A Plague Tale: Requiem

I've enjoyed the first Plague Tale game, it wasn't a perfect game but it had a pretty interesting story and the gameplay at times showed promise. A Plague Tale: Requiem continues the story of Innocence except it goes for a much darker tone.

The game keeps some of the same basics with its stealth oriented gameplay (and many of the same items too) but expands it with more options to deal with enemy soldiers and rats. That hasn't changed much but I felt that the situations are much more complex and require a lot of actions to be successful, even if there is more valid options the game is just much harder. In this aspect I felt the game greatly improves, the level design is a lot more thought of and can be brilliant at times as even if you have many options none of them are really that obvious and lots of trial and error is required. The game also introduces some Uncharted-like sections where you have to run away from hordes of rats or just some really cinematic stunts, this helps with the variation of the game as you aren't always doing the same stuff.

The story here I think is still the main draw, the game actually starts off slow and a little boring (compared to Innocence with its brilliant chapter 1) and it takes a while to get going as actions and items are re-introduced as if Amicia forgot what she did the previous year. But once it gets going it can get pretty intense. It's really grim, dark, horrific and really channels total desperation at times. The facial animations of Hugo are really well done too as the kid goes through all the emotions in this adventure and all of them are displayed well.. the game can tell a lot with those even if it's so dialogue heavy. As you progress it just gets more brutal and brutal and really is heart-breaking at times. Really good writing here, and I think it's worth experiencing.

The first game remains an essential piece to play to get into this one, you will need to know the events of the first game in order to understand what happens here. I would otherwise recommend to start right away with this superior one, but they really are connected and won't be experienced optimally if not played together. I think the devs gained some experience after the first game and knew the elements that needed improvement and did just that. It remains very similar but just really better, and I think that's what most should hope to aim for their sequels. Worth playing yeah, the lore and stories in these 2 games is top notch and not so many can match them.