Seeing as how gameplay inA Plague Talehas been leashed rather tightly to stealth inInnocenceandRequiemit would be interesting if a third game decided to follow both of its predecessors’ formulas. Abandoning stealth altogether would be a mistake since that’sA Plague Tale’s bread and butter, but a good protein or vegetable accompaniment wouldn’t hurt the dish, either.InnocenceandRequiemare different from one another in relatively big ways and a backstep toward the former could be more advantageous for a third installment, for example, though there are elements of the latter it wouldn’t be able to deny now that they’ve added a terrific layer of gameplay dimension the franchise lacked before.
Being able toslip under carriages while prone is a marvelous addition toRequiem’s stealthwhereas a dependence on more aggressive means of dealing with enemies arguably bogs it down and takes away from what made the original game special. It would be neat now to see Asobo or another developer takeA Plague Taleand iterate on it further, perhaps crafting a proper balance between the two games so far. Nonetheless, it’s quite clear thatA Plague Taleneeds to lean heavily on its strengths in gameplay and trim what isn’t cohesive, and in doing so a third entry would be wise to repriseRequiem’s cinematic chase sequences where Amicia de Rune sprints away from an oncoming horde of rats that no glimmer of fire can withstand.
A Plague Tale’s Chase Sequences are Underrated and Underutilized
Innocencehas brief chases of its own but they are more prominent inRequiemand almost give the sequel more ofanUncharted-esque flavorwhen it comes to outrunning a flood of rats. Perhaps as a way of demonstrating the sequel’s technical superiority, the camera runs ahead of Amicia in these sequences as she chases it to flee from rats, allowing players to see the massive tidal wave of beady eyes closing in on her that consumes everything and everyone in Amicia’s rearview.
These chases don’t last a terribly long time and yet they are a wonderful and refreshing delineation from the typical stealth sequences players sift through, especially since they make rats finally seem intimidating and overwhelming when waving a torch through them nonchalantly has become tiresome and trivial by the sequel. Rats are almost always seen in dormant, docile blankets on the ground that cannot harm Amicia so long as she is within the vicinity of a flickering flame, and therefore chases break that monotony up greatly and could’ve been employed a lot more generously.
Of course,Requiemalso divisively debuts more aggressive means of combat, but this approach to gameplay encourages there to be more of an emphasis on human enemies and that’s not whereA Plague Tale’s most successful or unique ideas lie.
A Plague Tale’s Next Game Needs to Indulge in Rats as a Set Piece
A Plague Talewould be stale if all it concerned its protagonists with were rats. But, on the other hand, it’s a crutch to have so many human enemies in such a series when they’re obviously not going to be anywhere near as exciting to circumvent. Some of the most engaging sequences inA Plague Taleinvolve both rats and human enemies when players can then manipulate environments and render enemies vulnerable to rats, but chase sequences are a change of pace the series sorely needed and that the future of the franchise could excel with, too.
The most unique human encounter inRequiemis undoubtedly when an injured Amicia has to hide and flee from the Count, but it’s still more fun and memorablefleeing from rats and watching as they sweep through the environment as one enormous hive mind. The only downside to these chases is that they can’t possibly happen that often because they consequently swallow everything they spill past.
This is reasonable if players are constantly in dungeons or other underground areas where rats may be anyway, though if chases occur on the surface the studio needs to be mindful of which areas it’s basically going to have overrun by rats thereafter.A thirdPlague Taleneeds chases of some sort, and since it’s presumed that it would reprise rats as its plague-bearing vessels it would be excellent to have them be able to pursue the protagonist again in a similarly cinematic fashion.
