A Plague Tale: Requiem

A Plague Tale: Requiem is an effective sequel that builds on the foundation of its predecessor to offer a bigger experience, with more elaborate set pieces. Despite the increase in scale, however, the game’s strength still relies on its oppressive atmosphere, which is now successfully linked to the protagonist’s internal journey.

Amicia and her little brother, Hugo, are in the county of Provence, researching his sickness, the so-called “Macula” that connects him with the rat plague. The first minutes are light-hearted, as the siblings play hide-and-seek with their friend Lucas, and Hugo pretends to be a king protecting his kingdom. They want to restart their lives in a new place, free of rats and cruel soldiers, but it doesn’t take long for things to take a turn for the worse, making them suspect there is no running away from their problems.

In these first hours, we get a chance to witness Amicia’s relationship with her brother in peaceful times: how she is always indulging his imagination, playing along with his childish fantasies. When he spots some large tools being sold in the market, for example, he exclaims about how giant they are and is corrected by the vendor, who says that the tools are not really that big, it’s Hugo who is tiny. Amicia, then, immediately corrects the vendor, stating that they are indeed tools fit for giants.

This was a big theme in the first game: Amicia’s struggle to preserve Hugo’s innocence – or, more specifically what is left of it. After all, they had to walk on top of a sea of butchered bodies, witness people being eaten alive by rats, and even send those same rats toward other people, causing their gruesome deaths. It’s telling, then, that when they arrive at a city untouched by plague and war, Hugo remarks how odd it is to see people smiling: his world has now become one of death and violence.

The events of the previous game have left a mark on Amicia, too. She’s now angry and aggressive, quickly justifying the killing of soldiers and sometimes even yearning for these deaths. There’s one early scene when she loses control of herself and goes on a killing spree, shouting her defiance while ignoring Lucas’ pleas for her to stop. Later, when they’re in jail, he remarks, “This world hurts, and it keeps hurting, and you want to hurt it back.”

A Plague Tale: Requiem presents a nihilist world, where people can’t be trusted, for they are brutal, self-centered, and cruel – and they must be these things if they want to survive. Allies are only temporary and even those who intend to help end up causing destruction instead. When the plague reaches Provence, for example, the solution is not just a lockdown, but a purge of the affected districts: the indiscriminate murder of people, under the belief – or fear – that everyone is infected.

The change in Amicia’s personality is a reflection of this oppressive atmosphere. Her journey is one of hate and violence, as she starts to enjoy the act of killing soldiers: “I don’t feel terrible, and that’s what scares me,” Amicia confesses one time. In other words, Amicia doesn’t offer the best example for her brother, as her actions go directly against her desire to preserve his childish demeanor.

It’s no wonder that Hugo starts to want to kill as well, as his big sister – his role model in life – acts like a brutal sociopath. As the story progresses and the need to keep Hugo’s mood in check grows – for his anger worsens the outbreak –, Amicia’s actions become increasingly more dangerous, creating a cycle of violence: the plague turns people cruel, who turn Amicia cruel, leading to the aggravation of the plague.

The climax correctly tackles this issue, confronting Amicia with the consequences of her actions, leaving her broken and shattered with the realization of what is left for her to do. Unfortunately, a post-credits scene basically ruins the whole moment, backpedaling on the narrative choices made, making Plague Tale: Requiem end in a frustrating whimper.

Mechanically, the game is a natural evolution of its predecessor. Innocence was all about managing light sources to deal with pockets of rats – the creatures avoid light… like the plague –, using torches and, later, some bombs we learned how to craft. These things return, but now we have more interactions with our companions as well: we can throw objects to them, like a wooden stick, so they can arm themselves against the creatures if they’re near a bonfire, for example.

Puzzles usually involve sending these companions to pull and hold a lever at a specific place while we use Amicia’s all-purpose slingshot to hit something they have just activated. Some of these temporary partners even have abilities of their own, such as a soldier who can take out enemies with his sword or a pirate who can use her pocket mirror to reflect light against the rats. It’s a fitting mechanic for a game about the cruelty of people, as it forces Amicia to rely on them nonetheless.

Here, the plague increases in scale, too – to the despair of mid-range PCs, which are going to struggle a lot when the rats are onscreen –, sometimes becoming more of a set piece than a puzzle. If, in Innocence, they erupted from the ground in numbers capable of overwhelming any person, now they swarm cities, destroying buildings and tearing down everything in their path. In one effective scene, they come crashing down the streets like living waves, and Amicia must run to safety – to Hugo – while we watch towers being toppled down in the background, and the rats overtaking the city.

The stealth sections, meanwhile, are improved from the last game, offering Amicia much more freedom in how to tackle situations. Here, we can distract guards with objects, use the environment to dispatch them, or even ignore stealth entirely and embrace Amicia’s murderous side – and we can also change styles on the fly, if for example we are discovered by soldiers or realize we are going to be overrun by them. And the game rewards us with passive skills that match the approach used: if we are successful in being sneaky and avoiding enemies, Amicia’s movement speed while crouched will increase.

A Plague Tale: Requiem is a safe, but competent sequel that improves much of its predecessor’s shortcomings and offers a memorable story about hate and despair – even if the post-credits scene tries to undo most of the work done.

December 23, 2023.