Like a sugar-addicted kid rummaging through the bottom of a Halloween bag full of candy, A Plague Tale: Requiem believes that what made the first game great is made even more delicious in monumental quantities. Loved hordes of rats? Multiply that number by 1,000? Have you ever enjoyed a brutal, harrowing journey that tested the limits of your emotional resilience? Ok, now multiply your personal suffering by 200%! One of my favorite action-adventure games from the last generation of consoles, this sequel turns the dial up to 11 in virtually every way, and while it overwhelmingly benefits from the increase, it can sometimes feel a little too hollow. With improved stealth-action mechanics, a fantastic (and very depressing) story, and graphics that left me in awe, A Plague Tale: Requiem is an impressive boost that’s more than worth the immense horror I was subjected to.

Requiem follows in the creepy, galloping footsteps of its predecessor, A Plague Tale: Innocence, as a gritty third-person action-adventure game set in an alternate history version of 14th century France during the Hundred Years’ War. You play as Amicia, the older sister of a sick and disturbed boy named Hugo, and must journey through both beautiful and dystopian environments, fleeing tsunamis of plague rats, and sneaking or assassinating armies of mindless soldiers, all to save your own life – and that of your brother. You’ll spend time sneaking past enemies you can kill almost instantly with competent but unconventional stealth action, or using light sources to make your way through hordes of ravenous man-eating rats, and through more memorable puzzle-based environments. But the best sections combine both elements, forcing you to fight not only hordes of hordes of terrifying rats, but also soldiers stupid enough to kill you while surrounded by problems that will surely annoy them even more.

In between all the action, you’ll solve the incredibly strange and complicated mystery of your brother’s illness, and along the way you’ll meet unforgettable characters, some of them nuanced and well written, some of them just trying to kill you, some of them crazy sociopaths, and everything about the world sucks. If you thought the original Plague Tale was dark, this sequel is so dark and pessimistic that it seems bright and optimistic in comparison to its predecessor. Amicia, Hugo, and the friends they meet along the way never lose hope and seem to form heartwarming bonds of friendship as the world falls apart, but it’s still very stressful to have your dreams shattered for 20 hours while constantly being betrayed and cut off, being forced to watch loved ones die, and being subjected to horrors that would break a normal person in minutes.

Still, this story is very well told, and there were plenty of unforgettable moments where I had my mouth agape and my head turned towards a fantasy umpire, hoping that a flag would be thrown on the field for being so over the top. I also adored the resilient, bad-tempered Amicia, and genuinely wanted to fight to protect her beloved little brother Hugo as if he were my own relative. The writing and acting are so strong overall that it’s hard to find anything positive or negative to feel about this character, let alone the entire cast. Parts of this fun journey can be a little convoluted, or you can wander aimlessly for a moment at times, but ultimately, I’m glad I subjected myself to the horrors of rat hell for the story I got in return.

The story is backed by some truly amazing graphics, music, and voice acting that made me want to spend time exploring this desolate world and hanging out with my fellow NPCs. I can’t stress enough how amazing Requiem looks and sounds. It was worth the night scares that followed, especially when the representation of a million rats charging at you was using all your processing power. My only complaint is that Requiem is quite demanding at times.

Requiem is not very different from Innocence in terms of gameplay, but it does make some significant improvements to existing Blueprints to better effect. Some of the weaker moments are the usual stealth action sequences where you sneak around and strategically eliminate soldiers as you advance towards an objective. Using the slingshot, crossbow and bag of alchemy tricks that Amicia has at her disposal is never boring, but there are also not many effects that we haven’t seen in numerous stealth games before. You can throw stones to distract enemies, use fire to ignite dangerous objects in the environment to eliminate threats, or sneak up on enemies to take them down. These are all standard fare for the genre. To be fair, there are some interesting ways to target enemies with your Alchemy Bag – a fire extinguisher can be used to put out a fire, for example, leaving nearby baddies at risk of being mauled by thousands of tiny teeth – but most of these tricks are not new to the series.

The only standout addition that Requiem brings is that NPC allies can now shake up your stealth options with their own special abilities. Your ally Lucas can stun enemies with Stupifacio Powder, while a soldier named Arnaud can be sent into open combat to confront them. Which character is with you at any given point in the story will likely affect your strategy when approaching certain obstacles, which does wonders for adding some interest to otherwise pretty average stealth.

There are also a few sections where stealth is eliminated and you have to fight waves of enemies in hand-to-hand combat, which just doesn’t work. Not only is it pretty ridiculous to see a teenager with a bag full of rocks take down a bunch of battle-hardened soldiers armed to the teeth, but the stealth-focused tools you’re given quickly become limited in these scenarios. This means I usually play as if I’m trying to keep the bad guys at bay until I find a way to eliminate them, often by throwing rocks at containers I can use to set them on fire, or whatever. Requiem really shines when the epic and terrifying rats make an appearance, and this sequel made me question everything I thought I knew about the red-eyed enemy. Whereas in Innocence the rats covered the ground and acted as a creative “floor is lava” game, in Requiem the rats are a force of nature that can smash through stone walls, stack up to reach higher surfaces, and even smash through stone walls. Engulfing entire cities (yes, you read that correctly). You’ll have to use your rat repellent light creatively to deal with many areas where you have to make your way through floors covered in filthy walkers, but there are also sections where you can’t save on light. You’ll literally be defending yourself from a tsunami of rats rushing towards you. It’s awful in the best sense of the word.

However, the rat-centric puzzles that stand between you and your objective are almost always easy to solve, even if they are very cool. For example, it’s definitely satisfying to run around shooting chunks of meat while distracting a horde of rats long enough to pass by, but in most cases the solution is either immediately obvious or directly taught to you in the campaign’s detailed tutorial. A few new touches create memorable moments, like how you can use your crossbow to fire arrows into the environment to protect a small area from rats, or how you can throw tar on a fire to light it up for a short time and extend that safety bubble. But even in those cases, I rarely found these obstacles challenging, and for the most part I breezed through each of these areas without feeling like I was out of control.

But my favorite parts of Requiem are when rats and soldiers occupy the same space, forcing me to use both stealth and puzzle-solving at the same time. At times I was trying to find the perfect opportunity to escape the guards, only to discover an army of rats in the darkness ahead of me, and I ran back to my hiding place before the guards saw the outside and panicked. On the other hand, sometimes I found clever ways to get through the rat swarms, only to attract the attention of a guard, who shot an arrow into my chest just when I naively thought I had won. Managing these two mindsets was not only challenging and unique, but also extremely fun, testing my creativity and determination.

Of course, unless I was into stealth, open combat was always an option. The great thing about Requiem is that the playstyle you choose affects your character’s development throughout the journey. I preferred the challenge of pure stealth, so my character improved his discretion stat, unlocking useful abilities that made him better at sneaking, such as faster movement speed while sneaking. Alternatively, they could have improved “opportunistic”, which allows you to take advantage of the environment to kill enemies, or “aggressive”, which lets you do disrespectful things like shove a soldier into a rat pile like a total baddie. The few times I used opportunistic or aggressive, I found that it sucked any semblance of challenge out of the encounter because I didn’t have to worry about getting caught – but it’s at least good to have as an option when the tension of secrecy gets frustrating, or when you just want a change.

As I worked my way through the roughly 20-hour campaign, I hunted for little story moments and dialogue that were easy to miss, as well as worthy collectibles that rewarded me with interesting tool upgrades that let me carry more alchemy ingredients, or maybe become a more efficient killer, for example. There were also some hidden side quests that unlocked extra supplies and stat-altering gear, which I felt duly rewarded my curiosity. The extra work was worth it, as Requiem includes a New Game+ mode that ratchets up the difficulty and offers compelling new challenges for those who want to dig deeper, which is a nice touch.

Verdict

A Plague Tale: Requiem is an impressive sequel to one of my favorite action-adventure games that raises the stakes in almost every respect. While it’s not all that different from its predecessor in terms of actual game mechanics, this unique adventure, with its melancholy yet brilliant story, great graphics, and rat-filled moments that you’ll never forget, is worth your attention. While I definitely wish it had been more ambitious and taken more risks with its stealth-action sandbox gameplay, it’s still a worthy sequel that’s given me great memories and some recurring nightmares.