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A Plague Tale Innocence - Review tread

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
aplaguetale-innocence1.jpg


PC reviews: Metacritic
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Windows Central: 4,5/5
While there are some minor flaws with A Plague Tale: Innocence, the game as a whole is still absolutely fantastic, offering players a gripping narrative, a compelling mix of stealth and puzzle gameplay, and gorgeous audio/visuals. This is, without a doubt, one of the best games of 2019 so far, and I can't recommend it enough.


WccfTech: 8,8/10
A Plague Tale: Innocence is definitely among the gaming surprises of 2019, exceeding expectations in the best possible ways. With its gripping tale, charming characters and solid gameplay mechanics, the game is a must-have for those who like single-player games with a strong focus on story and character development. Even if the tale does not take in you, A Plague Tale: Innocence still offers a compelling third-person stealth experience that fans of the genre will surely appreciate.


PCGames: 8/10
A Plague Tale: Innocence is a game that dares to be different, and for that I applaud its developer. It’s essentially a point-and-click adventure game that’s been brought up to modern standards to compete with the big titles of today. At times there’s a sense that the team behind it is trying too hard to do this, but there’s no denying the strengths of Amicia and Hugo as the stars – I was really rooting for them the whole way. It’s still very special when a game manages to play with your emotions like that.


GameWatcher: 8/10
The scene of crossing a battlefield, with hundreds of lifeless bodies piled over each other, only to see a swarm of rats bursting out of a horse’s bloated corpse is just one of multiple sights that A Plague Tale: Innocence inevitably etches into your mind. Although its stealth and puzzle mechanics aren’t exactly fresh, having what’s, quite possibly, the most powerful representation of the Black Death in the medium, even if stylized, is reason enough to see Amicia and Hugo’s journey to its end.


Cubed3: 6/10
A Plague Tale: Innocence is a stunningly beautiful, and finely-crafted… ok. It's an ok stealth/action-adventure, with ok characters and drama, and oceans of rats that add an ok survival horror vibe to it. Certainly a fun title, but not exactly a big recommendation.


PS4 reviews: Metacritic
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Screenrant: 5/5
It successfully combines horror, action, survival, combat and story in a way that so few games do in this modern age. A Plague Tale: Innocence is also a reminder that the world still needs single-player story-based games, especially those that are as wonderfully beautiful and heartfelt as this one.


DarkStation: 4,5/5
The way the narrative and gameplay fit together to make Amicia and Hugo’s journey both compelling and emotional is an impressive accomplishment that put A Plague Tale up there with the best of them. If you are in the market for a somber, story-driven game, I cannot recommend A Plague Tale enough.


Playstation Universe: 9/10
With its well designed stealth mechanics, unique setting, captivating story and stifling, often terrifying atmospherics, in Innocence: A Plague Tale, Asobo Studio might well have crafted the best and most pure horror title of the year.


Shacknews: 7/10
Asobo Studio certainly knows how to make a cinematic experience. With that said, A Plague Tale: Innocence is dark, dangerous, and just a little bit dull. Players who enjoy a story-focused adventure with approachable gameplay are likely to be thrilled watching the tale of Amicia and Hugo unfold, but other gamers may find that the action simply can't keep up with the story. It's worth following the De Rune family's escapades through to their natural conclusion, but players who are used to more active engagement in games may struggle with tedious stealth sections and a fair amount of heavy handed storytelling.


PushSquare: 6/10
A Plague Tale: Innocence deserves respect for daring to be different, funnelling you through a bleak European backdrop that’s seldom seen. Despite some neat ideas, though, the stealth and puzzle mechanics drag, and the story can’t quite make up its mind about what it wants to be. Furthermore, while the presentation is spectacular, the project lacks polish in key areas and overstays its welcome at times.


XboxOne reviews: Metacritic
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TheXboxHub: 4,5/5
A Plague Tale: Innocence delivers a brilliant story, innovative mechanics and truly immersive gameplay. Yes, the whole dying and repeating exercise occasionally borders on the the fine line of annoyance. But when you consider the visuals, the audio and the experience as a whole, I would highly recommend this journey into the past.


Gamespew: 8/10
I previewed A Plague Tale: Innocence back in March, declaring after only a couple of hours that it may well be Game of the Year material. I don’t regret saying that. It isn’t perfect, but A Plague Tale: Innocence‘s combination of gripping storytelling, excellent characterisation and varied gameplay, all tied together in a package with outstanding audiovisual design, makes for an experience you won’t forget in a hurry.


God is A geek: 8/10
A compelling plot, grounded characters who aren't instant heroes, crafting and upgrades without arbitrary levelling and some beautiful environments to solve your way around,


Gamespot: 8/10
A Plague Tale: Innocence is grim, dark, and constantly provocative, and yet, it effortlessly manages to remain emotionally radiant throughout. This isn’t just another survival game, it’s a tale that consistently and articulately interlaces beauty with brutality to excellent effect. Whilst the gameplay could have benefited from a bit more depth, the overall journey is mechanically well balanced, and to its credit, unlike anything else. This, is a must have.


SlantMagazine: 3/5
Given how believable this plague-ravaged world is, it’s unfortunate that his story falls short of its technical accomplishments.
 
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Kadayi

Banned
Is this a 3 hour game like Hellblade? I want to try this game but at 50€ it's a bit too much.

No ACG said it clocked in for him at 13 hours, which probably translates as more for most other people (I'm probably deffo double that because I'm a cautious exploratory type of gamer)



TLDW? He said it's a buy if you like that sort of thing and also the game looks freaking gorgeous and runs really nicely (which I can confirm having bought it on PC).
 
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scalman

Member
12-15 hrs so devs say . theres will be no side quest or open world exploring , so for that its not short i would say

Aurélie Belzanne, Asobo’s Communications Manager, jumped in to let everyone know that the developers think it would take people between 12 and 15 hours to complete the main story. Along with that, the team explained that the game is focused on its story, and as such there are no side quests and only a single ending.
 

sublimit

Banned
I'm totally fine with it not being open world and having pointless side quests. Looks like a solid,polished experience with a clear focus on release date something that is very rare nowdays. I will get it once it drops a bit in price.
 

The Alien

Banned
Game looks interesting.

Only a rumor....but Asobo was a rumored XBox Studio acquisition. We'll find out in a few weeks, I suppose.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
After finishing the first Act I must say that this game for sure has potential to be the second best game for me this year after RE2 Remake, it made a surprisingly positive first impression on me. Also, if you're paying 60 for RAGE 2 (which is nothing more that a boring first person Just Cause) instead of supporting A Plague Tale which is more unique and doesn't have BS modern day AAA monetisation practices and fuckin' content road maps, something is seriously wrong with you.
 
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VALCON 82

Member
Can anyone speak to the implementation of HDR on consoles? Does it even have HDR? I watched ACG review but don't remember him commenting on it.
 

Flyinmunky

Member
Finished this in 3 sittings. Fantastic game. Used French voice acting which was top notch. Excellent Graphics through entire game.

I'd give it a 8.5/10. Only thing i would have liked is more variety in enemies and gameplay. Game is easy as they come but i dont think making it more difficult would have added more enjoyment to it for me.

Hoping company continues the story and expands its team
 
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The Snake

Member
I discovered this game yesterday and it has me really intrigued but I'm not 100% sure it's a $50 buy for me. What do you guys think? Should I wait? I haven't even played Sekiro yet D:
 

MB1

Banned
I discovered this game yesterday and it has me really intrigued but I'm not 100% sure it's a $50 buy for me. What do you guys think? Should I wait? I haven't even played Sekiro yet D:
Watch out for sales, amazon had it for $10 off right after it came out.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Well, I can safely say at this point that it is the second best game of this year after RE2 Remake and one of the best single player narrative games I've played for the past 5-6 years or so. There's just no way in hell that something else will beat these two games for me this year and certainly not that we know of so far. Hell, what a game, and I'm proud that I have an opportunity to play and experience it the way it is and without modern AAA BS.

Also, I won't be looking at Focus Home Interactive and Asobo Studios as I've looked at them before through the prism of euro-junk-mediocrity, not anymore. They're just made a game that... well, quite frankly, simply no one in AAA market (besides maybe Sony) can make cuz they don't have the fuckin' balls to do it.

giphy.gif
 

The Snake

Member
Well, I can safely say at this point that it is the second best game of this year after RE2 Remake and one of the best single player narrative games I've played for the past 5-6 years or so. There's just no way in hell that something else will beat these two games for me this year and certainly not that we know of so far. Hell, what a game, and I'm proud that I have an opportunity to play and experience it the way it is and without modern AAA BS.

Also, I won't be looking at Focus Home Interactive and Asobo Studios as I've looked at them before through the prism of euro-junk-mediocrity, not anymore. They're just made a game that... well, quite frankly, simply no one in AAA market (besides maybe Sony) can make cuz they don't have the fuckin' balls to do it.

giphy.gif

I was gonna say, this type of game really deserves the sales. But like I said, there's other stuff on my backlog at a similar price...
 

CyberPanda

Banned
Well, I can safely say at this point that it is the second best game of this year after RE2 Remake and one of the best single player narrative games I've played for the past 5-6 years or so. There's just no way in hell that something else will beat these two games for me this year and certainly not that we know of so far. Hell, what a game, and I'm proud that I have an opportunity to play and experience it the way it is and without modern AAA BS.

Also, I won't be looking at Focus Home Interactive and Asobo Studios as I've looked at them before through the prism of euro-junk-mediocrity, not anymore. They're just made a game that... well, quite frankly, simply no one in AAA market (besides maybe Sony) can make cuz they don't have the fuckin' balls to do it.

giphy.gif
I believe they are a fairly new studio no? Pretty impressive if that is the case.
 
Finished game in two sittings. I liked it very much. Cool story and visuals.
I didn't like the upgrade system. I never really cared about upgrading stuff. I would do it whenever i could. But never noticed the benefits.
There's an awful lot of combat. It's like tomb raider 2013. First time you kill someone it's "oh my god, i killed a guy. so sorry". Five minutes later you're a mass murderer.

English dub isn't good. I prefer the french VAs. It's a shame i have to rely on subtitles to understand most of what they are saying.
 
I like this game a lot,the story, the characters,the interaction between brother and sister cause they are just kids,the damn rats are creepy,for me this is right now one of the best games that I've played this year
 
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MB1

Banned
I'm so happy that this game is getting so much praise. It's great for the industry and us when smaller studios produce a great game.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
I believe they are a fairly new studio no? Pretty impressive if that is the case.
Their roots going back to 2002 and they've made the first game in 2003. There's really nothing mind-blowing when you look at what they did before A Plage Tale. So yeah, it is pretty impressive to put it lightly. All of this kinda reminds of Rocksteady, which developed just one "okay game" (Urban Chaos: Riot Response) in the past, so no one believed in them and that they can deliver something amazing and which eventually will turn them into... well, ya know, look at them now :D

All they (Asobo and Focus) need to do now is to invest into mo-cap to make facial expressions / animations and lip-sync by the modern standards, everything else is pretty much perfect.
 
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CyberPanda

Banned
Their roots going back to 2002 and they've made the first game in 2003. There's really nothing mind-blowing when you look at what they did before A Plage Tale. So yeah, it is pretty impressive to put it lightly. All of this kinda reminds of Rocksteady, which developed just one "okay game" (Urban Chaos: Riot Response) in the past, so no one believed in them and that they can deliver something amazing and which eventually will turn them into... well, ya know, look at them now :D

All they need to do now (and Focus MUST help them with this) is to invest into mo-cap to make facial expressions / animations and lip-sync by the modern standards, everything else is pretty much perfect.
Thanks for the reply. I’m glad they made a story focused game, we need more of those these days. A lot of games are getting very generic as of late, and are very much the same.
 
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Terenty

Member
I really dont understand the almost unanimous praise the game is getting. The gameplay is basic and brain dead and the story has been rather cliche so far. What's so great about it?
 

Kadayi

Banned
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CyberPanda

Banned
Interesting write up at gaming bolt regarding the games engine tech: -


The engine was actually developed in house rather bought in which it is pretty interesting and impressive given the lighting system and how it looks. Albeit it isn't an open world I'd love to see the fidelity of this sort of engine tech in an RPG tbh.
The game does look good, especially on high end rigs.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Just finished the game. I must say that gameplay and combat starting to wear thin closer to chapter XI (but there'll be one surprise gameplay-wise closer to the end), not to mention that there's one puzzle section in the castle which got used two times in one playthrough and yeah, the second time its a bit different and more intense but still... Also, some checkpoints in the game (especialy in the late game) started to get in my nerves cuz you need to redo some anoying stuff more times than 2 and you don't know what devs want you to do exactly sometimes.

Overall, it is a very good game, just gameplay-wise there's just very few interesting ideas and combat is not very good, but all of this doesn't really matter cuz everything else is outstanding. But I get that some people may not like gameplay and combat in this game and maybe won't finish it.

PS. If someone here will decide to stick with the game till the end - stay with the game, guys, cuz after the end credits start rolling, there's one more chapter waiting for ya and it's very short :)
 
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Humdinger

Member


I'll have to give this another look. I had dismissed it, because the clips of rats and stealth just didn't seem interesting to me. However, this video makes it clear that the game is actually a linear character-driven adventure with excellent graphics, atmosphere, and environments. I didn't realize that. I'm interested in those types of games, and the historical setting is unique. I'll have to check it out when I have time. My only gripe is that rats get a bad rap already, and the game turns them into blood thirsty villains. Oh well, I'll get over it, lol
 

Geki-D

Banned
Looks decent. Too bad it's a cinematic third person action game, and as we know from multiple threads on GAF about other cinematic third person action games, people absolutely hate them.
 

Kadayi

Banned
I'll have to give this another look. I had dismissed it, because the clips of rats and stealth just didn't seem interesting to me. However, this video makes it clear that the game is actually a linear character-driven adventure with excellent graphics, atmosphere, and environments. I didn't realize that. I'm interested in those types of games, and the historical setting is unique. I'll have to check it out when I have time. My only gripe is that rats get a bad rap already, and the game turns them into blood thirsty villains. Oh well, I'll get over it, lol

I've been playing it today (I think I'm about halfway through) and I'm having a lot of fun with it. It's beautiful looking, have some really nice puzzle parts and for the most part, it's fairly forgiving and the checkpointing is decent. I' ve only really hit one part when I got a bit frustrated getting past 6 guards in a grove which was easy to mess up beyond that it has been really enjoyable. I'm about 7 hours in but I know I'm missing a few secrets etc, so I can easily see me replaying a fair few chapters to uncover the rest.
 

levyjl1988

Banned
Just finished the game. I must say that gameplay and combat starting to wear thin closer to chapter XI (but there'll be one surprise gameplay-wise closer to the end), not to mention that there's one puzzle section in the castle which got used two times in one playthrough and yeah, the second time its a bit different and more intense but still... Also, some checkpoints in the game (especialy in the late game) started to get in my nerves cuz you need to redo some anoying stuff more times than 2 and you don't know what devs want you to do exactly sometimes.

Overall, it is a very good game, just gameplay-wise there's just very few interesting ideas and combat is not very good, but all of this doesn't really matter cuz everything else is outstanding. But I get that some people may not like gameplay and combat in this game and maybe won't finish it.

PS. If someone here will decide to stick with the game till the end - stay with the game, guys, cuz after the end credits start rolling, there's one more chapter waiting for ya and it's very short :)

Is there a gallery mode in the extras? I saw a press unboxing and it featured an art book. It was limited to x number of copies. I'm wondering if that art is in game in the extras menu.
 

Kadayi

Banned
Is there a gallery mode in the extras? I saw a press unboxing and it featured an art book. It was limited to x number of copies. I'm wondering if that art is in game in the extras menu.

Not in the game (on Steam at least). There are collectables and extras in the game, but no unlocked artworks I'm afraid.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Is there a gallery mode in the extras? I saw a press unboxing and it featured an art book. It was limited to x number of copies. I'm wondering if that art is in game in the extras menu.
Nope, there's no art gallery or something like that in Extras. I would've bought an art book in no time, but something tells me that there wont be one for sale.

Looks decent. Too bad it's a cinematic third person action game
It is not an action game at all, it's a story-driven adventure (not like Myst or 90s adventure games) game with stealth and puzzle elements.

and as we know from multiple threads on GAF about other cinematic third person action games, people absolutely hate them.
No offence but... these people either dumb or don't know how to aprriciate good things and especially now with all these GaaS games full of microtransactions BS, pay to win mechanics, loot boxes and absolutely nothing interesting when it comes to story, characters, world building etc.
 
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