Unlike most franchises, how a third gamePlague Taleinstallment could look is fully up in the air, much less whether or not a threequel could even feasibly be on the table.A Plague Tale: Requiemends definitively for Hugo de Rune whereas an abrupt post-credits stinger makes it far more ambiguous whether Amicia de Rune’s chapter has ended also.A Plague Taleisn’t in need of another game to stretch its story out further than it’s warranted, but it’d definitely be exciting to see what a third entry could provide the series regarding old and new iterations of gameplay in the stealth-horror genre.
For better or for worse,A Plague Talechanged quite a bit betweenInnocenceandRequiem.Innocenceleaned almost exclusively on stealth and, while that could be seen as repetitive or monotonous to anyone who doesn’t particularly enjoy stealth, it arguably did so in ways that kept it sustained and engaging throughout. Stealth is abundant inRequiem, too, but the sequel also debuted an emphasis on aggressive combat. This emphasis also led to a skill tree inRequiemthatInnocencedidn’t have, and a thirdPlague Talegame needs to seriously reconsider how it ties into its level designs on a fundamental level or bin it wholesale.
A Plague Tale: Requiem’s Skill Tree is Inorganic and Ironic
HowRequiem’s skill treeworks is unconventional and pertains to three branches: Prudence, Aggressive, and Opportunism. But instead of spending skill points or XP toward each branch’s unlockable passive abilities, each branch is progressed when its particular playstyle is employed in gameplay; for example, not alerting or attacking enemies progresses Prudence while exploiting the environment and various interactions progresses Opportunism, unlocking new skills gradually as their respective playstyles are embraced.
This would have been perfectly valid if players always had complete liberty and fairness in how any encounter could be engaged, but that is rarely true inRequiem. Certain sequences in the game impose a particular playstyle and therefore a skill tree branch’s progression throughout the game rarely seems earned or natural on the player’s behalf but rather mandated by what a scripted encounter demands.
Some sections forbid players fromdrawing Amicia’s sling, for instance, while others forbid players from being detected, and thus determine what playstyle players must adopt regardless of what they prefer or what skill tree branch they hope to progress.
A Plague Tale: Requiem Condemns Aggression and Enforces It in the Same Breath
Arnaud’s section is remarkably in favor of the Aggressive branch because he can take on any individual enemy and remove that obstacle from players’ paths with no effort, making it far more efficient to exploit him as an overpowered NPC. Arnaud struggles when facing more than one soldier at a time, requiring the player’s intervention to prevent him from dying, but he’s unstoppable in a one-on-one with players capable of dependablysiccing Arnaud on anyone in Amicia and Hugo’s path—once that finally unlocks as an NPC interaction option, at least.
Plus, whileAmicia never hears the end of her fully necessary violent actionssomehow being morally questionable, sending Arnaud to do her and Hugo’s dirty work is never frowned upon.
Either way, a third game should avoid implementing a skill tree with players’ actions determining which abilities are unlocked if it contains more scripted scenarios than encounters that players can tackle in whichever way they desire. There’s no telling what a third game could look like and it may not want to harp on the same tropes of grief and rage in the way it did withInnocenceandRequiem, anyway, so a reevaluation of its approach to skill trees or progression in general would be exciting to see.
