A Plague Tale: Innocence — Game Review
It’s the 14th century. The black plague is ravaging across Europe and the rest of the world. A family with a special heritage attempts to flee the plague and the English inquisitors in medieval France. It’s an adventure of survival and trying to discover the truth of her brother’s condition and an attempt to discover its cure.
World-Building
This story specifically takes place in 1348 during the hundred year war. The environment of the game is quite realistic. The adventure of the story takes place through the natural environment and the old classic French architecture in the midst of the fighting and plague. The English soldiers are prevalent in the entirety of the story alongside an increase in the number of rats emerging. There is a decent balance between evading and fighting the English as well as trying to navigate and avoiding the cannibalistic and disease-ridden rats. There are a few fantasy elements towards the second half of the game.
Characters
The main character is Amicia. She is the oldest child of a noble family. She is an expert is using a crossbow and goes on regular hunting trips with her father. Her younger brother is Hugo, who suffers from an unknown but progressing medical condition. There is something unique about his blood. He has some mental attacks every now and then, which their mother is trying to fix.
As the family tries to escape the inquisitors, they eventually come across Lucas, the apprentice of an alchemist who was responsible for Hugo. As they’re travelling, the thieving siblings Arthur and Melie are introduced. These five characters make up the bulk of the adventure of the video game.
Story
I have briefly covered this in the previous sections. After the massacre of the residence of the family’s estate, Hugo and Amicia must escape to avoid capture and also to locate the physician to alleviate Hugo’s condition. This eventually leads them to the respective location, where it is implied Hugo is suffering from an unnatural condition. However, the physician is currently sick and so the bulk of the work is performed by his apprentice, Lucas.
The trio then travel around 14th century France to destroy Hugo’s disease and survive the English occupation of their country.
Until certain revelations are revealed…
Critique
This was a really good adventurous game. It’s a mild version of a typical action-adventure game I have previously played such as Uncharted or Lara Croft. The fantasy elements of this 2019 game (even though I thought it was a 2020 game) were quite minimal. The hyper-hunger of Rats towards human flesh, similar to scrabs (from The Mummy), might have been slightly exaggerated.
The gameplay was slightly funky, but not too much of an issue. When the weapon wheel is opened, the background should be paused to allow the player to efficiently pick out the specific tool he wants. However, since there are no such pauses, there is a bit of a difficulty in choosing the right weapon during combat. Since the enemies can kill you in one shot, this feature would have been quite useful.
As a whole, it was a great story and worth coming back to later!
Summary
In brief:
- It takes place in 14th century France.
- It’s in the midst of the plague and the hundred year war.
- The central character is Amicia.
- Its story revolves around her brother, Hugo.
- Its main story is to find a cure for his (Hugo’s) condition.
- Significant secondary characters include Lucas, Arthur and Melie.
- The game is largely realistic with some fantasy elements introduced later on.
- The gameplay was slightly funky.
- Overall, it was quite enjoyable.
Afterwords
This is a game which I will recommend to those interested in adventurous and largely realistic tales. I had a fun experience and I liked the characters and the journey of the story. To the creators, I will say this: Keep up the great work!
Disclaimer
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