A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019)

A plague Tale es una propuesta interesante, que cuenta una historia diferente y una puesta en escena chula. El juego es divertido, al menos durante las primeras horas. A partir de cierto punto el juego parece alargarse innecesariamente. De hecho, me ha dado la sensación la historia estaba a punto de acabar en varias ocasiones a lo largo de la playthrough.

Mientras que la historia que cuenta da para explayarse, a partir de cierto parece que repites la misma misión todo el rato en escenarios distintos. Es posible que sea el bucle jugable de sigilo que se hace pesado: puzzles y sigilo. Mientras que estoy cómodo con lo primero, lo segundo se me hace bola. Quizá haya jugado demasiados juegos de sigilo y uno se harta de la misma mecánica.

Y es que es literalmente eso: la misma mecánica, en todos los juegos. Te dan más o menos herramientas para distraer, aturdir o en ocasiones derribar a un enemigo; pero el core de la mecánica en cuanto a ir lento y agachado, esperando a que cruce el NPC de un lado a otro me resulta tedioso.

En general he disfrutado la mayor parte del título y a pesar de que se me ha hecho bola a partir de cierto punto, le sumo puntos por prsentar una entrega algo diferente a lo que estoy acostumbrado.

It does a good job of matching Sony's "movie game" output with some stunning visual effects and atmospheric environments. It's fun to get through it, despite the mechanics becoming a bit of a nuisance at times, when you know that you get through and just want to see more spaces and continue the story.

The story falls pretty hard for me on the last few hours, spending time with charismatic characters knowing the world gets replaced with very forced, very unconvincing "stakes rising" that make the setting feel small and clearly set up every dramatic moment to make you hurt, but I was just annoyed. The final bossfight is pathetic, and it feels like the more things are resolved and the more we find out, the less enjoyable it becomes. We'll see if this also happens with the sequel.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a game that I would describe as being an experience more than just a regular game. It is a linear experience and the gameplay/story is pretty much set as-is, but none of that matters because it's absolutely fantastic. Loved this game and I look forward to playing the sequel. This didn't feel like a game, it felt like a movie.

There are puzzles and the core of this game is based around stealth and survival, with almost no hands-on combat. You use a sling and use it at a distance. Stakes are very high in this game and you have to avoid guards and rat hordes at all turns.

Very worth it to play this game in my opinion.

I almost gave this 4 stars because the last chapters is so frustrating and at odds with the rest of the game. Thematically, it's absolutely brilliant, but functionally I wanted to throw my controller at the developers.

However, the rest of the game is nearly perfect. I love the pacing, the pendulum swings from full-on tense, nail biting stress, to peaceful rest and warm moments. The story is engaging throughout, with characters that grow, both in themselves and grow on the player. The setting is fantastic, grounded in reality but with an obvious supernatural take on a historical era and event that takes a tiny bit of the sting out of how horrific it is. Even the length is spot-on, not over staying it's welcome but feeling finished and complete by the time I needed it to.

Honestly can't wait to check out Requiem, though I may just go for the platinum in Innocence because I liked it so much.

Remember when you could rent games? For those too young or too old to remember, there was a time when you could go into an establishment and rent a physical copy of a game. Sometimes, if you were renting far enough years--I'm thinking the early to mid nineties--you very little information to go on while making your decision to rent one game over the other.

Often it was little more than the front and back cover of the game's box. With your difficult choice made, you giddily take the game home and upon plugging the cartridge in or recklessly throwing the disc into the drive you await the title screen, still high on the possibility space of the game. Oftentimes the game would boot up and it wasn't quite what you wanted or expected. Sometimes the game would boot up and it was an excellent surprise, a real diamond in the rough. I would call this game, an 'Excellent Weekend Rental'. This is all to say that while Xbox GP has replaced my local video store, if I had rented this game in the traditional sense, A Plague Tale: Innocence would have easily won that praise.

So, what makes a game an 'Excellent Weekend Rental'. To me a game has to exhibit three qualities. Firstly, you experience a sense of surprise during your first hour or so of play because the game you took a chance on is actually pretty darn good. As an addition to this point, the game, while very good or great, is not stellar. Secondly, the game is a reasonable length, that if dropped into the hands of a video game hungry teen with little responsibilities could be completed in two or three solid gaming sessions over a few days--the proverbial 'weekend'. Thirdly, the game is something that you very much enjoyed your time with but have no reason to play it again and by extension would have felt sore paying full price for.

If your sold on this caliber of game, you'll likely enjoy it further if you're into linear dark and morally gray stories that alternate between stealthy parts and light combat arenas. This game was a joyful surprise and I hope you find some joy in it too.

This had so many great moments. The horror and grossness of the environment and the tension within the chapters was great. The story was interesting and I'm excited to see where they take it for a sequel.

All that aside, there was very little game here. Yeah, there was some stealth mechanics and that was fine, but after a while, I just grew tired of it and basically Lara Croft'd my way through levels taking out anything that stood in my path. There was no consequences to brutally killing anyone or anything.

In the end, I played to get to the end of the story, and was content with my time, not taking extra time to go back for collectables or Steam achievements.

I enjoyed my time, but wish there was something more to be said for the way that the world interacts with you for killing/sparing guards and the like.

I'm excited for the sequel, and will eventually get it to see where this tale goes.

~David.

I played this game on PS5 after it was a part of the PS Plus lineup. I think it falls a step above an interactive visual novel. The gameplay is not too complicated, but enough is introduced as you progress that it never feels redundant or stale. Where the game truly shines is its incredible story. Also, I would recommend playing on PS5 if you can just for the haptic vibrations.

While I wont go into grand detail, what I loved most about the unfolding of the story was that I felt the same way the characters did in the world. In the opening level, I enjoyed the beautiful walks through the French forests and had no idea how the game would progress to the scene found on the title screen. My biggest fears then became the inquisition, and believed their threats on my life to be the biggest enemy. I expected a tale of siblings fleeing through the country that just happened to be set during the plague. Just a few levels later, I encountered the rats, but believed they would only be a nuisance in my continued fight for Hugo's life and flight from the Inquisition. Slowly, I became disgusted with the entire world in which I found myself. The rats sounded horrible, looked gross, (and on PS5 there pitter pattering was a relentless nuisance) and I trusted almost no one. While I had a lot of fun playing the levels, I truly wanted to get through them to the safety of a cutscene or the castle. Once Hugo's powers were fully realized, I continued to play the game mainly how I had played before, other than guiding them to enemies at times. It was only when I made a mistake ,things got hairy, and I had to recklessly sprint away that I realized the rats would no longer attack me. The game had done such a good job interweaving the story-telling, gameplay, and emotional impact that I was just as slow to adjust to the reality of the rats as Hugo's compatriots. The fight with Vicaris was the first time in the game where you had no option but to fight an enemy, and I feel like this distinction made the fight truly feel more like a final boss. The fight was not difficult, but it did go one pattern beyond what I expected.

While I doubt I will return to the game to replay or 100% it, I loved the experience from start to finish. This game benefitted greatly from my recent resolution to go into most games as blind as possible, and I recommend you give it a shot if you have not yet.

Utterly disgusted that this uses the exact same themes as Pathologic 2, came out in the same year, revolves around the most standard storyline structure and dialogue, and somehow managed to win an award for Best Narrative of the Year in three different awards shows.

And when I mean standard I seriously mean every sense of the word, let's hear it for our #1 companions:

• Budget stealth mechanics
• Upgrade mechanics that add very little to anything
• Uncharted gift style items to get as you play
• Walking sim that spends too much time making you go through fake loading screens

I probably wouldn't be so frustrated if the story wasn't so asinine in its construction, you have a family who gets killed with a sister who doesn't get to see her brother often at all immediately come together with melodrama sprinkled throughout with writing so borderline on bad that I really rolled my eyes a few times.

The one positive I can give to the game at all is the aesthetic. It LOOKS pretty I guess???? The dialogue delivery is really strung awfully, and the poor lipsyncing doesn't help.

Man just go play Pathologic 2 why the fuck would you touch this. (5/10)