{"id":99884,"date":"2022-10-17T19:46:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T19:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/a-plague-tale-requiem-review-stealth-meets-horror-in-a-worthy-sequel\/"},"modified":"2022-10-17T19:46:01","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T19:46:01","slug":"a-plague-tale-requiem-review-stealth-meets-horror-in-a-worthy-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/a-plague-tale-requiem-review-stealth-meets-horror-in-a-worthy-sequel\/","title":{"rendered":"A Plague Tale: Requiem review: Stealth meets horror in a worthy sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rats swarm an otherwise peaceful city, pouring through sewage drains and crashing against walls like an endless expanse of ocean. Citizens scream in terror, swallowed by the plague’s insatiable hunger. Amicia watches, horrified, knowing that her little brother is no longer safe from the Macula, the ancestral curse, and it will slowly devour him from the inside. Despite the disease’s momentary absence, there is no escaping the horde.<\/p>\n

However, this is not how A Plague Tale: Requiem<\/em> begins. It starts on a slow note, illustrating that Hugo and Amicia have found a temporary but welcome peace after the events of A Plague Tale: Innocence<\/em>. Quiet, serene moments abound: Amicia wandering through the derelict ruins of an old keep with Hugo in tow as he conjures up imaginary scenarios of being a goodly and kind king; watching her brother race through gorgeously rendered fields of lavender and wildflowers. Developer Asobo Studio has done a fantastic job of these opening segments with their balancing darker counterparts altogether, weighing hope and helplessness, and allowing the narrative to weave itself in a way that managed to keep me interested in all of its twists and turns.<\/p>\n

After Hugo has a dream about curative waters on a far-off Mediterranean island, he and his big sister set off to find a potential cure for the illness that plagues him. Upon reaching the island, the denizens welcome the duo with open arms. Once Amicia realizes that they’re worshipers of the very curse growing inside Hugo’s body and thus worship him as a god, requiem<\/em> veers straight into folk horror. The game’s exploration of an insular, depraved pocket of an archaic religion is a welcome change of pace from innocence<\/em>‘s focus on the governmental Inquisition. The islanders’ belief system was formed when they first encountered ancient frescos beyond their comprehension, and their society has since devolved into outdated practices and misguided rituals. requiem<\/em> also deals in the ideas of cycles of reincarnation and destiny, which the game touches upon briefly near the tail end of the narrative, but wasn’t necessarily as captivating as the presence of the cult and its culture.<\/p>\n

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Image: Asobo Studio\/Focus Entertainment<\/cite><\/p>\n

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The actors’ performances accentuate the excellent heavy moments in the story, such when Hugo (Logan Hannan) expresses to Amicia (Charlotte McBurney) that he is aware of his own mortality, and that the Macula will claim him if a cure is not found . Amicia’s expression is one of shock, even if she knows the truth of it herself, and the facial capture illustrates these moments with clarity. It’s the subtleties that make requiem<\/em> work, and allow the story to excel \u2014 especially when combined with the impressive and melodramatic score, which consists of beautiful violin work, the storytelling is somber yet propulsive, and the relationship between sister and brother reveals new layers throughout. <\/p>\n

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