A touching adventure

A Plague Tale: Innocence

Rated M for Mature

(Xbox One,PS4,PC)

“A Plague Tale” tells not only a touching story, but also creates a can’t-miss adventure game.

The game’s visuals, for a smaller studio are extremely well done. Everything from the characters’ facial expressions conveying emotions to textures on objects, they all are top notch. The game does a great job creating a dark and tense atmosphere that many games strive for.

The music lends a perfect tone to the dark things going around the player. The sound effects from the rats themselves to the crackle of the fires ... everything has the realism the game needs.

Another strong point is the voice acting, which for a smaller studio, can defiantly show some of the bigger studios a thing or too.

The game is set in the 14th

Century. It starts with you playing the sister, Amicia, the daughter of a noble family when the Inquisition rips your life apart and raids your house.

You and your brother, Hugo, are left fleeing for your lives. The game looks simply breathtaking when the sun hits the scrubs and reflects. It truly looks fantastic. The game is a mix of adventure, with some stealth elements thrown in.

As you and Hugo try and escape the Inquisition, you journey across towns and countrysides. A legion of rats seems to have come from nowhere. The game is done from a third-person perspective, letting the player take in the entire area around the player. Since you are a child, the player will use stealth for the majority of the time as you can easily be overcome by armed guards.

The player has a nice variety of objects that you can hide behind or in. Barrels, boxes, and plants are just a few that can be used to hide and get out of the sight of enemies.

The enemies themselves have an icon above their heads which goes red when they spot you. Not only are the soldiers trying to find you a major threat, but the brother and sister have to contend with the rats. The rats themselves act like a giant swarm and will attack in a pack to quickly kill you. The rats act like horde, you will see hundreds of little red eyes in an areas.

The only weapon you have at the start of the game is a slingshot. It’s actually refreshing that you aren’t overly powerful, which wouldn’t work with this story. The slingshot is mostly used as a distraction.

Since the soldiers are such a menacing force, the environment will have different things that cab be used as cover to hide from them.

The darkness is your enemy in this game. Any part that has no light can quickly be overwhelmed with hordes of rats making each step a concern. This game does a great job at making each new area a tense experience. The hordes of rats are afraid of the light and can’t travel wherever there is light.

The game allows you to use this to your advantage. If you see a soldier holding a lantern, the player can use a slingshot to destroy the lantern, making the horde of rats destroy him.

The game does have some truly horrific parts, but also some truly heartwarming ones. There are even some puzzles to solve throughout the story. With a nice length, great atmosphere and fantastic story, “A Plague Tale: Innocence” is must buy.