A Plague Tale: Requiem is a great example of what a sequel should be. It’s similar to its predecessor, but bigger and better in almost every way. Asobo Studio has come very close to something very special with his 2019 A Plague Tale: Innocence, and his PS5 sequel will make that potential a reality. For fans, the rat-infested follow-up is a must-see.
Expanding on the events of the first game, this direct sequel has an even better story with lots of new characters to meet and places to visit. Its combat and stealth mechanics have been greatly improved, and it’s not an instant game over if you’re spotted. The amount of rats on screen during certain sequences is frankly ridiculous, and is matched by the stunning visuals and scenery, making it a great game to watch no matter how grotesque it may be.
But there’s a touch of familiarity, with brothers Amicia and Hugo returning with their mother and sidekick Lucas to join the De Rune family’s campaign to explore the macular curse and its history. He dreams of a cure hidden somewhere in the forest, but the only person willing to listen is his sister. So the pair decided to take matters into their own hands, in search of an elusive remedy.
What follows is a 20+ hour long cinematic campaign that elegantly interweaves gameplay with cutscenes and dialogue. Taking a leaf out of Naughty Dog’s playbook once again, it’s a game about what’s going on just like when you’re not pressing any buttons. Every sequence is delicately crafted.
That’s what Asobo Studio does best, and A Plague Tale: Requiem sees the French team reach new heights. The story is engaging all the way through, and new characters solidify themselves with either fun personalities or hidden motives.
However, someone always wants to stop Amicia and Hugo’s antics, so while both stealth and combat are as viable as the rest, traversal has been updated with new ways to get around the environment. A crossbow that’s part of her arsenal, as well as different ways to use her slings, gives Amicia more to fight. She can counter enemy attacks and even stab and kill enemies if she has a knife in her inventory. She can also use her one of Hugo’s new powers to better control hordes of rats.
Larger combat arenas are good for going between attacking and retreating, killing enemies and then retreating to cover or blocking your view with tall grass. Amicia is fit for purpose on both fronts this time around, so there’s no need to reload checkpoints when spotted. You’ll still fall into that trap from time to time, but the sequel does a much better job of allowing you to approach encounters the way you want. Well, they’re fairly few, but enough to dampen the fun a bit.
However, those are just footnotes to a game with so many highs. A Plague Tale: Requiem doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it remains high quality. Sandwiched between puzzle-solving and resource-gathering, the blend of stealth and action makes for an incredibly fun loop. With the plot always at the forefront, you rarely find yourself doing one thing for too long.
They may be ugly, but the rats themselves should probably be considered another star of the show. Asobo Studio says its technology can display up to 300,000 rats on TV at once, and these final chapters prove the developers right. Impressive content.
Just as admirable is their commitment to supporting the PS5 DualSense controller, which uses haptic feedback whenever a rat is nearby. It looks like you can actually feel it running around in the pad. Additionally, the chase sequence feels extremely intense as the rumble feature and adaptive triggers kick into overdrive as a guard leg. A Plague Tale: Requiem shows how effective these features can be when implemented correctly.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for gaming performance. It’s even very difficult to figure out what frame rate the game is targeting. It’s common for action-heavy scenes to have choppy or drastic frame rate drops, and it’s impossible to get around them without a graphics option to speak of. After applying the day one patch, general gameplay seems to hover around 30 frames per second. Of course, the title is well playable from start to finish—the slow cinematic sequences are especially nice—but those who are into his locked-in 60 fps action won’t be satisfied.
Far more worrying, however, is that the more egregious framerate drops appear to be directly related to the game itself completely crashing. sometimes crashed. Returning to the system’s home screen and reloading the checkpoint fixes the problem, but it still needs fixing. is seldom interrupted.
Conclusion
At its best, A Plague Tale: Requiem is one of the best narrative-focused experiences ever on PS5. Technical limitations can get in the way at times, but improved stealth and combat mechanics make this a very balanced game that excels in almost every way. It exploded the potential of the studio. Requiem perfectly realized that.
