A Plague Tale: Innocence

I thoroughly enjoyed A Plague Tale: Innocence from start to finish and cannot fault this title at all. While the gameplay is fluid that is accompanied by excellent graphics and audio, where A Plague Tale – Innocence shines is with its characters and the way it tells their story. So if you’re upset at how Game of Thrones ended and need a story that is told correctly, A Plague Tale – Innocence does that flawlessly.

Asobo Studio brings together a culmination of stunningly beautiful art, hauntingly lovely music, and a wonderfully crafted, heart-wrenching story of a young girl and her brother as they live through the eradication of their family and become targets of the Inquisition during a plague-ridden time period. A Plague Tale: Innocense is not a game you will soon forget or want to pass by.

This interactive story is oppressive, emotional and convincing, containing moments that are as gripping as the better Game of Thrones episodes. A new, surprising highlight on the front of story telling in games.

This isn't just a game, it's an experience, and it tells a powerful and touching story about a group of kids facing the ultimate horror.

Inspired by one of the most unfortunate tragedies of humanity, A Plague Tale: Innocence will captivate, horrify and keep you on the edge of the seat in each of its chapters. A total surprise this year.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a masterpiece wannabe, an exquisite adventure with puzzle and stealth elements which shines with several clever and great ideas. A wonderful tale about blood ties, family, friendship and a relentless disease depicted through hundreds of voracious and unstoppable rats.

A Plague Tale – Innocence is the type of game that comes around rarely in the risk adverse gaming space. Bleak and beautiful it will leave an indelible mark on any gamer willing to enter its rat-infested world.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is an unsettling, nerve-wracking stealth experience in the best way. The relationship between Amicia and Hugo develops naturally and believably, and the horrors of their ordeal is set wonderfully against the backdrop of the 100 Years War and the Inquisition. Aesthetically, the atmosphere of the game is well represented in its level design, audio, and overall presentation in each of its settings. While the character accents are great, the voice acting itself can be hit or miss throughout, and the band of misfit children against the Inquisition and the plague is the most forced point in the game. It’s a title I couldn’t stop playing and could easily be a top sleeper hit of the year.

A Plague Tale: Innocence transforms a hopeless period of human history into an intoxicating drama. Personified as a supernatural torrent of rats, The Black Death bookends a brother and sister's struggle to overcome the impossible, giving players a piece of entertainment that is unforgettable in its emotional resonance.

A Plague Tale: Innocence does not show the side to any blow, allowing itself to be pointed out for a couple of minor defects, unable to affect the final result.

Stealth, puzzles and a good story to tell about two brothers escaping a horrible destiny. That is A Plague Tale: Innocence, and it is a complete surprise.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a great game about a couple of siblings with very different lives, forced to survive in a dangerous world, constantly on the run. Asobo studio manages to tell this dark tale really well, always keeping the player on the edge of the seat, questioning which of the many enemies will get them first.

A Plague Tale: Innocence proves that feisty young women are the new heroes of single player narrative adventures, and Amicia can proudly stand alongside Aloy and Senua. Asobo Studios have knocked it out of the park with a compelling story, superb graphics, and excellent music. Loved it.

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.

A Plague Tale: Innocence left me awestruck. This gothic adventure seemingly came out of nowhere and eviscerated my expectations like rats on flesh. I loved its refreshing approach to difficulty, and the story made me truly care about its characters – and I don’t even like children. Looking for another grim story of survival to tide you over until The Last of Us 2? Lack of zombies aside, A Plague Tale: Innocence is it.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a late-generation gem that shouldn’t be missed by anyone with even a passing interest.

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.

As for the graphical element, it works perfectly.

Aside from the basic gameplay and a few rough edges, A Plague Tale: Innocence tells an incredibly gripping story about a couple of kids in the most grim circumstances imaginable. It nails the horrifying setting with standout visuals and a thick atmosphere that is worth experiencing at least once. If you're looking for the next great story to play through, A Plague Tale is definitely it.

A beautifully designed action-adventure with great characters, believable dialogue and a clever mechanical mix of stealth, puzzles, fighting and teamwork in a surreal ocean of rats.

Though there are cliches in A Plague Tale: Innocence, the believable characters, amazing soundtrack and atmospheric setting make this a very convincing adventure. Especially if you are into singleplayer gaming, you should not miss out on this beauty.

All in all, A Plague Tale: Innocence will leave you empty inside once you finish it, like any good book or movie would, and like any good game should.

A Plague Tale: Innocence balances a good story (set in a dark and interesting time in history) with evolutionary gameplay that gets more complex as the game progresses. Asobo Studio has created a tale of loss and despair where we can also find the light if we fight back and do what’s necessary to survive.

Readers looking for an engaging and dark story, one that isn’t afraid of embracing the harsh realities of the middle ages during its tail end, are encouraged to try A Plague Tale: Innocence.

My time with A Plague Tale: Innocence felt like stumbling across a low-budget, but well-made genre flick in a rental store that was placed in the horror section because it didn’t fit in anywhere else.

A Plague Tale Innocence offers a very good solo narrative adventure set in a realistic medieval setting. In spite of a weak AI from the soldiers and a lot of infiltration, the game has plenty of appeal, from its awesome visuals to its jaw-dropping OST.

A Plague Tale’s linear story is immediately compelling and gripping.

Despite its meandering dialogue and laughable French accents, if you are looking for a rewarding single-player driven campaign, A Plague Tale: Innocence is the game for you.

A title that we sincerely recommend to all those who are looking for a good story, told with the right times and without shortcuts.

A Plague Tale is a narrative adventure whose true protagonists are the rats. It is set in a realistic Middle Age Europe, during the Hundred Year War, and delivers an interesting story, and some well designed puzzles. On the downside, it is short (about 10 hours long) and some mechanics feel repetitive.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a surprisingly good game that is perfectly balanced. The game really impressed us with the way a group of kids is placed in a gruesome, hostile world. It makes us forget about all those rough edges and shallow bad guys.

A touching story told through the darkest hours of european history, supported by great art and music.

There’s a lot lifted from other games in A Plague Tale, but somehow there’s nothing cynical about it. This is a full-hearted reach for the big time of AAA storytelling that succeeds in the most important departments, thanks to its sparkling polish and subtle characterisation. It’s one of a handful of games for which I could tell you the personality traits and motivations of not just the protagonists, but four or five secondary characters. Consider this review a carrier: Asobo Studio is a name that’s going to spread.

A beautiful pseudo-historical tale about family ties in all their forms, with a last act the rats have clearly had a nibble at. But the journey is still worth making. [Issue#163, p.88]

The game is not without its flaws, but with such a measured and considered use of visuals and sound, particularly in tandem with its narration, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a game as unexpected and thus as fascinating as A Plague Tale: Innocence. One can only look on with intrigue as to where Asobo Studio go from here.

With its dense atmosphere, cruel Medieval setting, beautiful France and thousands of hungry rats, this is an adventure you’ll not forget any time soon. It’s just a shame that the puzzle element is very basic.

With a breathtaking atmosphere, an interesting story and a gritty realism applied to the late Medieval period, Asobo Studios offers a strong and memorable experience that overcomes its somewhat repetitive & by-the-numbers gameplay.

An impressively unique stealth adventure which mixes a gothic horror atmosphere with a touching tale of two siblings surviving against the odds.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a grim, gripping, and fantastic adventure. The solid stealth gameplay offers little new, but the unique setting, affecting characters, excellent dialogue, and oppressive atmosphere more than redress that linearity. Add to this a lean design, an emotive score, and a commitment to narrative focus, and A Plague Tale deserves to be heralded as one of 2019's very best adventures.

A Plague Tale: Innocence doesn’t nail everything, but it still manages to pull off the things it absolutely needed to succeed. For every clunky stealth section or awkward animation, there’s a heartfelt interaction between Amicia and Hugo. It’s a story about the inevitable end of all things and how tragedy makes people long for a time before innocence is stripped away. Amicia didn’t ask to become Hugo’s guardian--that’s just the way life panned out. Much as she would like to shield him from the brutality of their circumstances, it’s not possible if they want to survive. Innocence is akin to fire; neither lasts forever and, eventually, every flame fizzles out. However, if we stick with the people we love, it’ll burn for as long as we need it to.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is an outstanding game that not only manages to deliver an impressively constant and tense tone, but also a really gripping story that will have to push through your vermin soaked nightmares to find out what happens next. The incredible performance from the siblings frame the dark world in an extremely engaging way, and while it might not be quite as polished, Plague Tale will almost certainly be spoken about in the same breath as Hellblade.

A Plague Tale: Innocence brings a really good balance between narrative design and game design. The duo, well written, explores a rich universe during 14 to 15 hours of infiltration, puzzzles and tense sequences.

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.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a morbid adventure. The engaging mystery is highlighted by an endearing cast of characters and their ever-growing trust in one another. Combat and puzzles rarely push back, but they make it easier to engage with the memorable narrative. Through it all, the omnipresent scourge of rats leaves a lingering impact as their shrouded forms slowly work their way through the corners of your mind and settle deeply into your bones.

Powerfully ghoulish depictions of the plague and rats aside, Innocence is ultimately an emotive story of resilience against harrowing odds.

On the one hand, A Plague Tale: Innocent tells an intense, and highly interesting story of one of the darkest moments of European history, and the impact that it had on its youngest people. It's evocative, interesting, and benefits from the highest calibre in production standards. On the other hand, it's so committed to a stock standard, safe approach to gameplay that so much of the great work done in the narrative is undermined. A Plague Tale comes so achingly close to the brilliance of a Hellblade, but sadly where Ninja Theory's "blockbuster indie" project is a masterpiece, Armicia's story is "just" a page-turner.

If you're in the market for a consistently immersive tale with gameplay that's filled with genuine tension then A Plague Tale: Innocence is a must-play game. Just be prepared for a few aspects to regularly take you out of the otherwise engaging adventure.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is legitimately captivating in its atmospheric depiction of the plague-stricken and war-torn France of the Middle Ages. The mechanics rarely shine and the plot has a fair share of contrivances, but there are plenty of outstanding sequences that put this unique setting to excellent use.

A Plague Tale is a double tragedy. On one hand, Amicia and Hugo’s tear-filled journey through rural France is marked by adversity, but the bigger misfortune is how this powerful story of sibling love is soured by simple puzzles and clunky stealth mechanics. A Plague Tale is a forgettable game wrapped around a memorable adventure.

The developers of A Plague Tale managed to create an emotional story seasoned with stealth elements - not very demanding, as the game is really easy. Nevertheless, the title remains a very compelling experience that I finished overnight - which might be the best review I can give. Also - it's insanely pretty.

Even though the puzzles and enemy encounters don’t deviate much from their fundamental structures, there are enough variations to support a frightening yet alluring world where every corner leads to fresh, captivating possibilities.

A Plague Tale is one of a kind and tells a compelling story about a fascinating historical period. Too bad it is too easy, simplistic and guided.

A Plague Tale tells a tale about human cruelty, the loss of innocence, survival, and family via its beautiful visual and imaginative level design, but it feels like near the game’s end confidence was lost in this vision. It gets in its own way by deciding that something bigger was needed to keep the player’s attention. It’s a sour end to an otherwise great game.

I'm really glad I had the opportunity to play this game. Despite the fact that the storytelling is not consistent all the time, and the gameplay is a bit limited, this game has plenty of heart and its one of the most unique experiences in its genre.

The sweeping takeaway from A Plague Tale: Innocence is that it’s an imperfect but powerful story on death. It dares to explore the impact of killing in an industry that treats violence as routine and ordinary. That doesn’t make up for some glaring oversights in the acting and writing, however, but if you can stomach seas of vermin and 10-15 hours of thick French accents, this may be the story-driven stealth title for you.

A Plague Tale: Innocence has a great story, but the gameplay has a level of convenience that undercuts the perilous world.

A Plague Tale: Innocence has some clunky writing in places, and its play gets stale after a time, but it prevails with a compelling mystery and a beautiful world.

If you’re in the mood for a perfectly respectable, undemanding weekend game, A Plague Tale: Innocence is for you, though fair warning: The sight of so many dead bodies might shock anyone watching over your shoulder.

This beautiful, if a bit slow tale is worth your money because of its intriguing setting and story, as well as its great voice acting work. Its gameplay remains a bit mediocre though, thanks to clumsy controls and repetitive actions.