivier Derivere (already famous for several compositions in the videogame field) which, together with other great names in instrumental music, composes the soundtrack of A Plague Tale: Innocence. Thus was born a sound sector capable of giving even more depth to the story, with tones that perfectly underline the emotions of the characters by describing the drama of some situations without the need for dialogue.
In the midst of the disease: to go on in spite of everything
I know what you are thinking "This is the usual narrative game where the story eats the gameplay!" It is something that I thought too, but the more I went on the more I became convinced of the opposite. The more I continued along the 17 chapters that make up the game, the more the gameplay expanded, transforming even those situations that I had perfectly learned to manage into something more.
The game starts out almost like a walking simulator, nice to look at but much less to play. All that the first chapters require is the exploration of the locations and escape from one side to the other hiding in the tall grass to avoid being seen by the guards who can be distracted by Amicia's slingshot. In many phases of the game there will in fact be shiny objects that can be hit with stones to attract the attention of the guards elsewhere. Simple stealth steps in which to protect little Hugo who is often left to wait in the tall grass to free the area from enemies. But be careful, because getting too far away from the child means leaving him alone in the face of fear, which will trigger the screams of the little one and will call the opponents on you.
Once I mastered these stealth phases, which does not take long, I thought I had done everything and instead, in addition to hiding, the second main mechanic of the game arrived: the survival from the plague. In fact, in many areas of the game, in order to survive, you have to overcome colonies of angry and plagued mice that devour everything around them. To do this, I had to find a way to "turn on the light" each time, passing from the torch, to the brazier, to the burning of a haystack up to real rotating lanterns. These beams of light can be used to guide the ravenous hordes of rodents in certain directions to clear the path or use them as a weapon against the guards.
One possible cure: Unexpected gameplay
Well, at this point I thought I had seen everything and instead the game amazed me still continuing to add variety to situations without ever straying too far from the two central mechanics: escape the guards and survive the plague. Little by little the enigmas arrived, simple environmental puzzles, but which often required the cooperation of the other companions, each with his own specific ability such as the possibility of pick the locks with Melie or Rodric's strength to break down doors and guards.
Furthermore, if initially the Amicia's slingshot plays an almost marginal role, later it will become a true all-round tool capable of providing various advantages thanks to the aid of alchemy. Over the course of the game Amicia will unlock gods special bullets that will impact on the way of experiencing different gameplay situations. Some bullets will be used to ignite the fire from a distance, others will cause the guards to fall asleep and still others will itch so that the enemies with the helmet take it off and expose themselves to the lethal stones of the sling. There will also be some capable of luring ravenous rats to the point of impact, think what it means for a guard to get one in the face… Argh!
In this way, a situation that in the first chapters I was used to dealing with only in a certain way in the following chapters has acquired facets, variety and strategy. By letting me choose the best way to tackle a certain portion of gameplay, going from total stealth to slingshot massacre. To manufacture bullets, however, different materials such as wire, alcohol and various powders are needed. In fact, there are also some crafting phases, not too developed, but which thanks to some workbenches scattered throughout the game will allow you to enhance the sling and the bags of objects that Amicia always carries with her.
To crown it all also the collection of the inevitable collectibles that here are divided into interesting Curiosity on the time and on the methods of spreading the plague, in flowers that Hugo will put in his Herbarium and Doni, which instead speak of the past of some characters.
Final comment
The story of the De Rune is fascinating, full of mysteries and secrets, just like the world that frames it. Asobo Studio has created a "light" action adventure that, despite some small technical flaws and slightly repetitive gameplay, recalls Uncharted level titles with always varied situations and more lively environments than ever. A Plague Tale: Innocence is almost as passionate as a TV series and leads to falling in love with its well-defined characters and the splendid darkness of its world. At this point I just have to say hello to you as a traveler and thank you for having listened to my words. If you choose to discover the history of the De Rune I am sure you will not be dissatisfied with what I have told you.
