A Plague Tale: Innocence
Last night I started this up on PC and worked my way to the start of Chapter Three. From what I can tell the game concludes with Chapter Seventeen which, based on the time it took to do the first two, means it's a decent length title considering it's sitting in the AA bracket of releases.
In the Black
The game has you controlling a Princess out with her father for a walk in the woods. Back at home your mother plays with spells in an effort to help a younger brother you've hardly ever seen but without explaining what is wrong with him. As soon as you return home the defensive gates are breached as enemies enter the grounds in search of the boy. As everyone is slaughtered around you the only option is to flee and seek a way to survive through the nearby town that is currently in the grip of the Plague. The first thing I did was knock it down to 1440p to have it at 60fps maxed out, it was ok at 4K but I couldn't be bothered exploring the options so took the easy option, it doesn't really affect the game as it still looks sharp and this is more of a cinematic title so nothing is really lost as the games main selling point, despite it not being a AAA title, is that it's absolutely gorgeous.
Innocence Marked
Unless things change as I get further in the game appears to be largely a glorified walking sim. Most of the gameplay comprises of walking through linear environments as the story unfolds, there's a sprint button that works mostly in scripted areas as well as the ability to pick up stones to use in a slingshot you can level up but this mechanic also seems to be largely script based. Another element is stealth, they're very basic though, enemies having a very fixed pattern of movement and there usually being an obvious area to throw a pot or stone to as a distraction. It's hard to imagine this will open up as it goes along at the moment so going in with the idea of it being a walking sim is probably best, Hellblade would be another one to compare to but that had a greater combat emphasis.
A Voice to Death
The voice acting is reasonable given this doesn't benefit from the budget big name titles do, it varies character to character but from what I've seen so far the story is well delivered and could prove to be the key pull of going through the game. It's worth specifically mentioning again though that the game is visually brilliant. There's some rigidity to the character movement you often get from non-AAA titles but the locations you work through consistently look lovely to an impressive extent and the world building is convincing enough to feel easy to navigate without feeling like game environments.
Hopefully the fairly high presentation bar it's set itself holds throughout and I imagine it will. Whether the story does or the simple gameplay becomes a chore will be interesting to see but these first two lengthy chapters suggest that a pretty impressive game has been put together here for what it is.
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