Plague Tale Requiem

 Kore ga Requiem da

One of my favourite feelings when it comes to the world of gaming is that of a pleasant surprise. That feeling of getting something which you absolutely did not expect, jumping up from nowhere to impress and dazzle you just as much as those projects you camped out overnight for. It's the ultimate satisfaction moment because you managed to uncover something special under the deluge of innumerable average or not-your-type games splattered against the market wall every single day. It's the same feeling I got when I sat down and played that little game about robot androids that everyone was raving about. (I'm talking Nier, not Detroit) And it's what a lot of people got a jolt of the day they sat down to play a little game about medieval France and rats. A lot of rats. Like too many rats.

First of all, let me say that I'm not a big fan of rats in any of their possible interpretations. Never has a videogame managed to make an entertaining version of a rat fight to keep player's attentions, with most games just relegating the little buggers to perpetual first-enemy fodder. (Dragon Age, Oblivion, Baldur's Gate, the list is endless.) Whatsmore, I dislike their real life counter parts even less, because they suffer from that horrible 'too big' syndrome that some animals have, where they look and feel just several magnitudes larger than you brain tells you that they should be. Most people don't realise it until they've seen one for themselves, thinking they're just like more mangy mice. Oh no, trust me a mouse is like house cat next to the disease ridden tigers that are rats. I do not like that, not at all. Which is why a game solely about Rats and the chaos they cause amped up to apocalyptic levels should be the worst thing ever, and in a ways it is, but it's also quite good too.

Plague Tale is a game that does exactly that, it tells a fictionalised story of the black death sweeping across Europe with the Rats actually being the main culprit this time. That is to say, the real bubonic plague would have been more directly caused by fleas ridding on the back or rats than the rats themselves. (So it was a tag team effort) Not so in Plague Tale, however, which utilises some wildly impressive tech to realise entire seas of rats who swoop and move as a unit, not so much to infect the country side with a wasting disease as to literally rip apart any and everyone to shreds with the power of their voracious jaws. Yeah, it's as horrible as that sounds. They're like a mob of land piranhas that strip humans bare in a manner of seconds, if you're lucky. (I sure there's some sort of analogy hidden up in there somewhere, but I was too busy being deeply nauseous to notice.)

'Plague Tale: Innocence' was a game that did a good job letting everyone know that it was coming out, with a decent premise and trailers showcasing a graphical plate far better than one should rightly expect from a title not technically on the AAA stage, but I still think the final product still jolted everyone. The execution of the product totally belied expectations for a studio who's previous notable work was several assistance roles on games that didn't necessarily set the world on fire. (I don't think I've booted up Recore since launch day.) The game was polished and vast, telling a sweeping adventure that had the depth and scope of a high quality AAA title. This game was like Tomb Raider or Uncharted, but with rats. (Or, more rats, I suppose) The overall product was crazily impressive.

Thus it should come to the surprise of no one that we're getting a sequel, and yet I still find myself scratching my head wondering why such a game has now been turned into a series. In all the best ways Plague Tale did seem like a bit of a one trick pony with its Rat mechanic and some puzzle solving inbetween. Again, the tech was amazing and I'm endless impressed with how it all came together to make a solid gaming experience, but it didn't really strike me as a 'story that needs to be told' sort of situation. I mean, are we currently living in a world where Plague Tale is getting a sequel and Tyranny is being left to rust? How does that equation work out? Which timeline is the reverse of this one and how do I get there? (Send the TVA after me for all I care, I want my Tyranny 2!)

But whatever heaven needed to has been moved to ensure that the Plague Tale journey will continue, and this time with a Requiem. The trailer for such was just a smattering of cinematics, without anything of value to glean, but the title alone gets me. 'Requiem' huh? Amicia got herself the Requiem arrow and she's coming around with her evolved stand now is she? I suppose that would be a way of stretching this story out to at least another two entries, slap down some JJBA and that's a whole bunch of new mileage. But in all seriousness, as much as the first game was a surprise hit and incredibly well made, I'm not sold on the longevity of this story at all. The trailer did look lovey though. (Are those Unreal Engine 5 cliffs I spy?)

Of course, that's fine, it's not my job to approve of all these sequels coming out of the woodworks, it just has me wondering about whatever happened to cool little games that show up shine and then leave the world with a good taste in it's mouth? You see it all the time in indie games, obviously, but whenever a slightly larger budget game even gets a whiff of success the sequel vultures swoop down and eat it up with wanton abandon. Heck, this how we fall into the sequelitis rabbit hole that everybody ends up complaining about and bemoaning. But hey, I'm sure I'm just raving over conjured enemies and Plague Tale is going to prove to be a fantastic story that just had to be told in several episodic parts. You know, just like how Final Fantasy VII remake had to be split into 8 separate episodes and how Orcs Must Die needed another sequel. (Yes, I know that Tyranny technically doesn't need a sequel either, and I've said as much myself, but I'm being bitter; let me be bitter!)

At the very least it's cool to see a studio not of the usual suspects giving the industry a run for it's money when it comes to cinematic and emotionally charged storytelling. (Bonus points for it actually being a game with gameplay too, somehow those two descriptors don't always go hand in hand.) I'm sure that Asobo are living the dream with their new found big success, and I'm sure that success in itself had some part to play in the decision to make this sequel in the first place, but I don't begrudge them for it. Plague Tale is something more of a known quantity now, however, and with that comes a degree of expectation and quality that one is expected to live to, last year alone has several examples of how such pressure can really get to even the so-called 'best in the business'. So good luck to the team and here's hoping we'll all convene this time come 2024 to ponder how this story got a third part.