A Plague Tale: Innocence

(Spoiler-free)
A Plague Tale: Innocence is a story-driven adventure stealth game set in 1349’s medieval France. I heard a lot of positive things about this game before I had a chance to try it myself. I must say, people are not wrong calling this game a “masterpiece”. It immediately became one of the best games I have ever played. This is one of those 10/10 games that, I think, everyone should try. It is definitely a title I will not forget. I would even go as far as to say that if you are okay with the genres this game represents, it will be a guaranteed positive experience for you.
The game tells a story of Amicia and Hugo, two siblings who are still children. They come from a wealthy home and never really had to experience the hardships of life before. Both siblings are forced to run and this is how this beautiful journey begins. Amicia, who is 15 years old, is the older sibling. She is the main character whose shoes we are going to step into in this story. She is already a strong and independent woman who can take care of herself. Amicia is also likeable, benevolent, caring, well-mannered and has an awesome French accent. It’s difficult not to like her, however, I still think that she lacks a bit of personality. Aside from what I already mentioned, her other traits don’t really stand out. I can’t help but feel that she was made very neutral on purpose. There is no reason for you to hate her nor to fall in love with her as a character which is understandable since she is a minor. I personally would expect a bit more personality from the main character. Her brother Hugo, who is 5 years old, is a very bright child. He literally gets excited about everything. His interactions with the world and his voice are adorable. I would expect nothing less from such a young character. I can’t say a negative thing about how he was written but there is a room for improvement when it comes to Amicia.
The world the action takes place in is a really brutal, unforgiving and dark place. It is medieval France during black plague after all. Everyone you come across wants to either kill or capture you. On top of that, the disease is spreading and swarms of rats destroy everything on their path. In this world the most dangerous predator in nature is not human but a rat. Human race never seemed so helpless against an opponent like this. Here rats are a superior race. From the visual side the game looks stunning. The environment looks as realistic as it gets. It is truly a beautiful game. Everything has been done with attention to detail and it shows. I managed to spot plenty of different details in interactions between siblings which warmed my heart more than once.
In terms of gameplay, the game is simply perfect. The world is filled with puzzles. There will be a lot of them but you won’t mind. They were made so that the player doesn’t have to pay much attention to them. They are intuitive and don’t take a long time to solve. I have not experienced getting stuck on a puzzle and answers to them came naturally within a couple of minutes. You don’t really have to play a management game with ammunition and other resources either if you don’t want to. Everything you may need for the puzzles will be directly given to you by the game or found in your surroundings. It is a stealth game where you constantly have to sneak past soldiers wanting to kill you. In theory this can be stressful but I have found the gameplay aspect of this game to be very relaxing. It is basically a smooth sailing through the puzzles, therefore, through the story as well.
There is one thing I didn’t like about this game. Those who are sensitive to animal suffering should be warned. There are scenes that shouldn’t be thrown at a player's face just like that. I don’t think that’s okay. Also, and this can be considered a spoiler, a decision to sacrifice an animal shouldn’t come so easy for anyone. You can’t tell me that after considering your options for 5 seconds you arrive at a conclusion that sacrificing a living animal is your only choice. That’s heartless and not true at all. There were a lot of things they could have done differently and it would be a much better experience for everyone. The scenes I was a witness to lead me only to one conclusion: developer's approach to animals is inhumane. They simply don't matter. One thing is certain, this is not a game for children. Still, I feel like it's the only flaw on this masterpiece but some things needed to be said.
In summary, I played an exceptional game that I will probably not forget for the rest of my life. It was truly an amazing and beautiful experience. I am glad that I played it and I recommend that everyone else follow in my footsteps. It’s not flawless but what is a problem for me, won’t be a problem for the majority of the community. Despite that, for me, this game is art, a masterpiece. I cannot recommend it enough. Simply give it a try and you will not regret it.
You can find more detailed reviews on my curator page Malfour's Choice.

I ended up buying this game a year ago and did not touch it until recently. I really wish I played it a lot sooner though, the story was really engaging, mechanics felt fluid, and graphics are amazingly good! If you like single player experiences this one is for you! It is not open world and is a linear story but would recommend a bunch of times over.
---{ Graphics }---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable (40ish gigs)
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average (completed the game in 13.7 hours)
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8.5
☐ 9
☐ 10

An interesting game with a fascinating story. But there are downsides - these are blind NPCs who don't care what's going on around them, you can at least dance in front of them and then just as easily hide under the bushes (like yo buddy, you can go through, I didn't see anything lol). The game is quite boring and monotonous in places, I literally played for 30 minutes a day, for me this is an alarming sign. The rats in this game are quite stupid, not aggressive, they mainly serve as an obstacle on the road. The atmosphere in the game changes very quickly, a beautiful landscape suddenly turns into a mountain of rotten corpses and it looks creepy. Sometimes there are good dialogues in the game, beautiful landscapes for screenshots, in general, the game with a discount is worth its money. I hope to pass the second part someday, but so far there is no special desire. I give it 7/10

On the surface seems like a dull stealth game where you throw rocks to distract dumb guards and wait for them to patrol - it does have a lot of that. This isn't usually a genre that appeals to me but it managed to keep me engaged all the way through with story, environments, and characters that are all such high quality you won't mind the slow gameplay.
My only real gripe with the game is that the main villain (who doesn't have much screentime) is cartoonishly evil, a stark contrast to the rest of the game which is fairly gritty and realistic aside from some fantasy elements. The villains are more of a driving force in the story rather than the main focus, so this downside doesn't take away from the story imo.

One of the best story-driven and exciting games
The game starts very beautifully and has the best ending
The graphics of the game are amazing and the stages of the game are very entertaining. You just want to repeat the stages and not finish them.
It is really worth the price you pay and it is really worth buying the DLC to support the developer.

I can't believe how beautiful a game can be. The game had a very exciting and great story and the locations of the game were completely different and beautiful, the game had a good balance, that is, both scary and beautiful locations are well in The story of the game was immersive, the voice acting and music of the game matched the story perfectly


Another good thing about the game was the combat system and that it was not repeated in any way and we could fight with the enemies as we wanted.
Undoubtedly, it was one of the best games I have ever played I Love it :)))

Incredible game, very good writing, excellent art direction, outstanding OST. In my opinion, A Plague Tale: Innocence is one of the best story-driven games, with unique and highly original gameplay. The progression curve is very good, with new equipment being unlocked throughout the game, making it very non-repetitive. The equipment upgrading and crafting aspect is reminiscent of The Last of Us, with the same workbench and loot system. Despite a few bugs that can easily be fixed, the game is, in my opinion, perfect.
I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a unique narrative game that stands out from the crowd, offering a very dark but sometimes very beautiful universe and truly original gameplay.