This review contains spoilers
I still have a lot of problems with this series from a story perspective, a puzzle/gameplay perspective, even a tone perspective. But, despite being lukewarm on some things still, especially in those mentioned departments, A Plague Tale: Requiem finds a better groove and improves enough over the first that I'm kinda curious where they go from here with the game.
The rat pack is back, on a bigger adventure than before. All your favorites are back. Even some of the not so favorites (looking at you and you only, Hugo). New friends join in on the adventure as well, why? Because family. Are these Toretto ancestors? I digress.
The new characters are......okay. They aren't well developed sadly but from a game play perspective, they do bring individual things to the table. More importantly, they help remove Hugo from the group from time to time. Arnoud, a knight with hinted at loss for instance will directly attack enemies if you request him to. Or he'll defend you if you all get caught. It does bring some changes to how you approach enemy areas, and once again, they remove Hugo from the game and prevent him from being as annoying as he was in the first.
The tone, while still not the best, works better in this sequel as well. The insane rat stuff that ramps up in the first game to near-comical levels by the end is still there in spades but since that's an already established thing now, the rules of this universe don't feel as harsh. Is it absurd? Absolutely. Do the rules they setup make sense in the world they've created though? For the most part, kinda like Fast and the Furious.
Because this is established from the get go this time around, some of the established set pieces that take place are very impressive and insane to play through. Not to the level of flying a luxury car through two skyscrapers, but speeding on the back of a horse wagon with a flamethrower on the back, setting fire to the horde of rats that are chasing you down is still dumb and really friggin cool.
The story is also a very mixed bag, much like the first. There are some touching moments and some great visual storytelling flairs, but it takes a while to get going and be remotely interesting. It also is wayy too long with a lot of stretched out events near the end that really weigh things down.
The end was a bit surprising as well, I did not think they would actually go the way they went with it and it does intrigue me to see where things go if they eventually make this a full trilogy.
Fueled by the set pieces, never turning your back on family, less Hugo, and some nice additional tools and mechanics to the gameplay, A Plague Tale: Requiem is an improvement, one I was hoping to see bigger improvement in, but an improvement nonetheless. If you liked the first, this one might be your thing, depending on how the story hits you I suppose, but if you were really down on the first game, I'm not sure if this sequel does enough to recommend giving it another chance.
The rat pack is back, on a bigger adventure than before. All your favorites are back. Even some of the not so favorites (looking at you and you only, Hugo). New friends join in on the adventure as well, why? Because family. Are these Toretto ancestors? I digress.
The new characters are......okay. They aren't well developed sadly but from a game play perspective, they do bring individual things to the table. More importantly, they help remove Hugo from the group from time to time. Arnoud, a knight with hinted at loss for instance will directly attack enemies if you request him to. Or he'll defend you if you all get caught. It does bring some changes to how you approach enemy areas, and once again, they remove Hugo from the game and prevent him from being as annoying as he was in the first.
The tone, while still not the best, works better in this sequel as well. The insane rat stuff that ramps up in the first game to near-comical levels by the end is still there in spades but since that's an already established thing now, the rules of this universe don't feel as harsh. Is it absurd? Absolutely. Do the rules they setup make sense in the world they've created though? For the most part, kinda like Fast and the Furious.
Because this is established from the get go this time around, some of the established set pieces that take place are very impressive and insane to play through. Not to the level of flying a luxury car through two skyscrapers, but speeding on the back of a horse wagon with a flamethrower on the back, setting fire to the horde of rats that are chasing you down is still dumb and really friggin cool.
The story is also a very mixed bag, much like the first. There are some touching moments and some great visual storytelling flairs, but it takes a while to get going and be remotely interesting. It also is wayy too long with a lot of stretched out events near the end that really weigh things down.
The end was a bit surprising as well, I did not think they would actually go the way they went with it and it does intrigue me to see where things go if they eventually make this a full trilogy.
Fueled by the set pieces, never turning your back on family, less Hugo, and some nice additional tools and mechanics to the gameplay, A Plague Tale: Requiem is an improvement, one I was hoping to see bigger improvement in, but an improvement nonetheless. If you liked the first, this one might be your thing, depending on how the story hits you I suppose, but if you were really down on the first game, I'm not sure if this sequel does enough to recommend giving it another chance.