A Plague Tale: Innocence

A Plague Tale: Innocence has a great story, but the gameplay has a level of convenience that undercuts the perilous world.

A Plague's Tale's emotive story of resilience is underscored by a backdrop of screeching rats, the unremitting horrors of war, and a genuinely likeable cast of characters.

Children band together against the darkness of a collapsing France in this bleak and beautiful if somewhat rickety medieval fantasy.

Visually beautiful and emotionally affecting thanks to strong characters, A Plague Tale suffers from missing gameplay variety and tonal inconsistencies.

If you’re in the mood for a perfectly respectable, undemanding weekend game, A Plague Tale: Innocence is for you, though fair warning: The sight of so many dead bodies might shock anyone watching over your shoulder.

A Plague Tale excels in its narrative and setting, but the moment-to-moment action is uninspired

A particular strength of the game is that it alternates between perilous action and periods of reflection where the characters process the changes they’ve observed in the world and in themselves.

I’ve been very positive about A Plague Tale so far, and it is indeed a good game.

There’s a lot lifted from other games in A Plague Tale, but somehow there’s nothing cynical about it. This is a full-hearted reach for the big time of AAA storytelling that succeeds in the most important departments, thanks to its sparkling polish and subtle characterisation. It’s one of a handful of games for which I could tell you the personality traits and motivations of not just the protagonists, but four or five secondary characters. Consider this review a carrier: Asobo Studio is a name that’s going to spread.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a grim, gripping, and fantastic adventure. The solid stealth gameplay offers little new, but the unique setting, affecting characters, excellent dialogue, and oppressive atmosphere more than redress that linearity. Add to this a lean design, an emotive score, and a commitment to narrative focus, and A Plague Tale deserves to be heralded as one of 2019's very best adventures.