A Plague Tale: Requiem Features Battle-Hardened Amicia And Hugo

Less than two months from release, A Plague Tale: Requiem has received a new trailer that shares additional details on the next chapter in the story and shows off more action-heavy gameplay sequences.

Along with the trailer came a PlayStation blog post, written by game director Kevin Choteau, that delved deeper into the various tools Hugo and Amicia will have at their disposal in the sequel, and the dynamic ways these tools can be utilised. The post also makes a point to emphasize the game’s themes of violence and identity.

The trailer shares a good portion of the game’s earliest sections. The protagonists arrive at a southern town still untouched by the plague, and the pair play at the local fair. But soon enough, as to be expected, things go awry and the rats come down on them like a brutal tidal wave. Hugo’s own affliction begins to ail him, and the pair decide to follow Hugo’s visions and head further south to an island.

The trailer describes Amicia as hardened, experienced, and resourceful due to her struggles in Innocence, it’s made clear that Amicia is now well-versed in combat. We see a boat section where she controls a sort of harpoon and a section where Amicia is seen knocking down an enemy’s lamp in order to set them on fire, and then throwing a smoke bomb to instead extinguish flames, shrouding enemies in darkness and sending the rats their way. This is all done to show the improvements made to the game’s dynamism – combat scenarios will now have multiple solutions.

The blog shares that the enemies faced in Requiem will differ from those in Innocence. More mercenaries than soldiers, they’ll be crueller and wilder than before. “Our team has put a lot of effort into designing their intelligence and reactions to each situation,” they shared. “Their potential of adaptation to Amicia’s moves will truly challenge players!” The focus on “a whole new spatial dynamic” is specified, creating situations where Amicia has to use the environment to her advantage, like making use of tarpots that slow enemies or ignitable grass that can burn them. Choteau draws attention to how much more open areas are compared to Innocence and how the player can choose to tackle encounters more stealthily or more directly, tying in nicely with the growth of the main characters.

Multiple indications about the game’s moral themes are threaded into the post. It’s clear the idea of sacrificing morality for the sake of survival and sinking into a cycle of violence is one that will be heavily integrated into the game’s story. It mentions concepts like the trauma violence can cause and speaks of the protagonists weighing their actions against the darkness they could allow to spread within them. The post specifically explains how Amicia no longer hesitates when killing, and how it can “lead her to develop a taste for it,” which is something she’ll need to learn to control.

On Hugo’s end, his power, which can allow him to control the rat hordes to devour his enemies, comes at a cost. This ability, which is described as something that could destroy a city, actually brings him closer to the rats when he does it. He shares their perceptions and their feelings, and thus, every use damages him mentally. Yet, controlling such raw power results in a certain “vicious pleasure” for Hugo; another one of the game’s various moral dilemmas.

A Plague Tale: Requiem launches on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Switch (Cloud Version), on October 18th, 2022.