A Plague Tale: Requiem - Windows

I went into Requiem right after finishing Innocence, which is probably the best way to set yourself up for just how much heavier this game gets. Asobo Studio took a cult-hit stealth-adventure built around two kids outrunning rats and the Inquisition, and turned the volume up on every dimension: bigger environments, a harder emotional gut-punch, and a rat swarm so massive it stops being scary and starts being awe-inspiring in the worst possible way. The core loop will feel familiar if you played the first game. You play as Amicia, sling in hand, picking your way through 14th-century southern France while escorting her younger brother Hugo, whose blood disease draws the attention of everyone awful in the world. Where Requiem earns its keep is in how it expands Amicia's toolkit. She now carries a crossbow alongside the sling, can stab enemies with a knife in close quarters, and can craft alchemical compounds to fill throwable pots, opening up more tactical options in stealth and combat. Hugo, meanwhile, has developed the ability to manipulate the rat swarms, which the game deploys in a handful of genuinely unsettling sequences. The stealth itself adds small but meaningful improvements, including hiding prone under tables and last-second rock distractions to break enemy sight lines right before they spot you. Here is where the honest accounting starts. The gameplay loop is fundamentally linear, and it does not apologize for that. Some players will find the balance between stealth sections and combat scenarios frustrating rather than tense, particularly in later chapters where enemy waves pile on with fog and special mechanics that can feel less designed and more punishing. The camera occasionally fights you in tight spaces, and some stretches lean so hard on the cinematic that agency quietly evaporates. The PC version at launch had performance rough patches that have been largely addressed through patches, but it was not a smooth ride out of the gate. There is also the honest caveat that Requiem assumes you remember Innocence, and while it includes a recap, the emotional weight of the story lands harder if you have the first game under your belt. What Asobo does exceptionally well is character. The relationship between Amicia and Hugo carries enough texture that even the most formulaic stealth corridor feels loaded with stakes. New companions Arnaud and Sophia add moral weight without overstaying their welcome. The visual direction is genuinely exceptional, with the rat-tide set pieces sitting in their own category of grotesque spectacle. And Olivier Deriviere's score ties the whole thing together in a way that few action-adventure soundtracks bother to. The game earned five nominations at The Game Awards 2022, including Game of the Year, which gives you a rough calibration of how the broader conversation landed at launch. Buy this if you want a story-first action-adventure with real emotional stakes and do not mind the game making most of the structural decisions for you. Skip it if you want open-world freedom or deep mechanical variety, and do not walk in without playing Innocence first.

Alex · Scout Team

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