A Plague Tale: Requiem Review

I haven't played the first Plague Tale since around the time it came out so memories of it are very hazey and I recall liking the game at the time in spite of that so I am going into this sequel with not so much of a strong attachment towards the first game. So what do I think of it?

The game is a solid sequel to the first overall, the gameplay is more improved regarding the stealth. The AI has detection arrows and as it slows fills up, the higher chance of you getting detected by the enemy is. It is a similar system to the first game and many modern games that attempt stealth use this system as well as using tall grass to hide from patroling enemies, it works decently enough despite how heavily derivative it is but I do feel what makes this game stand out from others like it and the first game is how this time around you will be dealing with swarming rats as well as patroling enemies. Thanks to this, enemy encounters have much more of an interesting puzzle like feel to them of trying to avoid swarming rats from eating you, avoiding enemies who can kill you when spotted as well as resource management where you have to chose between avoiding rats, making sure guards don't hear or see you but it doesn't end there, you can manipulate the rats the to kill enemies for you. Whenever these sections happen, it feels tense but not too frustrating since the checkpoints are forgiving. I am glad not every encounter is this since it can start to get overwhemling plus I doubt the developers can consistently have these sections without major issues, so the game breaks it up with more generic avoid the guards sections, enviromental puzzles, walking sections, cover based shooting, isolated parts where you avoid rats, some of these sequences get a new character with temoprary new abilites to spice things up and scripted sequences to keep things varied enough without it wearing thin because this is a long game, and a whole game dedicated to avoiding guards and rats can get tiresome. I will admit, the pacing after you get off La Cuna isn't as strong since it's just combat and setpieces which is a little too one note for me. Combat is just dull cover shooting with some occasional enemies you can't kill from the front, and the running setpieces I was never a fan of since it all it requires you to do is hold the analog stick in once direction and run, there are some interesting parts like timing your sprints to avoid getting killed by rat swarms and an interesting section where it combines gameplay and story but I think the game should've ended after getting off La Cuna. While I also commend the stealth gameplay, it does suffer from the issue many stealth based games have in that when you get caught you might as well reload from last save since getting caught and dealing with it is rarely fun in these kinds of games.

Story is also pretty solid overall, the new characters like Sofia and Arnuad are pretty good even though it takes a while for the story to get going. That and there is a certain moment in the game I knew was going to happen since I am so familar with media, one thing I did not like about it was how it had a sad ending just for the game to sequelbait at the end. For a narrative driven game, I will say the story kept my attention overall.

Overall, Plague Tale Requiem is a solid sequel to a game I have vague memories of, it does everything a good sequel should do, and if another game does get made, I hope they change up the stealth and add a darkness system of some kind.