A Plague Tale: Requiem is a wonderful instance of what a sequel needs to be: just like its predecessor, however larger and higher in just about each single manner. Asobo Studio was so near one thing fairly particular with 2019’s A Plague Tale: Innocence, and its PS5 sequel turns that potential into actuality. For followers of narrative-focused titles, the rat-infested follow-up is a must-play.

Expanding on the occasions of the primary recreation, this direct continuation has an excellent higher story, with new characters to satisfy and so many extra locations to go to. Its fight and stealth mechanics are a lot improved, to the purpose the place getting noticed not spells an on the spot recreation over. The quantity of rats on-screen throughout sure sequences is frankly absurd, and matched with gorgeous visuals and vistas, they make for a recreation that is nice to take a look at irrespective of how grotesque it may be.

There’s a welcoming sense of familiarity to go along with it, although, as siblings Amicia and Hugo return alongside their mom and sidekick Lucas for a marketing campaign that explores the De Rune household’s Macula curse and its historical past. Hugo’s having goals of a remedy hidden away someplace on a tropical island, however his sister is the one one keen to hear. As such, the pair decides to take issues into their very own palms looking for the elusive treatment.

What follows is a cinematic marketing campaign simply north of 20 hours in size that elegantly interlaces gameplay with cutscenes and dialogue. Taking a leaf out of the Naughty Dog playbook as soon as extra, it is a recreation simply as a lot about what’s taking place once you’re not urgent buttons as when you’re. Detailed in its design, each interplay feels deliberate; each sequence delicately crafted.

It’s what Asobo Studio does greatest, and A Plague Tale: Requiem sees the French crew attain new heights. The narrative stays gripping all through, and the brand new characters cement themselves with both enjoyable personalities or hidden motives. A implausible journey followers of the unique will instantly groove with.

Someone will all the time need to put a cease to Amicia and Hugo’s antics, although, so traversal has been up to date with new methods to get in regards to the setting whereas stealth and fight each really feel simply as viable as the opposite. With a crossbow a part of her arsenal and extra methods to make use of the sling, Amicia places up way more of a combat. She can counter enemy assaults — even stabbing them to loss of life if she has a knife in her stock — and wield higher management of the rat horde by certainly one of Hugo’s new powers.

The bigger fight arenas lend themselves effectively to shifting between aggression and retreat, killing some enemies after which falling again to cowl or some tall grass to interrupt line of sight. Getting noticed doesn’t suggest you have to reload a checkpoint anymore as Amicia is match for function on each fronts this time. You’ll most likely nonetheless fall into that entice sometimes — to avoid wasting assets as soon as you have discovered a greater route by the realm, for instance — however the sequel does a a lot better job of letting you method encounters the way in which you need. That is aside from the irritating instant-fail stealth sections. Thankfully, they’re pretty few and much between, however there are simply sufficient to place a slight dampener on the enjoyable.

They’re a mere footnote in a recreation with so many highs, nevertheless. While A Plague Tale: Requiem does not reinvent the wheel, what it does stays of a top quality. Its mix of stealth and motion, positioned in between stretches of puzzle-solving and useful resource gathering, is an extremely pleasing loop. With the plot all the time on the forefront, you may hardly ever catch your self doing one factor for too lengthy.

As ugly as they may be, the rats themselves ought to most likely be thought of one other star of the present. There are extra rodents on-screen than Innocence may ever dream of, notably through the late recreation. Asobo Studio stated its tech can put as much as 300,000 rats on a TV set at anyone time, and people concluding chapters show the developer proper. It’s spectacular stuff.

It’s nearly as admirable as its dedication to supporting the PS5 DualSense controller, which does a lot for normal immersion. Haptic suggestions is put to make use of at any time when the rats are close by; it is like you’ll be able to really really feel them scurrying round in your pad. Furthermore, chase sequences really feel a lot extra intense when the rumble options and adaptive triggers kick into overdrive as a guard legs it after you. It’s implausible to see studios proceed to reap the benefits of the controller’s capabilities, with A Plague Tale: Requiem demonstrating simply how efficient these options will be when carried out appropriately.

Unfortunately, the identical cannot be stated of the sport’s efficiency. It’s actually troublesome to work out what body fee the sport is even focusing on. A uneven body fee and important drops throughout action-heavy scenes are frequent, and with none graphical choices to talk of, there is not any escaping them. With the day one patch utilized, normal gameplay appears to hover round 30 frames-per-second, generally extra and different occasions much less because it seems unlocked. Of course, the title is greater than playable from starting to finish — the slower, cinematic sequences are notably gorgeous — however these hooked on locked 60fps motion will not come away glad.

Far extra worrying, although, is how the extra egregious body fee drops look like immediately linked to the sport fully crashing on itself. While it was a uncommon prevalence, gameplay would all of a sudden begin to chug till it got here to a standstill, thus crashing the PS5. Backing out to the system’s dwelling display and reloading a checkpoint treatments the problem, however it’s nonetheless one thing in want of a repair. Fairly sparse these complications are, although, so your funding in narrative stretches and enemy encounters will not be interrupted an excessive amount of.

Conclusion

At its greatest, A Plague Tale: Requiem is likely one of the biggest narrative-focused experiences on PS5 up to now. Technical limitations get in the way in which a number of the time, however with improved stealth and fight mechanics, it is a actually well-rounded recreation that excels at practically every part it does. Innocence demonstrated Asobo Studio’s potential in bursts; Requiem has completely realised it.