In Plague Tale: Requiem, we tried the highly anticipated game Asobo again.

Despite the fact that there was no shortage of valuable items at home just before the end of 2022, A Plague Tale: Requiem rightfully managed to earn a place among the most anticipated. On the other hand, in recent years Asobo Studio They have undoubtedly showcased their talent, and many fans of the French house believe that the Requiem can represent this leap of quality that could reflect on the Olympus of the best teams in circulation.

Our first test in A Plague Tale: Requiem had us wholeheartedly embrace this hypothesis: While the episode we tested was fairly basic in terms of gameplay, it actually managed to leave us speechless with a dreadful quality technical sector. the graphic realism of the maps, the excellent gameplay, and the overall solidity of the experience (but without the strong moments and significant challenges). But now, the release date is approaching, and with it comes the opportunity to face a much more in-depth test. The effect of this new experiment? It’s always remarkable, but this time around, some unexpected cracks appeared in Asobo’s beautiful work, giving rise to doubts in the review that needed to be addressed immediately.

Let’s see which ones in ours A Plague Tale: Trying Requiem.

Pied Piper is a beginner

The chapters we got were the sixth and seventh, and in all probability central parts of the main campaignWe will try to remain vague about the plot to avoid spoilers. All there is to know is that in the first of the two episodes we tried, Amicia and Hugo are still on the run, and the young woman isn’t exactly in good shape: injured and in pain, she finds herself having to take care of her. in a younger sister area. This time it was overrun not by rats, but by a group of guards who were ordered to destroy on sight.

Nothing particularly strange or striking has happened so far, as in the first phase of this level we mostly used the game mechanics offered by the previous game, still some news has been seen. Amicia is much more lethal and aggressive In A Plague Tale: Requiem and easily remove guards with a well-placed crossbow bolt or a rear blade; however (understandably) the game doesn’t offer many offensive tools during progression, and it doesn’t even let you stack them given the limits of the inventory (it can only be expanded on certain workbenches, provided you have the necessary materials). For this reason, there is often a tendency to avoid enemies by sneaking around and attracting their attention with easier-to-find tools such as stones.

Amicia, as an alchemist, obviously has much more. gadget to get rid of those who seek it: shells and incendiary ships, smoke bombs that can put out fires and turn off light sources, and even a slime that blocks movement for a limited time. However, the usefulness of such objects is often directly proportional to the amount of mice in a level, and their absence in the first half of the episode forced us to use a much more focused strategy. hiddennot to perish.

But at a certain point the map changed and we found ourselves – after a series of events that we will not detail – not only dealing with the usual sea of ​​mice, but also Hugo’s “illness” to use them in our favor. The child in this section actually has the ability to control the little ones. rodent flocks A power that also allows him to kill enemy guards in series for a limited time. Not only that, thanks to the animals’ ability to detect prey’s blood, Hugo is also a sort of “instinct mode” shows the guards’ movements through the walls.

Usually a skill like this can be greatly abused in stealth games, but A Plague Tale: Requiem increases its number significantly. guards and initially limiting the ability of heroes to eliminate them, introducing it with great cunning not to overestimate it as a useful ability. Honestly, it remains to be seen whether this administration will continue even in the advanced levels, which are full of enemies to us, but also full of options to get rid of them.

Instead, the management of “rat property” is more cautious: Hugo, strength too long or you risk losing control; also, mice are positioned so that they are not always easily approached, the child can only move them if they are at a short distance from them. The challenge is therefore to reach places that do not allow this power to be abused because they are well defined. However, it will be interesting to see how Amicia’s little sister’s abilities are used later in the adventure.

problems

At the stages described above, the game has always seemed to us very solid and well thought out: the level design takes into account imbalances as mentioned, and the powers introduced add variety to a non-trivial system. Towards the end of chapter six and in the next chapter, we ran into several stages that made us turn our noses, and showed that Asobo still has some steps to take in approaching this stage. game design.

We found the first shaky moment with the appearance of some kind of boss at the end of the episode: a huge armored guard.extremely limited artificial intelligence (it’s almost impossible to get hit if you constantly move around the arena you’re facing), but become vulnerable when stunned by fire and hit from a specific weak spot in the back. This is a clumsy battle where if you run out of resources (they are regenerated in chests if you waste them) the immersion ends completely and our opponent’s poor mobility virtually eliminates any tension, even prompting us to poke around. They fool for a few minutes in hopes of seeing any change in behavior.

These AI problems got worse when we had a problem in the next chapter. meaty helper, can eliminate the guards thrown in front of them. After all, our protection turned out to be completely invincible in direct one-on-one combat and can only be eliminated if surrounded by enemies; so we used a very simple and silly trick to make sure we turned the whole map upside down without any problems: after throwing a troop, we prevented any nearby enemies from attacking it using the map. striking counter attacks Available on Amicia; Normally it’s not possible to use them in explosions, but if enemies’ attention is focused on someone else, they won’t react to stuns and can be constantly stunned as our protector skewers them.

As you can well understand from what has been said, there are obvious deficiencies in the artificial intelligence of the game, and these are not the only missteps. cancel the challenge, but they spoil the overall immersion. It’s a real disgrace in a game that, with its settings, impeccable art direction, and overall detail, can fade many of the strongest triple-A productions in circulation, and stun us graphically. If nothing else, outside of the “battle” stages, the level seemed once again well thought through and enriched with a new object derived from a crystal that can temporarily attract mice and present new environmental puzzles. It wouldn’t surprise us if it wasn’t for the last jewel Amicia had in her hand during her epic life with her brother.