The music in this game is chilling. It really has the daunting theme down very well. Also fuck Hugo little bastard.
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I beat the game twice but I'm lazy to check how long it took me on PS4, but on PC it was done in 17.5 hours. Bear in mind that it was a completionist run for both, got all the achievements, I spent a lot of time checking all corners of the game to max up my craft options (and I did on PC, not on PS4 though), also made a lot of screenshots and spent some time just goofing around. I also played on normal difficulty, not on the immersive one.
Around 15 hours with fair amount of thorough exploration.
There aren't different difficulty levels IIRC, just an "immersive" UI option.
Two are technically missable, fully upgrading your equipment. There's chapter select for everything else. Otherwise it's a fun easy list!
They're overall mostly easy to do/find, but if you really don't want to miss anything, you can use a playthrough along, or you can go back into the chapters after doing them once in order to clean them up.
Same here, he's completely and totally adorable. I'm wary of anyone claiming they hate Hugo and find him annoying at this point, how can anyone dislike this bundle of softness & cuteness, that baffles me.
Completed this tonight. So glad I gave it due attention because what a remarkably wonderful experience it was.
Compelling narrative and script, meticulously structured around each hand tailored stage, leading to chapters that never outstayed their welcome.
Rewarding sense of progression and development, each chapters furthering the narrative and character development, or exploring new game systems and puzzle design, and in some cases all of the above at once.
Aesthetically sublime and evocative of a wide variety of themes and moods, loaded but never unwarranted use of violence and gore. Each chapter is visually distinct and rich with its own atmosphere and identity.
Wonderful cast and script, praise of which I cannot sing high enough. Charlotte McBurney and Logan Hannan's performances were integral in delivering the narrative and character development and both more than exceeded necessary expectations.
Simple, familiar game systems and stage design, but to the favour of the experience as the developers worked around their limitations and did their best to express stealth sequences and puzzling with scope wide enough to remain interesting yet limited enough to avoid tiredness.
Incredible soundtrack, notably for its dynamic elements, and specialised compositions to fit different stages, moods, and threat types.
I'm just so happy with the package as a whole. It felt absolutely focused, coherent, and confident in vision and scope. Built around fine tuned direction and not afraid to enforce limitations where overreaching may have caused a small dev team and limited production funding to crumble and impact the complete experience. Asobo knew exactly the kind of game they wanted to make and went for it, and I think a lot of praise is warranted for staying focused and delivering an experience that from top to bottom is wonderfully compelling and, more importantly, satisfyingly complete.
Easily one of the most memorable experiences I've had this year. Bravo.
Compelling narrative and script, meticulously structured around each hand tailored stage, leading to chapters that never outstayed their welcome.
Rewarding sense of progression and development, each chapters furthering the narrative and character development, or exploring new game systems and puzzle design, and in some cases all of the above at once.
Aesthetically sublime and evocative of a wide variety of themes and moods, loaded but never unwarranted use of violence and gore. Each chapter is visually distinct and rich with its own atmosphere and identity.
Wonderful cast and script, praise of which I cannot sing high enough. Charlotte McBurney and Logan Hannan's performances were integral in delivering the narrative and character development and both more than exceeded necessary expectations.
Simple, familiar game systems and stage design, but to the favour of the experience as the developers worked around their limitations and did their best to express stealth sequences and puzzling with scope wide enough to remain interesting yet limited enough to avoid tiredness.
Incredible soundtrack, notably for its dynamic elements, and specialised compositions to fit different stages, moods, and threat types.
I'm just so happy with the package as a whole. It felt absolutely focused, coherent, and confident in vision and scope. Built around fine tuned direction and not afraid to enforce limitations where overreaching may have caused a small dev team and limited production funding to crumble and impact the complete experience. Asobo knew exactly the kind of game they wanted to make and went for it, and I think a lot of praise is warranted for staying focused and delivering an experience that from top to bottom is wonderfully compelling and, more importantly, satisfyingly complete.
Easily one of the most memorable experiences I've had this year. Bravo.
This game surprised me - it was longer than I thought it would be - I took 15 hours; plus the fact there were boss battles and how some of them reminded me of RE. I died many times at the last one, trying to get the pattern down. Enjoyed the nice graphics, and how the story and gameplay constantly evolved.
I only bought it on a whim because it looked like a decent slow paced over-the-shoulder view game with a female protagonist, but glad I did.
I only bought it on a whim because it looked like a decent slow paced over-the-shoulder view game with a female protagonist, but glad I did.
The game has a great art style. Really digging it.
So beautiful. It looks really bad on my PS4 compared to this. Maybe it's time to invest in a decent PC.
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The ost is so good, I'm in chapter 11 and it just gets better.
You can really tell that the devs had a clear vision of what they wanted and focused on polishing what's there instead of trying to bite off more than they could chew.
The game is so beautiful.
I can't wait to see what they do next.
You can really tell that the devs had a clear vision of what they wanted and focused on polishing what's there instead of trying to bite off more than they could chew.
The game is so beautiful.
I can't wait to see what they do next.
Had the same experience and was wondering if I missed something that would have made that tonal shift seem less...well, shit.
It gets upgraded bit by bit as you go but it sticks with the sling sadly, I wouldn't say it was boring but the sling mechanic kinda starts to fall apart during the third act as the game changes from stealth to actual combat which the sling isn't really meant for.
This is the only time I've ever not been annoyed by a little kid being stupid. It just made me feel really, really bad,
Just finished the game.
Amazing graphics and art, aside from some inconsistent animation work this games looks far better than most AAA games (obviously the game is not big in scope and si really linear). Music is good, I won't remember it tomorrow but it works to enhance the mood of the game. The characters and story are OK-ish, Hugo is a good child character but the main plot is kind of disappointing, I expected something more interesting for the last chapters.
The gameplay is a mix of a walking simulator and a really simple and limited stealth game, even if you invest only on combat upgrades it doesn't allow you to go all aggressive really. The upgrade system is kind of meaningless, as all the situations in the game have a optimal solution and trying other ways is always heavily discouraged. Same about the resources management, it doesn't serve any purpose as the game will give you the resources you need to solve any encounter and it's really hard to be wasteful. The rats mechanics worls great and is the only really interesting gameplay aspect of the game.
Overall a entertaining game, it's nice to play a game based on a realistic version of the dark times in Europe, and as I knew that the experience would be slow and based in long walk sections I was not disappointes as I was for example with Uncharted 4. In fact this game works like a more limited and less ambitious TLOU, the slow nature of the game works well with the gameplay and even if the game limits the player a lot more than I like, it's a good time and a memorable experience, not because of the gameplay but for the really good artistic and technical aspects.
Amazing graphics and art, aside from some inconsistent animation work this games looks far better than most AAA games (obviously the game is not big in scope and si really linear). Music is good, I won't remember it tomorrow but it works to enhance the mood of the game. The characters and story are OK-ish, Hugo is a good child character but the main plot is kind of disappointing, I expected something more interesting for the last chapters.
The gameplay is a mix of a walking simulator and a really simple and limited stealth game, even if you invest only on combat upgrades it doesn't allow you to go all aggressive really. The upgrade system is kind of meaningless, as all the situations in the game have a optimal solution and trying other ways is always heavily discouraged. Same about the resources management, it doesn't serve any purpose as the game will give you the resources you need to solve any encounter and it's really hard to be wasteful. The rats mechanics worls great and is the only really interesting gameplay aspect of the game.
Overall a entertaining game, it's nice to play a game based on a realistic version of the dark times in Europe, and as I knew that the experience would be slow and based in long walk sections I was not disappointes as I was for example with Uncharted 4. In fact this game works like a more limited and less ambitious TLOU, the slow nature of the game works well with the gameplay and even if the game limits the player a lot more than I like, it's a good time and a memorable experience, not because of the gameplay but for the really good artistic and technical aspects.
Just reached chapter 4. I'm hooked so much that I'm amazed by the game. Especially that lately I've been getting bored way fast when I game!
The French voice actors did an amazing job with the one. Bravo!
The French voice actors did an amazing job with the one. Bravo!
Mid-way through the game. I just have one question about a historical discrepancy and wonder if it gets addressed or whatever:
At some point there's a fresco depicting Justinian's Plague, and then they said that bath was built by the Roman's in the 6th century CE... but the western Roman Empire was already gone at that time. This is France, so if it was built in the 6th century it would've been by a Frankish kingdom or something. Maybe those characters just wouldn't have known themselves. I dunno.
well this specific issue may just be something missed by the writers, the world of plague tale is a fictional 14c france so given the fansical setting with the rats they can take certain leeway with history
Hugo my boy is adapting. The first time I don't hate a kid in a game. Yes I fucking hated Atreus the arrogant piece of shit
Mainly added thanks to comments in this and the review thread. Hope everyone's enjoying.
Played about 90 minutes of this last night and I am very excited to jump back in. The game has been a pleasure so far.
Thank you so much for the CA toggle.
Thank you so much for the CA toggle.
I've loved this game so far, so it's a shame that the gameplay on the final few chapters is ruining the entire thing for me.
Far be it from me to tell anyone how to make a game but never, ever have as many things go on as this game does with such a dodgy main weapon when every single thing kills you in one hit.
Far be it from me to tell anyone how to make a game but never, ever have as many things go on as this game does with such a dodgy main weapon when every single thing kills you in one hit.
I've heard really great things about the game, but some people mentioning stuttering issues on PC is making me hesitant, as that can really break the immersion of games like this. Are you guys aware of problems with hitching while exploring/playing the game? Alex from Digital Foundry mentioned it in his look at the game, and that's on a quite powerful PC.
Ah, I wish I had that CA toggle when I started.
Whatever, I finished this. It's lovely. What a pleasant surprise.
Whatever, I finished this. It's lovely. What a pleasant surprise.
Overall, eh.
It's definitely a well-handled story with a good cast of characters, and there's a lot less dissonance between the story and the gameplay compared to most games. Of particular note is how Plague Tale handles the violence -- the main character's progression from "oh God I've killed a man" to "fuck these motherfuckers" is handled much better than Lara's transition in Tomb Raider 2013.
It's also really impressive how good this game looks despite not having a AAA budget, and apparently running on a proprietary engine according to DF. Even on base PS4 this is a nice-looking game throughout. Though the chromatic aberration is way too intense, and I say that as someone who has never had a problem with CA.
Mainly I just didn't like the level design, and the stealth that came along with it. It felt like a mix between Metal Gear Solid 1 (and by extension the MSX Metal Gear games) and the linear stealth sections from Assassin's Creed games. I could never stand the latter. I'm completely done with that hide-in-the-tall-grass stealth shit. Overall the level design just feels too small-scale, too linear, too limited. And it's totally reliant on the dumb AI. Linear stealth games where you only have one path aren't really that good. Even in Uncharted, which this game really wants to be in some ways, you have options for how you want to outmaneuver enemies when being stealthy. More open-ended levels (even just wide-linear like MGS3 or Chaos Theory or something) with better enemy AI where you can just use the game's various tools however you want would've done wonders. The rat obstacle sections felt similarly obvious and simple. There's something that feels very 2D about the scenario design in this game, as if it could've been played from a top-down camera.
And this may seem like a small thing, but I think game developers need to start thinking more about how their player characters animate, because maybe it's not stated enough how important that is to how an action game feels. The main heroine's movement just doesn't feel that good, but oddly enough her brother's feels a lot better when you switch to his section. Part of it is that he feels more responsive in general, but I think his jog animation overall just "feels" better. This is probably a main reason Breath of the Wild and Phantom Pain feel better to play than so many open-world games that are superficially extremely similar. It's a main problem a lot of people have with Witcher 3. Maybe good animation is just really expensive and that's partly why mid-budget games like this tend to be deficient in that department. I think it's a major thing that keeps Plague Tale from being Naughty Dog, which is what it seemed to be going for. It wants to look like a smooth, cinematic experience, but ends up feeling a lot like a video game.
It's definitely a well-handled story with a good cast of characters, and there's a lot less dissonance between the story and the gameplay compared to most games. Of particular note is how Plague Tale handles the violence -- the main character's progression from "oh God I've killed a man" to "fuck these motherfuckers" is handled much better than Lara's transition in Tomb Raider 2013.
It's also really impressive how good this game looks despite not having a AAA budget, and apparently running on a proprietary engine according to DF. Even on base PS4 this is a nice-looking game throughout. Though the chromatic aberration is way too intense, and I say that as someone who has never had a problem with CA.
Mainly I just didn't like the level design, and the stealth that came along with it. It felt like a mix between Metal Gear Solid 1 (and by extension the MSX Metal Gear games) and the linear stealth sections from Assassin's Creed games. I could never stand the latter. I'm completely done with that hide-in-the-tall-grass stealth shit. Overall the level design just feels too small-scale, too linear, too limited. And it's totally reliant on the dumb AI. Linear stealth games where you only have one path aren't really that good. Even in Uncharted, which this game really wants to be in some ways, you have options for how you want to outmaneuver enemies when being stealthy. More open-ended levels (even just wide-linear like MGS3 or Chaos Theory or something) with better enemy AI where you can just use the game's various tools however you want would've done wonders. The rat obstacle sections felt similarly obvious and simple. There's something that feels very 2D about the scenario design in this game, as if it could've been played from a top-down camera.
And this may seem like a small thing, but I think game developers need to start thinking more about how their player characters animate, because maybe it's not stated enough how important that is to how an action game feels. The main heroine's movement just doesn't feel that good, but oddly enough her brother's feels a lot better when you switch to his section. Part of it is that he feels more responsive in general, but I think his jog animation overall just "feels" better. This is probably a main reason Breath of the Wild and Phantom Pain feel better to play than so many open-world games that are superficially extremely similar. It's a main problem a lot of people have with Witcher 3. Maybe good animation is just really expensive and that's partly why mid-budget games like this tend to be deficient in that department. I think it's a major thing that keeps Plague Tale from being Naughty Dog, which is what it seemed to be going for. It wants to look like a smooth, cinematic experience, but ends up feeling a lot like a video game.
I have a petty powerful rig (2080Ti + 2700x) and I'm still experiencing stutters. They are not very frequent, but they happen and they can be definitely immersion breaking. A big issue seems to be the high CPU usage that happens in the second area of the first chapter. I had over 70% CPU usage and overheating to the point that CPU temperature went over 90C and game had stutters caused by this. This stops happening when you get to Chapter 2, but some users are saying it happens again later in the game.
I've only played the first 2 chapters, and I'm wondering whether to wait for a patch that fixes the main issues.