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A Plague Tale: Requiem | Review Thread

Finished after 20h. Amazing game. Some of the later chapters were incredibly impressive (rats, rats everywhere).

The ending destroyed me.
Me too, but I hate it. Felt like a trash cop out, self-defeating, betrayal to the whole game's trial of survival and never giving up. If the long walking segments weren't hurtful enough for replay prospects, the ending ensures I won't be replaying this or its prequel again. But that's me. I hope others get a better kick out of it, and enjoy the emotions, but I don't feel they were earned or
even consistent with our main character --the person who ran into a horde of rats to hug and snap her zombie state brother back to sanity in the first game. I'd sooner believe she'd rip her own legs off before she'd quit destroying those humanoid rats, put out the fire, and not try to reach out to her little brother and wake him up, even if he's at the last threshold, killed thousands, or even him begging her to put him down or whatever, and basically give up the fight. I call bull, man!
My bias was to see this fight go through, even with all the ugliness that comes with it, so naturally I wanted things to go differently, but even then, without going further into spoilers, I feel like the ending betrayed its characters.
 
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Hoppa

Member
Played a little bit. The little market exploration section was great, they did a good job making the area feel lively and populated. I wish the combat and traversal felt a bit ‘floatier’? It feels like running in mud sometimes
 
A couple of hours in, really enjoying it and admittedly I liked the first game too. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on what the dev teams next project is.

Sounds silly, I kind of feel bad for playing it via Gamepass and not buying it ha ha.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
Despite AAA character modeling and environments, an engaging story with good voice acting and some truly jaw-dropping setpieces, I'm rolling the credits somewhat disappointed the studio didn't spend more time on RND of core game systems, but rather decided on reusing the foundation established in Innocence to make a much prettier, much bigger sequel.

While it was easy to cut Asobo some slack in 2019 being an indie studio's first attempt at the genre full of good, fresh ideas, those ideas are more or less followed up on in Requiem evolving too little not to lose their novelty.

But we're in post-TLOU2 2022 and any cinematic, grounded story-driven action adventure that relies heavily on stealth combat with companion AI will be held to a different set of benchmarks of quality.

Especially gameplay animation lags so much behind otherwise amazing art direction, as if nothing was done there to catch up with modeling fidelity. Both combat and stealth are mediocre at best and are there just to push the surprisingly good story forward. The addition of some really cool new mechanics (loved the parts with Arnaud and Hugo's new superpowers) is not enough to shake off the feeling that I've seen most of this stuff done better elsewhere.

Everything that is good about Requiem is definitely good enough to keep you going, it's clear where the focus of this sequel was for the studio and where it wasn't.

Overall it's a solid entry into the genre and a very needed one for the gamepass catalog, but its technical (btw, framerate...) and gameplay design shortcomings make it rather inessential.

7/10.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The final chapters

are straight up Hellblade. Jesus, Amicia and Hugo will go down as protagonists who suffer the most in the course of a game.
 

Alex11

Member
Both combat and stealth are mediocre at best and are there just to push the surprisingly good story forward. The addition of some really cool new mechanics (loved the parts with Arnaud and Hugo's new superpowers) is not enough to shake off the feeling that I've seen most of this stuff done better elsewhere.
So is the stealth mechanic a bit weird or it's just me? I mean, in a section of the stealth part there is a weird feeling of rubber banding, if I can call it that.

As I'm progressing from the initial path when I reach a certain point the AI seems to just go everywhere. Even as I enter a house or whatever, just seconds later they come exactly there.
What's even weirder to me, from a certain point or time, I can't really tell, the awareness meter on some of the AI goes on for no reason, as I've not been detected, and they start swarming me.

As simplistic as it was, I liked it better in the first one.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
So is the stealth mechanic a bit weird or it's just me? I mean, in a section of the stealth part there is a weird feeling of rubber banding, if I can call it that.

As I'm progressing from the initial path when I reach a certain point the AI seems to just go everywhere. Even as I enter a house or whatever, just seconds later they come exactly there.
What's even weirder to me, from a certain point or time, I can't really tell, the awareness meter on some of the AI goes on for no reason, as I've not been detected, and they start swarming me.

As simplistic as it was, I liked it better in the first one.
Requiem is a better game than the first one, but here's the thing, I've like 10 more chapters left to play but I think at this point it is safe to say that I've seen if not everything the game has to offer gameplay-wise, but for sure most of the stuff, so, here it goes:

Asobo should've completely got rid of the sling mechanic, combat and stealth related stuff tied to it cuz.... it's fuckin' stupid and extremely bad beyond believe. Not only you literally don't have any way to make it better in combat or stealth... but come the fuck on, throwing rocks at boxes with armor pieces to move enemies out of the way or to get past sometimes very idiotic stealth sections, which otherwise could've been easily avoided? Why would you also need this pos in stealth if you can throw rocks (and pots) by hand? Oh, but wait, somehow it does not count and even though enemies can clearly see that something is wrong... they can only react when you throw rocks at boxes with armor pieces - wtf is this bs? Literally in 99% of other games it works exactly as it should but nope, not here, cuz we have really stupid mechanic we want to force you to use, which makes stealth sections far worse than they should have been. Why can't you just give an effin' bow to Amicia, let her use rocks like a normal person in many other games and use alchemy in stealth instead, especially if it is possible to use it like in Thief games where you could take out torches with water arrows, create surfaces to safely step on and so on and so forth? There's so many ways you can make the game better, but stupid sling mechanic still holds it back. They have almost everything in the game already to get rid of the sling completely, you can even use alchemy with crossbow and what's stopping you from using it to get rid of torches, lanterns etc.?

I'm sorry, but this had to be said cuz sling is by far the biggest problem Requiem has and Innocence as well... and... maybe half of the stuff you can upgrade using resources. Is there even one person who used knives in the game during the first playthrough to kill enemies instead of finding and opening secret workbenches and upgrade stuff? The last tree related to tools and upgrades and most of the stuff related to pots are completely useless during the first playthrough, cuz for example you can take out enemies without helmet easily with your sling in two ways at least, 2 of which almost exactly the same if you're using pots as an alternative. Also, why the fuck you can't stealthly kill enemies with helmets using sling? WHY?!

I mean, damn, they shot themselves in the foot by sticking to sling the second time and at the same time not really offerying anything interesting when it comes to upgrades, most of which are + - the same as in the first game, but here's the thing, the same can be said about TLOUP2 in comparison to the first game, and yet it's a miles and miles better game than original, Requiem also could've been like it and they almost did it... but, you know.

Goddamin it, Asobo, I effin' love Requiem, but combat and stealth still is not fully there... again. But at least you can't die from one hit, checkpoints are far better and there is an option to hide under tables etc., which still and even with all other flaws. makes the game far better to play than Innocence and hide from enemies way easily.
 
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Haggard

Banned
I have the same issue with this game as with the last it seems. The mini levels where you sneak/murder your way from safety door to safety door just feel repetitive as hell.
The game may look better than the last but it doesn`t really play better, I´d even call the actual gameplay highly clunky....I`m 4-5hours in and I think I´ll just drop it at this point.
Thank god for gamepass offers.
 
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ungalo

Member
I'm happy that a "small" french studio managed to pull out an ambitious project like that, production wise. But the game is painfully average, they again sacrificed everything in order to box above their weight. A good chunk of the game is boring as fuck, they made some progress on the stealth sequences but the fake puzzles are perhaps worse than in the first game.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
cfeP2yy.png







Great game.
 
Just booted the game thinking I have something good to play during my free week and 5 minutes in I find myself hiding in tall bushes….

AGAIN, SERIOUSLY?

We been playing games with the same damn mechanic for almost 2 decades now….
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I just can't unlock the first achievement of the game with the pines, i don't get it.

Really ? that's like super easy .. especially if you have aim assist on. The aim will snap to the pines if you're drawing and aiming anywhere near them.
 

Elios83

Member
I've been playing this for a week.

Graphics are stunning, there's a bit of unnecessary post processing and aggressive use of depth of field which can blur the image a bit but the environments can look amazing.
On PS5 there are some noticeable slowdown, not necessarily correlated with the amount of rats. It doesn't bother me at all but they should optimize their code better.

The story and characters have been really good, the plot is interesting and with a good pace so far.

Gameplay is sadly the weak point atm.
The game wants to be an action stealth game but the reality is that it's just a trial and error puzzle game, very scripted. If you don't do what the developers want you to do you'll die, when you get that quickly the flow is good otherwise there are many frustrating moment.
In a chapter I tried to save a man, after many attempts I succeeded just to find out that the man was not supposed to be saved at all and I just managed to break the game rules :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Overall it's a really nice AA title.
 
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ungalo

Member
Really ? that's like super easy .. especially if you have aim assist on. The aim will snap to the pines if you're drawing and aiming anywhere near them.
No but i shoot all the pines but it doesn't unlock. I saw that depending on the languages you play it cuts to the cutscene faster so i thought it was because i was playing in french that i didn't have the last pines but in english it's the same. I don't know if it's bugged or not.
 
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J3nga

Member
I think we can all admit, this is a good looking game... but is anyone else put off by the facial animations? It honestly looks a little lifeless.
Animations aren't top notch really, Amicia's voice often doesn't go toe-to-toe with her body expressions. Graphics are good, but animations and facial expressions are a far cry from something like TLOU. Bit unfair comparison But we've been spoiled by what industry can offer.
 
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Animations aren't top notch really, Amicia's voice often doesn't go toe-to-toe with her body expressions. Graphics are good, but facial expressions are a far cry from something like TLOU.
I agree on the voice. Also lip syncing, it's not as bad as Ghost of Tsushima was with the English/Japanese but it's enough to catch your attention.
 

TonyK

Member
Any news about a possible stable 30/40fps patch for Ps5? I stopped playing due to the erratic framerate and I'm waiting for a patch (not a 60fps patch because I think it would be impossible).
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
No but i shoot all the pines but it doesn't unlock. I saw that depending on the languages you play it cuts to the cutscene faster so i thought it was because i was playing in french that i didn't have the last pines but in english it's the same. I don't know if it's bugged or not.

Oh man if its bugged that's a whole another issue, I unlocked it playing the first time.

I guess start a new game on a separate slot and see if that works ? It's 10 mins into the game so not a lot of time required.
 
I think we can all admit, this is a good looking game... but is anyone else put off by the facial animations? It honestly looks a little lifeless.

Its a great looking game but the lipsynching kind of looks like they had a default open and close mouth animation and just insert the voice later, like cheap cartoons. Thats why I said in another thread they look like puppets.

The actual texture and geometry looks AAA, but the animations are where the budget show. Also yeah, the performances n ps5 whenever rats show up is pretty atrocious. Getting like 10 frames when those big explosions of rats happen
 
Its a great looking game but the lipsynching kind of looks like they had a default open and close mouth animation and just insert the voice later, like cheap cartoons. Thats why I said in another thread they look like puppets.

The actual texture and geometry looks AAA, but the animations are where the budget show. Also yeah, the performances n ps5 whenever rats show up is pretty atrocious. Getting like 10 frames when those big explosions of rats happen
Yea, it looks fantastic! I haven't look at a lot of reviews, so I did not know about any performance issues... but with that many rats, it was bound to happen but 10 frames is rough!
 

Hydroxy

Member
Completed first 5 chapters so far. I am enjoying the game but does the game wear out its welcome considering it has 18 chapters? I hope the game does not get boring and just want to get it over with feeling.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
NpL8wUg.gif

The whole...
island location in Chapter IX
... is INSAAAAIN! And that's all I'm gonna say about it:messenger_smiling:
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Completed first 5 chapters so far. I am enjoying the game but does the game wear out its welcome considering it has 18 chapters? I hope the game does not get boring and just want to get it over with feeling.

17 chapters and the later chapters are small linear affair when it wants to wrap up the story.

Though you still haven't reached the biggest chapters yet. You're coming soon to basically this games version of Madagascar from Uncharted 4.
 
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Bartski

Gold Member
No but i shoot all the pines but it doesn't unlock. I saw that depending on the languages you play it cuts to the cutscene faster so i thought it was because i was playing in french that i didn't have the last pines but in english it's the same. I don't know if it's bugged or not.
It's bugged, same here. English version. I guess you have to keep replaying the first chapter
 
Completed first 5 chapters so far. I am enjoying the game but does the game wear out its welcome considering it has 18 chapters? I hope the game does not get boring and just want to get it over with feeling.


I remember the original game some chapters would be only 10-15 minutes long in the latter half.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
This game is amazing.

I know it always seems to come up in these threads, but after these two games and Asobo making flight simulator and assisting MS with stuff. MS needs to give this developer a fat cheque to either make something exclusively for gamepass or just outright buy them, this team is insane for what it can do.

And a custom engine in 2022! Bless the crazy bat stewards, I've just started chapter 10 and this game is mega. Deffo play on PC if you have a decent one, looks a huge step up over console.
 

Alex11

Member
Requiem is a better game than the first one, but here's the thing, I've like 10 more chapters left to play but I think at this point it is safe to say that I've seen if not everything the game has to offer gameplay-wise, but for sure most of the stuff, so, here it goes:

Asobo should've completely got rid of the sling mechanic, combat and stealth related stuff tied to it cuz.... it's fuckin' stupid and extremely bad beyond believe. Not only you literally don't have any way to make it better in combat or stealth... but come the fuck on, throwing rocks at boxes with armor pieces to move enemies out of the way or to get past sometimes very idiotic stealth sections, which otherwise could've been easily avoided? Why would you also need this pos in stealth if you can throw rocks (and pots) by hand? Oh, but wait, somehow it does not count and even though enemies can clearly see that something is wrong... they can only react when you throw rocks at boxes with armor pieces - wtf is this bs? Literally in 99% of other games it works exactly as it should but nope, not here, cuz we have really stupid mechanic we want to force you to use, which makes stealth sections far worse than they should have been. Why can't you just give an effin' bow to Amicia, let her use rocks like a normal person in many other games and use alchemy in stealth instead, especially if it is possible to use it like in Thief games where you could take out torches with water arrows, create surfaces to safely step on and so on and so forth? There's so many ways you can make the game better, but stupid sling mechanic still holds it back. They have almost everything in the game already to get rid of the sling completely, you can even use alchemy with cross bow and what's stopping you from using it to get rid of torches, lanterns etc.?

I'm sorry, but this had to be said cuz sling is by far the biggest problem Requiem has and Innocence as well... and... maybe half of the stuff you can upgrade using resources. Is there even one person who used knives in the game during the first playthrough to kill enemies instead of finding and opening secret workbenches and upgrade stuff? The last tree related to tools and upgrades and most of the stuff related to pods are completely useless during the first playthrough, cuz for example you can take out enemies without helmet easily with your sling in two ways at least, 2 of which almost exactly the same if you're using pots as an alternative. Also, why the fuck you can't stealthly kill enemies with helmets using sling? WHY?!

I mean, damn, they shot themselves in the foot by sticking to sling the second time and at the same time not really offerying anything interesting when it comes to upgrades, most of which are + - the same as in the first game, but here's the thing, the same can be said about TLOP2 in comparison to the first game, and yet it's a miles and miles better game than original, Requiem also could've been like it and they almost did it... but, you know.

Goddamin it, Asobo, I effin' love Requiem, but combat and stealth still is not fully there... again. But at least you can't die from one hit, checkpoints are far better and there is an option to hide under tables etc., which still and even with all other flaws. makes the game far better to play than Innocence and hide from enemies way easily.
Well I could get past the simplistic throwing rocks to lure enemies away thing, but can't get past the trial and error parts and fixed paths. Like with the herbalist, don't want to say much, I think you know the one, I managed to break the game there until I realized there's a fixed thing.

I'm on chapter 6 now, on the beach and for the life of me don't know how can I completely stealth that part and without killing. Don't know what the game want's from me, why do I need the stealthy skills and tools if it doesn't matter how I want to play? A lot of chests I left behind because I can get them without killing somebody, and the story makes a big deal about killing so I want to kill as little as possible, but don't know now if it really matters.

It irks me, because I love the story, the music, the characters, I even like Hugo- in the first game I wanted to smack him- but the gameplay, ugh, it's a little broken for me.
 
why do I need the stealthy skills and tools if it doesn't matter how I want to play?
Bit it really doesn't matter how you play, except for what skills you will have.
I.e. being deadly develops "agressive" skills, bring stealthy develops "prudence" skills, that's about it.
 

MrKainobi

Neo Member
I‘m close to 2 hours in and it’s fantastic. They improved on a lot of things over the original, especially by widening the arenas. There’s very little to complain about beside the performance, which I hope they’ll patch soon. Kudos to them for pricing it reasonably too.
 

Corndog

Banned
A couple of hours in, really enjoying it and admittedly I liked the first game too. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on what the dev teams next project is.

Sounds silly, I kind of feel bad for playing it via Gamepass and not buying it ha ha.
Wait until it goes on sale and buy it then.
 

Alex11

Member
Bit it really doesn't matter how you play, except for what skills you will have.
I.e. being deadly develops "agressive" skills, bring stealthy develops "prudence" skills, that's about it.
I know that the skills develop based on your play style, sorry I don't think I'm finding the right words for what I want to say, what I mean is, in a lot of the scenarios it doesn't matter if you want to be stealthy, you have to kill and that's it, it doesn't give you a choice.
 

CatLady

Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
This game is amazing.

I know it always seems to come up in these threads, but after these two games and Asobo making flight simulator and assisting MS with stuff. MS needs to give this developer a fat cheque to either make something exclusively for gamepass or just outright buy them, this team is insane for what it can do.

And a custom engine in 2022! Bless the crazy bat stewards, I've just started chapter 10 and this game is mega. Deffo play on PC if you have a decent one, looks a huge step up over console.
Shit just buy them, this studio and devs are amazing. They remind of Playground in how really exceptional they are. This game looks so good it rivals one of the best-looking most technically advanced games of this gen which just happens to also made by them with FS 2020
 
Its a great looking game but the lipsynching kind of looks like they had a default open and close mouth animation and just insert the voice later, like cheap cartoons. Thats why I said in another thread they look like puppets.

The actual texture and geometry looks AAA, but the animations are where the budget show. Also yeah, the performances n ps5 whenever rats show up is pretty atrocious. Getting like 10 frames when those big explosions of rats happen
Don't recall the Series X version being anywhere near that bad and I'd imagine there's not a huge difference between the two.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Well I could get past the simplistic throwing rocks to lure enemies away thing, but can't get past the trial and error parts and fixed paths. Like with the herbalist, don't want to say much, I think you know the one, I managed to break the game there until I realized there's a fixed thing.
Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about and this fixed path is hell when it comes to scripts...
if you'll decide to save herbalist instead of killing him accidentally or let him be killed by guards.
I'm on chapter 6 now, on the beach and for the life of me don't know how can I completely stealth that part and without killing.
You can't for the most part, that's the problem, the game simply don't have stealth system robust enough and well designed stealth encounters to make it happen. The beach btw clearly designed for you to use Arnaud as a tank to clear your way so don't even think about not killing anyone. There's a few stealth sections in the game where you can kill as less as possible but there isn't much of them in the game.

Don't know what the game want's from me, why do I need the stealthy skills and tools if it doesn't matter how I want to play?
Well, some of the very usefull and powerfull skills are locked to character progression depending on exactly how you play. Don't alarm enemies, do stealth kills and you'll be getting new skills slowely, same goes for agressive gameplay and use of alchemy in combat or crafting. The game is designed to be played 2 times at least to fully unlock everything, just like TLOU series.

A lot of chests I left behind because I can get them without killing somebody, and the story makes a big deal about killing so I want to kill as little as possible, but don't know now if it really matters.
Forget about small chest for the most part, they're useless and not worth opening and get to them if it's a huge pain to not only get to them, but to open them as well (you know what I mean). Look for big and huge well-decorated chests cuz they have way more resources, parts for upgrades and tools. Also, don't ever use knives in combat and save them to open secret workbenches cuz they contain lots of parts and tools for upgrades.

It irks me, because I love the story, the music, the characters, I even like Hugo- in the first game I wanted to smack him- but the gameplay, ugh, it's a little broken for me.
Yeah, it's still not perfect but yet a lot better than the first game, plus everything else is SO much better than in the first game that... well, I'm willing to close my eyes on some flaws, but not all.

I haven't finished the game yet, but if they're planning another one if it makes sense story wise... First of all, I'm all for it, but second and it is the most important thing - they need to completely overhaul stealth and combat systems and make them at least as good as in TLOUP2, but lore and setting friendly to the 1300s medieval period. I know it won't be easy but goddamnit, the next game absolutely must not have the same stealth and combat systems (sling needs to go away completely and at worst used as a tool for puzzles and stuff like that), as well as ancient design of stealth encounters. Extremely limited Amicia's move/skill sets needs to be expanded dramatically (look at TLOUP2). No more lighting up torches and bonfires using sling to keep rats at bay, no more throwing rocks at boxes with armor pieces, no more limited knives etc. etc. etc. Flaws of the first two games are clearly visable as the sun at the early morning and they need to be fixed once and for all.
 
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I know that the skills develop based on your play style, sorry I don't think I'm finding the right words for what I want to say, what I mean is, in a lot of the scenarios it doesn't matter if you want to be stealthy, you have to kill and that's it, it doesn't give you a choice.
Just FYI in the first game Amicia killed almost everyone for me. Lol.
This time it's almost impossible to do so.
That's the difference.
If you need to kill here and there, it's good enough.
 

Fools idol

Banned
refunded on steam. I think I am just tired of the same stealth gameplay loop in these kind of games, and the characters are completely annoying.

I honestly dont know what I was expecting but yeah, its basically the same game and I just couldnt get into it. Guess I will wait for Ragnarok..
 

Roberts

Member
Only had a limited amount of time to play this so I'm on chapter 3 so far. Really like it, but I also enjoyed the first one and other than graphics I don't think it is all that much better. That said, when the rats show up for the first time....damn, probably the moment of the year.
 
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