Contraindications

• No multiplayer or co-op components announced
• Pretty linear construction of the levels

A Plague Tale – Innocence: In the spin cycle

With the weapons of a young girl: Amicia has a slingshot, with which she brings light sources from the walls to drive out rats. And then there are torches, with which she can protect herself from the nasty rodents. In Fighting as with Knight Conrad, she has to dodge the blows of the opponent and use the slingshot to hit the right places of the well-equipped counterpart to finally eliminate him.
She can also throw stones and pots to distract witch hunters and then sneak past. In the fourth and final section of the demo “The Apprentice” Amicia learns alchemistically and produces, for example, accelerators. Otherwise, the juvenile duo only escape. It is also necessary to solve smaller Combination and pusher puzzles and tinker at the workbenches upgrades for sling or backpack. And Amicia collects curiosities like Oppa’s pipe in the codex. All these are common game content, weapons and stealth elements, no big surprises. But the game creates a credible atmosphere. If the two children flee through a medieval city, then the tension is more than tangible. If Amicia sacrifices a sweet domestic pig to the rats, it is terrible and compassionate. The reproach of the naive Hugo – “You killed the pig. You are not better than the others “- weighs even heavier.

In general, the opposites of childlike innocence and the adult-made, terrible world are a defining element of the game that takes the player on an emotional roller coaster ride. It was enormously captivating over the entire season of the presentation. It is to be hoped that “A Plague Tale – Innocence” will keep the tension across all 17 chapters. The curiosity about the rest is huge anyway.
Here’s how the editorial team rearranged the game last year: France in 1349: The plague raging in Europe and depopulating entire lands, Inquisition soldiers commit atrocities in the name of God, and hordes of hungry rats fall on humans. Not good time for 14-year-old Amicia and her little brother Hugo to roam the land alone, with a cruel death waiting for the two orphans at each corner. During a presentation in Paris, the editorial team reviewed a lengthy section of the atmospheric, dense mystery-medieval adventure.

Clever puzzle design

In the game scene shown, the siblings – together with another orphan – to cross a battlefield and find a way between the corpse mountains. This alone is a traumatic experience for the children, but when the body of a dead horse swells before their eyes and masses of rats swell, the horror is written in their faces – and COMPUTER BILD GAMES. Fortunately, the greedy rodents shy away from the light, in the light of a fire the little squad is safe for the time being. But staying in one place is not an option, and swords are useless against the red-eyed rat breed. Accordingly, the trio uses sources of light in the environment to progress gradually, piece by piece.

Already in this section is the clever puzzle design of the French developer Asobo Studio, which does not rely on violence, but on cooperation and strategic approach in problem-solving. For example, Amicia can run ahead and hold the rats at bay for a while with a torch, while Hugo operates a war machine with which he fires a ball of fire at the critters. However, Amicia should not leave her little brother alone for too long, otherwise, he reacts panicky and dumbles after her – even if the rats lurk on the direct path to the sister. Super: The solutions of the puzzles require from the player a close observation of the environment and combination power, but are always intuitive to master.

Light and shadow

Another deadly danger is threatened by soldiers who use lanterns to keep rats away and look for survivors. Discover the orphans, there is no mercy, and the adventure comes to a quick end. But even a heavily armored knight can be mastered with the right tactic: With her slingshot, Amicia destroys the lifesaving light of the opponents, and immediately the rats plunge themselves on the tragedy. Only a skeleton remains in armor after seconds. In “A Plague Tale – Innocence” tactically clever play rats and soldiers against each other: stay in the shade when the Inquisition approaches – and seek the light when the unsavory rodents come closer and closer. Although Amicia is a strong female character, no superheroine. There are only modest means at her disposal, such as making a sling or sulfur fire. As the game progresses, other helpful tools will be added that provide more strategic diversity.

Release Date “A Plague Tale – Innocence”: May 14, 2019, for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. 

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