Being underpowered is a core principle of horror game design. There are exceptions, such as the elite S.T.A.R.S. unit from Resident Evil, but most iconic survival horror games star regular people who can only barely deal with the terrors surrounding them. Not only does this approach make every enemy encounter a resource-intensive matter of life or death, but it also brings players a little closer to the character on the other side of the screen.
At the same time, power fantasies are a huge part of what makes gaming such an addictive medium, and you can only keep players cowering in fear for so long before they start to get frustrated and want to fight back. That’s why I was so interested in Asobo Studios’ Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, an action-heavy prequel/spin-off to the studio’s previous medieval stealth horror duology.
Starring Sophia, a young smuggler who was first introduced in A Plague Tale: Requiem, Resonance tells a (more-or-less) standalone yarn about the secrets contained in a mysterious island connected to Greek mythology. Of course, the biggest difference here is the fact that Sophia is an accomplished duelist, with her swashbuckling skills turning this into a much more aggressive experience than the previous Plague Tale games.
In Resonance, we accompany Sophia (voiced and motion-captured by Anna Demetriou) from her days as a young child being experimented on in a convent all the way to her young adulthood as a fledgling member of a clan of treasure-hunting plunderers. Haunted by visions of a mysterious island in the Mediterranean containing untold riches and indescribable horrors, Sophia’s abilities inspire costly expeditions to the place that seems to have inspired the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur. When an unexpected betrayal leads to Sophia and her partner Leni being forced to explore the island for themselves, the duo discovers that whatever eldritch horror lurks beneath the ruined kingdom of Minos is much scarier than a mere bull-headed creature.
The narrative experience here is just as in-depth as it is in the previous Plague Tale games, with the main difference being that Sophia is a much more badass protagonist than Amicia. Her backstory as a roguish treasure hunter with a fondness for blades turns Resonance into more of a historical thriller in line with Tomb Raider or even the Brendan Fraser Mummy movies rather than the medieval Survival Horror of previous games.
The Mediterranean setting and dual timelines introduced by Sophia’s connection to Theseus (not to mention the excellent soundtrack) also provide the title with a completely different atmosphere despite also taking place in the Middle Ages.
In practice, these changes mean that you’ll spend the majority of your time traversing huge, and often beautifully rendered, Mediterranean environments through over-the-top climbing and jumping while occasionally solving Indiana Jones-style puzzles. Of course, the meat of the experience is the completely revamped combat system that plays out like a simplified yet more fluid version of the recent Assassin’s Creed games.
It’s only much later in the experience that the game introduces its surprisingly robust horror elements in the form of the Minotaur stealth and chase sequences. Re-imagined as a serpentine growth lurking deep in the tunnels beneath the island, this seemingly unkillable entity only retreats when confronted with sunlight and is responsible for some of the most harrowing moments in the game – even if Sophia’s medieval parkour and surprising resistance to scripted fall damage make her a little too badass for these scenes to feel scary.
In fact, there are plenty of exaggerated elements here that distance the title from the more somber world presented to us in the previous Plague Tale games. From the larger-than-life architecture of the island to the trope-heavy side characters that feel more in line with Dungeons & Dragons than a historical recreation, Resonance could very easily have wound up as a juvenile mess were it not for the story’s solid emotional foundation.
Sophia’s loss of her father and subsequent abandonment issues are genuinely touching, and the tragic relationship between this incarnation of Theseus and the so-called Bull of Minos is an unexpected highlight of the experience. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say that the thematic connections to previous Plague Tale titles are really appreciated even if they’ll be lost on newcomers.
Unfortunately, those same narrative connections also hinder Resonance’s main draw as a standalone spin-off. There’s some vital information missing here that you need in order to fully appreciate the game’s story, but you’ll only know everything if you’re already familiar with the rest of the franchise. In the days of easily accessible wikis and walkthroughs, this isn’t exactly a deal breaker, but I would have appreciated it if the story could have fulfilled its promise of standing completely on its own.
In terms of gameplay, my only real gripe with the experience is the fact that the title overstays its welcome by a solid couple of hours or so. The final sections of the game may still be thrilling, but they’re also needlessly repetitive when you consider that the campaign is aiming towards the brief yet memorable set-pieces of the last few Tomb Raider games rather than the drawn-out exploration of something like The Witcher.
At the end of the day, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is a thrilling journey through another time and place that replaces its predecessors’ reliance on pure horror with a more cinematic sense of adventure. This approach doesn’t always feel like an improvement, though the Lovecraftian reimagining of the Minotaur ended up being my favorite part of the experience. But when the stars align and Resonance combines gorgeous visuals with smooth gameplay, it’s hard to imagine that this high-octane period piece was produced by the same folks who used to helm the Microsoft Flight Simulator games.
That being said, I highly recommend studying up on previous entries in the Plague Tale series before heading in, as, like Sophia herself, there’s a lot more to Resonance than initially meets the eye.
Review code provided by publisher. Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy launches on the Xbox Series, Day One with Xbox Game Pass, as well as PlayStation 5 and Steam on August 27.
