Will the shift from stealth to action resonate or fall on death ears?
Resonance: A Plague Tale, developed by Asobo Studio, was my most anticipated release of the year, so when a prerelease review code arrived, I was overjoyed. I adore the first two entries in the franchise; in fact, A Plague Tale: Requiem was the first game I’d ever given a 100% score. It’s safe to say the hype was real.
If you’re unfamiliar with the franchise (What have you been doing with your time?!), the first two games, Innocence and Requiem, are stealth-based adventures set in 1348 France during the 100 Years’ War and the height of the Black Death. You take on the roles of Amicia and Hugo as they struggle to survive and solve the mystery of Hugo’s illness. During the events of A Plague Tale: Requiem, you’ll meet Sophia (voiced and ‘Mo-capped’ by the sensational Anna Demetriou; Dorys was one of my favourite characters in Final Fantasy XVI). When you meet Sophia in Requiem, she’s feisty, sure of herself, capable, and frankly, a total badass.
Sophia is the protagonist of Resonance: A Plague Tale; however, it’s a prequel. Set 15 years before the events of the original games, we meet Sophia as a vulnerable child, as she’s being experimented on by religious zealots, injecting her with a strange black fluid. Fortunately, Sophia is rescued by her father and whisked away to begin her life as a Plunderer. The Plunderers are a ragtag band of smugglers and thieves. You’ll see Sophia grow up, develop the skills she needs, and become a cocky yet kind young woman. This portion of the game acts as your tutorial, most importantly because Resonance no longer focuses on stealth (however, there’s still plenty of it; there are some things you just can’t fight).
If you’re aware of the Plague Tale series, you’re also aware of the discourse around action and combat becoming the core gameplay over stealth. To me, this makes perfect sense with Sophia being our protagonist for this entry. Sophia may be 15 years younger, but she’s still Sophia; forcing her character to cower and hide from soldiers would be a disservice. Sophia isn’t Amicia, so she shouldn’t play as such. The combat in Resonance: A Plague Tale is fast, fluid, and brutal. Finishing animations are absolutely savage, entirely visceral; each fight feels like a desperate struggle to walk away breathing. I played the game on the hard difficulty setting, meaning I could take two consecutive hits before Sophia met her untimely end. Defeating an enemy refills your health, and believe me, you’ll spend plenty of fights desperately trying to pick off a weaker foe as a hulking solider in plate armour tries to crush your skull with a mace.
The actual mechanics of combat are fairly simple: light attacks which you can combo, heavy attacks, dodging, and parrying. You can improve these skills by collecting Resonance Points; they are awarded after big violent set pieces, but for the most part, you’ll find them by exploring the island. One really nice touch is that Asobo Studio recognises that the change from stealth to combat means that fans unfamiliar with action games may face an uphill battle. To counteract this, if you are defeated in combat, you can ‘respec’ your abilities and change your weapon before trying again. Speaking of weapons, Sophia has a sword, a dagger, and a grapple hook.
The grapple hook is used to explore but can be used in combat to pull enemies off balance, making them vulnerable. The dagger is the focus of your heavy attack and is there to dispatch vulnerable foes in a viciously efficient manner. Lastly, there is Sophia’s trusty sword, or collection of them by the time you end the game. Each has an ability that enhances your combat capabilities. I missed a sword or two during my first run, but of those I found, the Khopesh was my favourite; after completing a combo, it inflicts damage over time. It was very satisfying to pull off a combo on a big brutish foe and deftly dodge Sophia away as the barbarous brute bled out. I am not unfamiliar with action games; by the end of the game, with a curved blade in hand and upgrades meaning I can now parry all attacks, combat became far too easy. I intended to compete the game again on the hardest difficulty setting, Nightmare. There are boss fights in Resonance; again, they aren’t massively challenging in terms of combat but are a big leap up in difficulty. Each serves as a huge narrative and emotional payoff with Asobo demonstrating their ability to really make you feel something as you play.
Many of the big fights in the game serve to really flush out who Sophia is. Yes, she is capable and willing to inflict violence when needed and, depending on the emotional stakes, relishes doing so. However, Sophia is most often forced into these situations and would much rather be left to hunt for treasure with her beloved Leni.
For the most part, I attempt to keep spoilers to a minimum, but sometimes it’s just not possible in relation to the game’s setting. The bulk of the game takes place on Crete or ‘The Minotaur’s Island’. The story of Theseus and the Minotaur is my absolute favourite Greek myth, and to say I got excited when I realised the direction Asobo were taking would be an understatement. I’m not going to spoil exactly what form this takes, but I will stress how obviously Asobo care about the legacy and cultural importance of myth while perfectly balancing that with telling their own story.
This is made even more apparent with the environments you’ll visit on the island and the attention to detail each is given. The island is a stunning Aegean paradise, with clear water, sandy beaches, just the sort of place you’d spend a holiday. The architecture is spot on, with grandiose, elaborate constructions and full of colour. I let out a cheer seeing place walls daubed in brightly coloured painted lime plaster. I’ve visited Crete and the Palace of Knossos, and it’s clear that inspiration was taken from Sir Arthur Evans’ 20th-century reconstructions. You’ll explore these locations while solving puzzles that the legendary Daedalus put in place to keep people from interior of the island and it’s palace.
As mentioned earlier, Sophia has visions, and through these visions, the course of the game will send Sophia back in time to witness Theseus and the reign of the absurdly tyrannical King Minos. This naturally means you’ll see the island in all its splendour and its ruined state. This adds so much to the story. You can feel the weight of history throughout the game, in the exact same way you can in the late medieval period within the first two Plague Tale games.
Visually, Resonance: A Plague Tale looks as stunning as you’d expect a Plague Tale game to. The switch from medieval Europe to the Mediterranean brightens things considerably and lets Zouna, Asobo’s in-house engine, really shine. The game, like most modern games, lets you prioritise between performance or resolution, with a lower resolution targeting 60 frames per second or higher resolution at 30 frames per second. Naturally, tastes will vary, but given the fluid combat, a higher frame rate was the obvious choice for me.
