A Plague Tale: Innocence

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a single-player third-person action-adventure game. The events will transport the player to the southwestern part of France, where a brother and sister try to survive in the grim Middle Ages during a plague epidemic.

Fleeing from the contagion, they encounter numerous hordes of rats that themselves travel through disease-ravaged villages, hamlets, and battlefields, devouring everything in their path to satisfy their insatiable hunger. Only the weak glow of a torch flame can protect the heroes from this insatiable and uncontrollable mass.

The world of A Plague Tale: Innocence consists of small locations connected by corridors, but there is a bit of variability in gameplay. While moving, the player must search for key items that advance them further in the story, and with proper attention, they will find collectible items.

The main settings are fields, villages, hamlets, and even cities — and players have appreciated the extremely detailed and authentic design of the world. The open locations are not barren plains, but a lively place, with numerous bushes and trees, where characters push through grass or climb over ruined structures.

In the cities, the player travels through streets with detailed buildings, where life has recently come to a halt, navigates obstacles, and can peek into some houses. In castles, they are greeted by vast rooms filled with a variety of treasures.

The game does not hesitate to show a mountain of dead soldiers during the war, corpses gnawed to the bone, and entrails scattered across the walls. All this appears exactly as much as needed to recreate the right atmosphere.

The events unfold after a major outbreak of plague in France in 1347. In addition to the disease, the Hundred Years' War and the invasion of the English (the main opponents) will also play a role. Additionally, there are Inquisition knights who try to stop the spread of diseases.

A Plague Tale: Innocence presents the story of fifteen-year-old Amicia and her little brother Hugo, who belong to a noble family and own their estate. Right from the start, they are struck by immense grief, and then they are pursued by the Inquisition. In their attempts to understand, they drift further away from home.

Players can expect a dark and emotional story, where the relationship between the brother and sister plays a key role. Amicia must calm her little brother, who can burst into tears; they often argue, reconcile, and then save each other from death. There are clearly defined villains and heroes, but despite the contrast between them, intrigue in the story is still present.

A Plague Tale: Innocence offers two types of enemies that define further gameplay — the Inquisition knights and rats. The knights are simple goons guarding or patrolling a point. Usually, there are few of them, but it's better not to engage them in combat. The rats, on the other hand, swarm in hordes, sometimes turning into a living mass. However, they are afraid of fire.

The gameplay combines a bit of action and a lot of stealth with puzzle elements. There are two types of enemies, and the style of level progression changes with them.

The main character is armed with a sling, can dodge, but if she is unlucky, she dies from a single hit — that's all there is to the action. Equipped with a stone, the sling becomes a formidable but awkward weapon — first, it needs to be spun, and then accurately aimed at the target, so you won't collect many "frags."

Therefore, it is more convenient to move stealthily — studying the timing of enemy movements, "taking out" the most dangerous guards with the sling, and distracting others with noise by throwing stones. Several movement options are implemented depending on the environment — running, crawling, crouching. Sometimes you need to send Hugo through a small hole to open a door or window for Amicia.

As for puzzles, they are most often found in levels with rats. In one situation, you need to properly distribute the fires to lure the rats into a trap, while in another, you'll have to find a way to unlock a door using various mechanisms and switches.

The gameplay of A Plague Tale: Innocence is linear, tied to moving from point "A" to point "B," and is unlikely to captivate a second time. However, the first playthrough will be unforgettable, partly due to the intimate presentation of the story — this is when the camera angle changes depending on the player's actions, allowing you to see the characters' facial expressions and unusual situations.

The gameplay is interesting thanks to the mechanics of crafting items and the projectiles for the sling that are unlocked as you progress. At first, the heroine simply throws stones at enemies, but over time she begins to use other types of attacks — sleep-inducing, directing rats, or throwing "Molotovs."

The game features a peculiar mysticism that caused a panic attack in the Inquisition. Hugo grew up separately from Amicia, as he suffers from primordial evil — the Prima Macula. The sister does not know about this, so the appearance of this creature, developing alongside its master, will be an unpleasant surprise for her.