You’re never more than ten feet away from a rat. This is a well known aphorism about city life. God I wish the rats in A Plague Tale Innocence were ten feet away. Instead they’re clustering around, seemingly mere inches from my character. I can hear their chittering and squeaking as they wait for my meagre torch to go out. I could move out of the shadows to the safety of a brazier, but then I’d be seen by the guard. Instead I time my movement wrong, step too close to the swarm and as the music swells, I am devoured by clambering rats in a verminous maelstrom of teeth and claws. A Plague Tale Innocence is wonderfully unpleasant and exhilaratingly tense.
Published by Focus Home Interactive, and developed by Asobo Studios, A Plague Tale Innocence is a third person action stealth game set during the 14th century as plagues ravage the Kingdom of France. Amicia De Rune and her brother Hugo seek shelter and safety as the Inquisition hunts them down.
A Plague Tale Innocence is a stealth game built around family, light and darkness, as well as a very handy knowledge of alchemy and a sling to assist the characters. And there are rats. Many many rats.
The gameplay design works as such. Amicia and her sling, usually in addition to a companion, enter an arena.
This arena will be composed of several elements. There’ll normally be light sources, patrolling guards, some rats swarming, and extra resources for crafting specialist ammunition.
From there, it’s up to the player to work out how to get to the other side of the arena.
Usually this means working out how to use different light sources to get past rat swarms and distracting enemies so they can be safely avoided or eliminated. The game is incredibly generous with both resources and checkpoints. It also has a habit of making sure to point out key features of the arena to the player. In game chatter from Amicia or Hugo will often point to a solution if the player seems stuck as well. The difficulty isn’t exactly high. The core difference in each arena is finding new ways to use the same gadgets/ammo to solve different problems.
The challenge is primarily in working out the right order, and the most efficient way, to pass through the area. Being loud and violent usually costs more resources, sneaky and pacifistic less.
It’s the kind of stealth game I prefer, disguising a puzzle about finding the correct order of operations.
This gameplay pattern is broken up by action sequences where characters run from immediate danger, the occasional boss fight and exploration for additional hidden collectibles and crafting materials for upgrades. One of my favourite of these is the collection of a unique flower in each chapter. Finding a flower hidden in the level will see Hugo describe the plant and gently place it in Amicia’s hair. It sit’s right in the centre of the camera. A lovely character moment that also has a tangible reminder of your effort for the rest of the chapter.
These character moments are the key to A Plagues Tale Innocence being successful. The relationship between Hugo and Amicia is a very believable one, with each character being fleshed out through their actions and dialogue in gameplay.
Amicia De Rune is a delight. She’s introduced to the player as a competent, active hunter with a real skill with a sling. She’s not infallible, being a teenage noble girl in medieval France, but she’s not an idealistic or naive as Hugo. The challenge is in walking that tightrope between child and adult. The writing team do an excellent job of presenting that balance for her.
Hugo is the archetypal innocent cherub child. Born sickly and thus kept isolated by his mother, he is a naive babe. While this could easily get irritating and frustrating for the player, the execution is almost always adorable. A sequence in the game has the De Runes follow a roman water transport system. Hugo calls it an “Ackyduck”. My heart melted. It helps that Hugo is almost always polite and helpful when asked to help. Even the expected childlike moments of frustration feel earned by the narrative. His voice acting being sweet without drifting into saccharine helps with this as well.
Between the two of them, they comprise the titular innocence. It’s not exactly a subtle theme. But watching them grow and develop as innocence is lost throughout the game is genuinely endearing.
As the game continues, more and more secondary characters are added to the party. To the credit of the game, solid voice acting and some entertainingly on point dialogue makes up for some slight stumbling in the English voice overs.
By comparison the majority of people of Plague Tale are passively cruel. In times of plague, trust goes out the window. They have no compunction against committing awful acts like torturing strangers to their town or capturing children for a ransom. They act selfishly and are driven by fear. Fear of the plague, fear of death, fear of what will come.
The rats are something else entirely.
First is the noise. A constant, unending wall of sound. Endless susurration as claws skitter across cobbles, chewing and shrieking as bodies are devoured. The sound is everpresent. Behind the background music, behind the speech of characters or the sting of audio cues. A constant reminder of the threat.
Then you see their eyes. Glowing red beads. Hundreds of them. Peering out of the darkness. The rats hate fire, so they swarm around it, filling the black void of light.
That’s when you notice the shifting mass of rat flesh. It slips and shudders, bodies clambering over each other in a desperate attempt to move towards food or away from the light. Picking out individual creatures is difficult as they slither around each other. It’s less a group of solid objects, more an undulating liquid carpet.
Kept at Bay by the light of a torch or flame, the rats seethe and probe. Keeping the pressure up and waiting for the player to stray just outside the light. They encircle Amicia and Hugo, pressuring them and forcing the player to look out into a sea of vermin to find the next safe harbour as a burning twig dwindles to embers.
The rats of a plague tale are a core part of this unnatural world, a constant obstacle and threat. They are hideous and horrifying in equal measure.
As a technological feat, they are impressive. As a gameplay feature, they are repulsive and threatening. So A Plague Tale Innocence is divided then. On one side, kindly and good natured people banding together in an attempt to survive the end of their world. On the other, the natural disaster that is the plague plus the accompanying rats and the terrible forces of the Inquisition.
It paints a terrible picture of a world slowly falling apart as everyone tries to keep a hold of what they can.
The world itself deserves sincere applause as well. There may be a few issues with stiff animations. But the models and textures that make up the Kingdom of France are incredible. It’s wonderful watching the chapters change from cobbled, plague addled villages to rain soaked farmyard to a churned battleground filled with corpses and siege weapons. This is all before even mentioning the lighting.
When your core gameplay mechanic is built around flames and light is darkness, you better hope your lighting effects look good. Thankfully, they’re fantastic here. Colours wash out in the harsh continental midday sun, God rays pierce through branches and dapple the ground in light. Torches cast a flickering field around their bearer, before vanishing into inky darkness when the torch is extinguished.
If the world is a grotesque Bosch painting filled with horrors, then the characters themselves are some stunningly realised oil portraits.
Amicia in particular has a stellar design. Hair styled back safely, with a hint of colour in ribbons. A patterned noble lady’s tunic to start. That is overlaid with sturdy leather protective gear. Then a hint of heroic armour in a plate couter on her elbow. A face that’s not idealised and instead has scars and pockmarks, as well as constantly broken nose. As a description of character through design, it’s a real standout.
In fact, the whole game feels as detailed and well realised as each single character.
It’s a game where the love and care for the whole presentation is on display, and very much worthy of enjoying.