The Steam Stealth Fest sale is now live through July 31. In particular, this festiva??l highlights games with sneaking in mind. You'll find discounts aplenty, as well as some exclusive demos for upcoming? games. Steam users interested in stickers can also claim a free sticker for every day of the event.

After looking through the sale, there are a ton of Ubisoft games discounted for this event. Pretty much every game in the Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Tom Clancy, and Watch Dogs franch??ises are on sale for 60% off or more. I don't think I've ever quite realized just how much Ubisoft likes making stealthy games. Thanks, Steam!

Overall there are some pretty decent sales in here with most discounts being at least 75% off or more. To commemorate the start of the Stealth Fest, Steam has sneakily released a trai??ler for the event.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LzmKFJgwWg

I've gone throu?gh and found some of the more notable deals as part of the Steam Steath Fest.

Steam Stealth Fest notable sales

• A Plague Tale: Innocenceâ€?$7.99 (80% off)
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey â€?$11.99 (80% off)
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla â€?$14.99 (75% off)
• Batman: Arkham Knight â€?$11.99 (80% off)
• Far Cry 5 â€?$8.99 (85% off)
• Far Cry 6 â€?$14.99 (75% off)
• Generation Zero â€?$7.49 (70% off)
• Hitman 3 â€?$34.99 (50% off)
• Little Nightmares II â€?$9.89 (67% off)
• Sniper Elite 5 â€?$16.99 (66% off)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpointâ€?$11.99 (80% off)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Reson Wildlands â€?$9.99 (80% off)
• Watch Dogs: Legion â€?$8.99 (85% off)

Even if none of these titles tickle your fancy, there are a ton of games currently on sale for the Steam Stealth Fest. You can view the full ??list of dis??counted games here.

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Swoop in, claim them on the Epic Store, and go about the rest of your Thursday routine

From August 5�2, you can snatch up a free copy of A Plague Tale: Innocence and Minit from the Epic Games Store. Hey, wait a minute... That's now! Yep, you've stumbled into another go-get-that-free-stuff PSA. These two games come highly ??recommended.

In particular, A Plague Tale: Innocence has that "you know it's good but you're still procrastinating" energy, which is ideal for a free-to-keep giveaway. And I'd say that goes double now that we know a sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem, is due in 2022. You do??n??'t need to catch up with these rats yet, but at some point, future-you will be grateful you did.

Admittedly, Minit has been through the free-game circuit before. (We were supposed to get Speed Brawl this week until a last-minute switcheroo.) It's worth it if you are okay with time loops in your video games �it's a short enough adventure that repetition never grates too much �and if you're partial to 2D Zelda and its impact on indies, even better.

Next week, from August 12�9, the Epic Games Store will offer up Rebel Galaxy, a space-western game that's cool but can't quite live up to its grand ambitions.

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Two games that are exactly the same in every way

Epic Games Store has revealed the next two titles that it will be offering up to its userbase, free of charge. The first is Focus Interactive's evocative and grim third-person adventure A Plague Tale: Innocence, while the second is Double Stallion's punk-rock scrapper, Speed Brawl. Both titles will be available to download from August ??5-12.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtPclEoODrc

Developed by French studio Asobo and released on PC and consoles in 2019, A Plague Tale: Innocence is a stealth-based adventure set in 14th century France at the height of the Inquisition?. Two children of noble blood, Amica and Hugo de Rune, are forced to fight for their lives and their freedom after witnessing a terrible tragedy at their homestead. Traversing a miserable and diseased landscape, pursued by the Inquisition and under siege by a plague of terrifying black rats, the de Rune children must relying on their wits, simple alchemy, and environmental adaptation to escape a horrific fate.

I loved A Plague Tale: Innocence, and am very much looking forward to its recently announced sequel. Frankly, it's a shame that so many players are only experiencing Asobo's humble AA adventure through "free" media such as PlayStation Plus and Epic Games Store, but hopefully, this will spre?ad the word for better sales when the sequel launches in 2022.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRfs02TGNic

Conversely, Double Stallion Games' Speed Brawl is a wild and colorful dose of non-stop chaos. Featuring 2D cartoon visuals and crazy, over-the-top action, Speed Brawl has one or two players choose from one of six unique sluggers before engaging in high-speed, non-stop battles to the death with an enslaved army of invaders known as The Selenites. Battle t?hrough the steampunk-style leagues of a bored British Empire, master combos, swift movement, and controlled carnage, and become the best Speed Brawler in scumbag Blighty.

A great-looking and seriously underplayed gem, Speed Brawl's arrival on Epic Games Store should bring more ?deserved at??tention to its high-speed, stylistic combat, strange steampunk world, and quirky cast of colorful and dynamic characters. Check it out!

Current Epic Games Store free games �Mothergunship and Train Sim World 2 �will remain available until August 5.

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And Virtua Fighter hangs around PlayStation Plus for another month

[Update: It's time to claim July's PlayStation Plus games from the PlayStation Store: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, A Plague Tale: Innocence, and WWE 2K Battlegrounds.]

A new month means a new set of PlayStation Plus games, and one game on the July 2021 card is one I'm sure?? people might have been eyeing since a follow-up was announced during E3 2021.

A Plague Tale: Innocence's PS5 version headlines July's PlayStation Plus lineup, accompanied by Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and WWE 2K Battlegrounds. They'll all be available starting July 6, and they're joined by a fourth game: Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown will spend a second month on PlayStation Plus.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evv-ECAk35g

It was recently confirmed A Plague Tale: Innocence is coming to new-gen consoles, as well as the Nintendo Switch via ?the cloud. The PlayStation 5 version t??argets 60 FPS at 4K native resolution, which is a really high-fidelity lens to view all those creepy rat swarms through.

Considering A Plague Tale: Requiem was announced at Xbox and Bethesda's E3 showcase, I imagine folks are probably looking for a way to play the first game, so this is a pretty good get. And I have to admit, I'm morbidly curious about the bizarre WWE 2K Battlegrounds.

Remember to pick up June's PS Plus games before July 5, which includes Star Wars: Squadrons and the very good co-op espionage sim Operation: Tango.

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Viva la France!

Focus Home Interactive has proudly announced that Asobo Studio's grim adventure title A Plague Tale: Innocence has passed the one mil?lion sales mark, shining a light of deserved success on the dark tale of two brave children in one of humanity's darkest hours.

Set against the backdrop of The Great Plague in 14th century France, A Plague Tale is the story of two aristocratic children, Amica and Hugo De Rune, who are forced from their home by?? The Inquisition under the most violent of circumstances. Out on their own in a nightmare world of fascist rule and national sickness, Amica must rely on her sharp wits to guide herself and Hugo out of the city, away from the blades of The Inquisition and thousands of tiny, razor-sharp teeth.

"The entire team at Asobo Studio is extremely proud of the path A Plague Tale: Innocence has taken in one year with Focus Home Interactive by our side," said Asobo Studio co-founder David Dedeine. "Every day more and more players are discovering the story of Amicia and Hug??o, which is for us the greatest source of motivation. We can't wait to bring other adventu??res and strong emotional experiences!"

One of my favourite games of 2019, A Plague Tale: Innocence was an understated gem which made the very most out of its modest budget and mid-tier production status, offering an intense, unique, and engaging adventure. Amica - as a protagonist - deserves to be heralded alongside the Aloy's and Ellie's of the digital world, while Asobo Studios deserve plaudits for creating a stunning visual environment in spite of A Plague Tale's exceptionally dark setting.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is available now on PS4, PC, and Xbox One.

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I hate them meeces to peeces

A Plague Tale: Innocence is one of my favourite games of the year. And I'm hoping it receives the chatter it deserves over the next few weeks - as the industry at large focuses on the Resident Evil 2s and Death Strandings of the world. Regardless, the grim tale of two aristocratic children's journey to survive the pestilence and misery of 14th century France made an indelible impact on me.

Citing a "verified source", French website Xbox Squad are reporting that a sequel to A Plague Tale is on the cards, and is currently undergoing pre-production at developer As?obo Studios. The article reports that the sequel will be announced in 2020, with a supposed 2022? release date.

This led Eurogamer to contact Focus, whereby they received a statement neither confirming nor denying the rumour. "Focus Home Interactive and Asobo are very proud of the critical and public reception of A Plague Tale: Innocence, and the sales," the publisher said. "We're delighted to have received a solid number of awards and nominations, including for Best Narrative at the Game Awards next week... Of course, we announced last year we are partnering with Asobo for a future project but never confirmed if it was a sequel to A Plague Tale or not - ?and will give more details on that title when the right time comes."

A Plague Tale: Innocence is an example of what can be achieved with a modest budget, provided you have a solid story, a good cast, and a highly-talented team of developers. This resulted in positive praise from both press and players, and while A Plague Tale didn't exactly set cash registers alight, it was a large part of a very successful year for Focus. 2019 saw an 80% revenue increase for the publisher, who has seemingly found its niche among similar mid-tier adventures such as Vampyr and Greedfall.

I'd love to engage with further stories from A Plague Tale's dark world. And the wait for confirmation will be an arduous one. In the meantime, A Plague Tale: Innocence is available on PS4, PC, and Xbox One.

A Plague Tale 2 reportedly in development [Eurogamer / Xbox Squad]

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Shout-out to any game that does this

If you aren't sold on the harrowing stealth-leaning rat-covered narrative adventure game A Plague Tale: Innocence, you should try the newly-released free trial. And if you can't spare the time or mental energy needed to download and play a trial right now, you at least need to set aside a literal second of your life to watch a swirling column of rats. Jump to the 0:28 mark in this trailer, hit ?play, and don't blink.

I didn't know I was capable of doing a Patrick Stewart quadruple take until now.

To be clear, A Plague Tale has rats – loads of 'em! – and it isn't afraid to use them. The story takes us back to 1349 and follows Amicia and her younger sibling Hugo as they dodge the Plague and the Inquisitio??n in France. Moyse says it "deserves to be heralded as one of 2019's very best adve?ntures."

The free trial covers the game's entire first chapter. It's available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

The post A Plague Tale: Innocence has a ?free trial covering chapter one appeared first on Destructoid.

Or maybe just some nice landscape shots

If there's one juxtaposition that really stands out in Asobo Studios' excellent adventure A Plague Tale: Innocence, it's how siblings Amicia and Hugo can find thems??elves standing on a beautiful dawn riverbank one minute, then be knee-deep in festering corpses the next. It's a testament to the game's design that it can be so gorgeous but so reviling at one and the same time.

Whichever you prefer, you will soon be able to capture those moments for posterity, as the developer has hinted that a Photo Mode will be added to A Plague Tale in an upcoming update. This will let players capture some of the game's gorgeous, and gore-go?us, surroundings, with a feature that's fast becoming a mainstay in gam??ing as visuals continue to get more photo-realistic.

The announcement was made via twitter, in a video which features Asobo's creative director David Dedeine thanking fans for their amazing support for the sleeper hit's success. In other news, the game's string soundtrack is also getting a full release in the future. So wherever you are, you can have the soothing sounds of thousands of black rats scurrying around you (jesting aside, A Plague Tale's score is brilliant). Finally, Japanese lan??guage has also been added to the game's list of audio options.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is available now on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

Thank you so much for your love and support! Our Creative Director David has some interesting news for you 😉. Did someone say "photo mode"? pic.twitter.com/zDx0K4DTT5

— A Plague Tale (@APlagueTale) June 13, 2019

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The Rat King

Focus Home Interactive has released an "accolades" trailer celebrating the positive critical reception to its sobering adventure game A Plague Tale: Innocence. The clip features scores and quotes from a number of outlets, praising the?? title for its score, strong characters and oppressive atmosphere.

Launching around a fortnight ago, A Plague Tale is the story of two young children of noble heritage, Amicia and Hugo De Rune, who are forced out into the slums of 14th century France, where they are besiege?d by not only the terrifying might of The Inquisition, but also by an army of diseased black rats, currently spreading death throughout the countryside. It isn't a comedy.

If you'd like to know more about this sleeper hit, then you can check out our own review right here (which came a little late to make the cut for this trailer.) I personally found it to be an engaging and gripping stealth adventure, that dresses up i?ts fairly standard gameplay with excellent dialogue, a strong story and some nightmarish encount??ers.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is available now on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

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Bless the Beasts and Children

Every now and then, a title shows up on the video game market that has all the passion and talent of the "AAA gaming" scene, but without the budget or the marketing machine of a Warner Bros. or an Activision in its corner. Despite this, some of these "mid-tier" releases go on to find critical and/or financial success. Titles such as Ninja Theory's award-winning Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice are an obvious example.

Publisher Focus Home Interactive seems to be sold on the idea that you can release great, profitable games without bankrupting the stock market, ruining your workforce, relying on annual sequels, or launching with a two-year DLC plan. In the summer of 2018, Focus released Dontnod's Vampyr, which managed to turn a ?profit short??ly after one month, before going on to eventually shift well over a million copies.

Focus is now hoping for similar success with this latest unknown entity, A Plague Tale: Innocence. Developed by French outfit Asobo Studios, A Plague Tale is a somber story of courage, loss, and political oppression, set against the b??ackdrop of one of history's most horrifying time periods. It's also one of the best games I've played ?this year.

A Plague Tale: Innocence (PS4 [reviewed], PC, Xbox One)
Developer: Asobo Studios
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Released: May 14, 2019
MSRP: $49.99

Set in 14th century France, A Plague Tale: Innocence is the story of a courageous young girl, Amicia De Rune, and her even younger brother Hugo, who has been sick since birth. Children of noble blood, the De Rune family have thus far managed to evade the prevalent death that is creeping across the country, carried by an underground army of black rats. That is until a particularly violent morning, when the De Rune?? children are forced to flee their opulent home, driven out by a bloody attack from those terrifying defenders of religio??n: The Inquisition.

Having already seen more horror in one day than any child should in their lifetime, and now hunted like animals by The Inquisition's soldiers, Amicia and Hugo flee deep into the Aquitaine district. Over the course of this dark and seemingly hopeless journey, Amicia will be forced to become a strong-willed, fearless young woman, fending off impossible odds in the form of a battalion of heavily-armed soldiers, as well as the terrifying rodent menace that lite?rally plagues the countryside.

Fortunately, the siblings are not completely alone. The Plague may have killed many, but there are scant survivors, fellow enemies of authority, who Amicia and Hugo will encounter on the road. Soon, our twosome become a party wh?o, outnumbered and outmatched, must rely on crude weaponry, subterfuge and the ancient science of alchemy to escape the district, The Inquisition, and the teeming mass of teeth and claws attempting to swallow them all.

A Plague Tale is a linear single-player stealth adventure, interspersed with puzzle elements of the lever-pulling, box-pushing kind. "Linear" is stressed. This isn't an open-world game, there aren't multiple paths to be chosen, and while secrets exist, they're mostly just the discovery of extra ammunition and supplies. First and foremost, A Plague Tale is a stealt?h title, with each chapter of the siblings' journey divided between either escaping packs of rodents, or sneaking past burly guards, who're? are able to cut down Amicia in a single blow.

The De Runes must rely on teamwork and trickery to push through each location, whether creating distractions, throwing breakable items, putting out lights, or using the environment to creep past – or even eliminate – their enemies. When it comes to dealing wit?h rats, light is the key weapon, with players using lateral thinking and nearby fires, braziers, lanterns, and even the weat??her to pick their way through the rodents. These sequences are creepy and intense affairs, with a real sense of satisfaction to their completion.

As the pair journey through the countryside, a very basic crafting system allows for the creation of tools and powders to tip the odds in Amicia's favour. Light-bombs, small explosives, even sleeping dust can be used in a pinch to evade the bad guys. When all e??lse fails, Amicia is armed with a crude sling, and woe betide any soldier who takes her shot lightly, lest they find a rock embedded in their cranium. By best selecting their path through danger, utilising all available options, Amicia must guide the duo to safety.

Stealth in gaming is not everyone's bag. It can be a slow-moving, even tedious affair. To combat the linearity, A Plague Tale keeps players involved with brilliant characters, believable dialogue, and genuinely affecting moments of pathos, friendship, and cruelty. In the downtime between action, Amicia, Hugo, their companions – and enemies – engage in mature, realistic conversation, dialogue that truly brings the cast to life. The voice-acting (I played the game in French and I strongly recommend players do likewise) is touching?? and nuanced.

Hugo's childish inquisitiveness is realistic, not corny. Conversation is natural, flowing often and yet, just as importantly, A Plague Tale knows when not to say anything at all, allowing the visuals to carry the weight of the drama. Music also plays an important part, with a string-heavy score used to great emotional effect, whil??e fast fiddling accompanies the encroaching rat army.

Every game can't be God of War in the looks department, but A Plague Tale makes the most of its resources, going beyond its limitations to offer luscious forests, warmly lit churches, and beautiful strolls along babbling brooks. At the other extreme, Amicia is dropped into dark slums filled with festering corpses, post-war battlefields, and frightening underground dens, with tiny eyes peering from every nook and cranny. A Plague Tale creates a unique setting,?? which succeeds in delighting and disgusting in equal amoun?ts. Character models themselves have impressive textures, even if certain animations are undeniably janky.

Aware that the story is its ace-in-the-hole, A Plague Tale chooses not to get bogged down in the details. Game design is streamlined, minimising time spent in menus, and removing entirely the option to gallivant off on side-quests. This allows the player to focus on the urgency of the story's dramatic weight. The trial of the De Rune children – and how it shapes them as people – is emotive and heartbreaking. The pair are forced to grow up fast, leaving behind their noble heritage, and resorting to morally-dubious acts in order to p?reserve the lives of themselves and those around them.

Ultimately, at the heart of A Plague Tale lies a standard stealth-adventure, no more or less. But this overly-familiar action is so perfectly balanced in itself, so lavishly staged, and given such purpose through its characters' ongoing plight,? ?that to not see this unlikely party of heroes through to their dramatic end seems almost impossible.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a grim, gripping, and fantastic adventure. The solid stealth gameplay offers little new, but the unique setting, affecting characters, excellent dialogue, and oppressive atmosphere more than redress that linearity. Add to this a lean design, an emotive score, and a commitment to narrative focus, and A Plague Tale deser?ves to be heralded as one of 2019's very best adventures.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game pr??ovided by the publisher.]}

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First ever console based on a horrifying illness?

To celebrate the launch of their dark stealth adventure A Plague Tale: Innocence, publisher Focus Home Interact??ive has teamed up with Xbox to offer this one-of-a-kind custom Xbox One console, featuring a gloomy aesthetic design based on plague-infested vermin. Delightfu??l.

All you have to do to bag a chance of winning the console is follow the official A Plague Tale twitter account and then retweet the sweepstakes post for others. The competition is open to anyone from any of the participating countries listed in the rules, and the one lucky name pulled o?ut of the hat after May 23 will find t?hemselves the owner of this Gothic monstrosity.

Further opportunities to enter can be attained by following the game on its official Facebook and Instagram pages. For full details, check out the terms and conditions right here. A Plague Tale - Innocence is available now on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is now available!

Get a chance chance to win this beautiful Xbox One X customized for the game by @randomprint:
🀠FOLLOW us on Twitter
🔄 RT this tweet

Contest ends May 23. Official rules: //t.co/bOnnM9hx0u 🔥 pic.twitter.com/aUXdy5nCoU

— A Plague Tale (@APlagueTale) May 14, 2019

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It ain't Roland

Today sees the release of Focus Home Entertainment's miserable-looking tale of love and loss among The Black Death. A Plague Tale: Innocence is ?the story of two young siblings f??orced to fight for survival in 14th century France.

With disease-riddled vermin running the streets, and the terrifying force of The Inquisition in full effect, Amica and Hugo must use their wiles, cunning and small stature to escape the city, aided by the few kind citizens they might encounter along the way. A Plague Tale blends stealth gameplay and puzzles elements with a dramatic story and an oppressive atmosphere in ho?pes to create a grim-but-gripping adventure.

I'm definitely going to be checking this release out, but tentatively. While I think the look, setting and story of the game are really unique and intriguing, I'm pretty much over tired stealth and crafting mechanics. If the former can outdo the latter, then A Plague Tale could prove to be one?? of the year's sleeper hits.

A Plague Tale: Innocence launches today on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

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Chucklesome romp exhibits gameplay features

It's been quite some time since I've seen a video game that looks quite as grim and bleak as Asobo Studios' upcoming stealth adventure A Plague Tale: Innocence. Set in France, under The Inquisition and during a plague, players take control of young siblings Amica and Hugo, as they a?ttempt to flee the city and its totalitarian oppressors.

A new trailer from publisher Focus Interactive shows off various aspects of the adventure. We get to see Amica's slingshot skills, as well as her sharp wits and adaptive eye, all of which will be necessar??y to bypass a platoon of soldiers and an endless army of plague-ridden rodents. Being only children, Amica and Hugo must rely on their smarts, along with help provided by people they encounter, to ?pick their way through this 14th-century nightmare.

There are elements of A Plague Tale that really intrigue me: the setting, the protagonists, and the skin-crawling rat army. But there are also elements that really turn me off, particularly the already tired crafting and alchemy aspects. I'm hoping the former can outdo the latter, as A Plague Tale looks to be a genuinely unique title with regards to character and story, and hopefully will prove a sound mid-tier game, ala Focus' own Vampyr.

A Plague Tale: Innocence launches May 14 on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

The post A Plague Tale: Innocenc??e overview trailer is feeling ratty appeared first on Destructoid.

Where's Willard when you need him?

Focus Home Entertainment has released a lengthy gameplay trailer for their upcoming third-person adventure title A Plague Tale: Innocence, which is headed to PC and consoles mid-May.

As you can see from this eight-minute slice of gameplay, the mood is particularly dark as siblings Amica and Hugo must pick their way through a dilapidated France, with their city riddled with plague an?d under the jurisdiction of The Inquisition. Stealth-action, puzzle-solving and crafting mechanics (because of course) await those ??who hope to guide our intrepid duo out of the darkness and into some form of light and hope.

Grim-looking game. But if the above video whets your appetite for this rat-infested adventure, then you don't have too much longer to wait, as A Plague Tale: Innocence will be launching May 14 ?on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

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Try not to get bit

The first three chapters of A Plague Tale: Innocence paint a harrowing picture. Its vision of a 14th-century France is full of violence and death.  The Hundred Years' War and the Inquisition's looming shadow stand poised to unspool a world that's nearly coming undone. But worse than the dead bodies and blood in the streets are the rats. In A Plague Tale, there are so, so ma????ny rats. And they're all so, so hungry.

A Plague Tale, at least based off its opening hours, is just that: a story about survival during a plague of Biblical proportions. Amicia De Rune and her sickly younger brother Hugo find themselves alone, in danger, and desperately clinging to one another for safety after a raid on their family estate. As the elder De Rune, players have to navigate through plague-ravaged towns and sunken crypts in an ongoing search for shelter, all with the shellshocked Hugo in tow. It's a tough job—and on paper, a game built around a perpetual escort mission might even be a tough sell—but A Plague Tale hits hard and often. The game's early chapters have enough shocks and stress-inducing sequences to keep the pace rushing forward. And, of course??, it has rats. You really shouldn't forge??t about the rats.

Amicia and Hugo hardly know one another by the time A Plague Tale kicks off. Hugo, mysteriously ill since birth, has spent most of ??his young life under his mother's watchful care. Amicia is his opposite; she's athletic, hardy, and keen to follow her father's footsteps and become a knight. But despite their differences, the De Rune children are inst??antly bonded by the game's grim opening. Blood is thicker than water, and in times of tragedy, family means everything. 

In keeping with that thematic sentiment, Amicia and Hugo spend most of their time near one another. Although Amicia is the game's playable character, she and Hugo are almost a?lways holding hands. Amicia leads and Hugo follows. Players guide one De Rune, who in t?urn guides the other. If it all goes well, the siblings should make it to safety.

Progressing through the game means weaving from stealth sections to puzzle rooms in various locations. Amicia and Hugo spent a portion of the first three chapters escaping rogues and creeping through rundown villages before entering the rotten underbelly of a church. The stealth, at least early on, isn't too taxing. Amicia's brave, but she's not stupid; it's better to stick to the shadows and use her slingshot to lob rocks and distract foes instead of tackling enemies head-on.  Formal combat exists&mdash????;there is one boss fight in the preview build—but it's used sparingly, almost as an exclamation point to punctuate narrative buildup.  

But it's the rats that steal the show. They're an oppressive, pervasive force. Like the De Runes, the rodents move as a unit. Unlike the children, thousands are swarming around in the dark, eager to devour anything in their path. A Plague Tale's rats scurry and stalk the De Runes from the d??arkness, glowing eyes and too-sharp teeth perpetually fixated on the children.

During the second half of the preview build, A Plague Tale's rodent armies became a constant concern. They carry death and disease and are perhaps a harbinger of something even more dangerous. Amicia and Hugo don't stand a chance against the pulsing m??ob of rats, and their presence functions as a moving, teeming puzzle. The rats spill out from the darkness and are only repelled by bright light sources—torches and direct sunlight seem to work best.

And so, a significant portion of A Plague Tale seems to revolve around keeping thousands of onscreen rats at bay. Amicia progresses through the rat-infested areas cautiously, a torch in one hand and Hugo in the other. Every step forward with a light source causes the rodents to skitter backward, creating sequences where players cut paths through rat swarms like a reverse Pied Piper. Some sections require creative problem solving to carry fire over long distances. Amicia's slingshot is incredibly useful for toppling chandeliers and coal-burning braziers wh??ile Hugo can fit into small crevices to access areas his big sister can't. Escaping from the rodents feels like an accomplishment due to the horde's seemingly dynamic AI. The rats move and react fluidly, like a disease-infested wave. Parting their numbers is intense.

With around two months before A Plague Tale launches, it's interesting to see how the game plays with expectations. It pushes and pulls in different directions. Amicia and Hugo's developing relationship carries weight, while the rat plague feels like a character unto itself. Across the opening chapters, numerous narrative beats hint at a larger plot that blends real-world history with fantastic events. The De Runes have their work cut out for them, but something tells me seeing their journey through to the end will be well wort??h it.

The post Par????t seas of swarming rats in A Plague Tale: Innocence appeared first on Destructoid.

UNLIMITED POWER

A Plague Tale: Innocence might be one of those games that slipped past your radar at E3. It's about trying not to get killed by disease-carrying rats in the Kingdom of France i?n 1349. Asobo Studio's game looks promising, but Nintendo Switch owners won't get the chance to find out, as it won't ?be making its way over to the hybrid console.

GamingBolt sat down with David Dedeine, Asobo Studio's Chief Creative Officer, who told them Nintendo's ?console simply wasn't powerful enough to do justice to the developer's vision.

"No. I will not lie by just saying…power. It’s really the power of the device. In this case it was the amount of rats we need to display. We already know that there’s too many rats, too many animations, too many AI at the same time. And if we want to give justice to – it’s like there is a large bridge between Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro. And the Switch,?? it was too hard to make ??the same game in such a different context."

They went on to ask Dedeine if any attempts had been made to run the game on the Switch. He simply replied that Asobo had done the math, and after discussions with the publisher, Focus Home Interactive, they won't be making the Switch? a priority.

So, sorry fellow Switch owners. If you want to check out A Plague Tale, you'll have to do so?? on PS4, X??box One, or PC next year.

The Switch Isn&rsqu?o;t Powerful Enough To Do Justice To Our Game &?ndash; A Plague Tale: Innocence Dev [Gamingbolt]

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