A fight to survive in Plague-ridden France makes for one of the year’s most captivating games. Bloody Disgusting’s A Plague Tale: Innocence review tells you why it must be played.
The history of Asobo Studio is a unique one. It’s not unfair to meet their latest work, A Plague Tale: Innocence, with skepticism when a quick scan of their development history reveals they’ve oscillated between playing supporting roles on other studio’s projects, like Remedy’s Quantum Break, and adapting movie tie-in games for Disney properties like Ratatouille and Wall-E. The transition from those jobs to a dark, grim, and unforgiving stealth-action game like A Plague Tale doesn’t seem like it would be a safe jump, but that’s part of what makes it so excellent. It’s a great game all on its own, truly one of 2019’s best single-player games. But more than that, it exists as Asobo’s coming-out party. This is a studio ready to make a name for itself.
A Plague Tale: Innocence tells the story of Amicia and Hugo, siblings by birth but virtual strangers by circumstance in 1348 amid the bubonic plague and the reign of The Inquisition. Hugo has lived his life with a mysterious illness to the point that he has almost unceasingly been quarantined and thus hardly knows anyone other than his mother and his doctor. In the early hours of the game, tragic fate brings the children side by side and suddenly Amicia is forced to go from adolescent joys like playing with her dog to the harsh reality of protecting her young and sickly brother on a journey that will test their will.
The story would fall flat without strong lead characters, and luckily Amicia and Hugo are nothing if not strong. The horrors they are met with very quickly in the story and throughout the game’s seventeen chapters are the kind that should rally anyone to their cause simply because they don’t deserve the world they’re given, but Asobo does well to flesh them out beyond that too, even if, like the basic premise, some of their interpersonal dynamics are sometimes too familiar. At its heart, A Plague Tale is a coming-of-age story and even as it can’t escape many of the tropes that come with that territory, it uses them well and does even subvert them at times.
While Amicia and Hugo are sympathetic characters and easy to root for all on their own, the game’s story is aided by the several secondary characters they meet on their journey, almost all of whom are also young children themselves. So few games put kids front and center like that, especially in such a macabre setting, and this makes A Plague Tale stand out in a sea of “bad dad simulators” that are so popular right now. There’s no complicated father figure here to save the kids this time, Amicia and Hugo have to do all their own saving, and the story is better for it.
Though we don’t often think of it as such now, it’s fair to call the times of The Black Death apocalyptic, and this exaggerated version of that era is even more fitting of the descriptor. In such a world, it wouldn’t make sense for the kids to fight back with swords and crossbows. Instead, Hugo is all but totally defenseless, while Amicia is armed only with her slingshot. Over the course of the game, new types of alchemical ammunition are made available due to the game’s blurring of fantasy and history, and much of the game consists of the children walking a tightrope of sneaking through darkness to hide from The Inquisition then scaring the disease-ridden rat swarms away with light.
The game adds new elements at precisely the right pace, with crafting, enemies, and encounters all evolving intuitively and in immensely satisfying ways. Just as you’ve mastered one kind of enemy or one way to circumvent the rat swarms, a new wrinkle is introduced, adding complexity and rewarding players again and again to overcome each obstacle. The stealth works well as the main gameplay component, though some decent boss battles are interspersed too. Asobo credited Naughty Dog as inspiration for their story-driven game and it shows. The game employs some of the same tricks as Sony’s best studio and if you agree imitation is flattery, you’ll find some familiar elements that are nothing but enjoyable.
All of the A Plague Tale’s great story and gameplay bits are aided by the rest of its art and audio too. The actors do an admirable job portraying the characters, solid, if not exactly spectacular. Truly every moment from open to close is full of rich atmosphere due to the game’s visuals, which include excellent lighting and environments that remain grimly enchanting even as you walk among piles of corpses. Composer Olivier Deriviere once again delivers a somberly stunning original soundtrack giving the game the final puzzle piece it needed to complete the picture of one of the year’s most memorable games.
If you don’t know the name Asobo Studio, you will after A Plague Tale. They clearly had a vision for what they wanted this game to be and despite the presumably lower budget than similar games, it rarely feels hamstrung by financial constraints. It’s a game that looks, sounds, and plays great, and is all wrapped up in a story that unfolds irresistibly. For anyone who still longs for single-player games they can just sink their teeth into and enjoy, A Plague Tale should shoot to the top of your list. It’s one of the year’s best games.
A Plague Tale Innocence review code provided by the publisher.
A Plague Tale: Innocence is out May 14 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.