Rat-atat-tat! A Plauge Tale: Innocence comes knocking

Spoiler Free Review.

If you hate Rats, you might have a hard time playing this game. These vicious little creatures swarm in the 100's and carry a deadly plague also known as "The Bite". Set in 14th Century France, the game sees you thrust into a battle for survival as you are hunted by the Inquisition due to a dark secret hidden within your family's blood. To top this, there is also an outbreak of the Black Death and with that comes swarms of Ravenous Rats, ready to strip the flesh off of your bones.

You play as Amicia, a young girl born of Nobel blood. Together with her 5-year-old brother Hugo, you must embark on a mission to find help after the inquisition attacks your home. Not only that, but you must also find a cure for a mysterious illness that afflicts your younger sibling Hugo.

The game is heavily narrative driven, with great voice acting, cut-scenes and dialogue. The settings look fantastic, both beautiful and sometimes grim at the same time. The contrast between the plush autumn countrysides and cold plague-ridden villages are accompanied with a fantastic musical score and sound design Written by composer "Olivier Deriviere" who is also known for his musical talent on games such as Vampyr, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Freedom Cry, Remember Me, and Alone In The Dark.

The game-play is mainly focused on stealth. As a young Girl together with a 5-year-old boy, this suits the setting perfectly. That feeling of being hunted by both the Inquisition and the swarms of rats really adds a nice tension and sometimes anxiety-inducing moments. You are not totally ill equipped though. Amicica is equipped with a slingshot, which as the game progresses can be upgraded to become quite a useful weapon indeed. Meeting characters along the way will sometimes unlock some alchemical ammo options such as fire projectiles and the ability to melt enemy helmets revealing an unprotected head. These are just a few of the ammo types available and these fit into the game nicely. The slingshot and special ammo is also used to complete some light puzzling at times, such as shooting chains to release things or drop hanging dead bodies to attract the rats away from an area you need to reach. The rats are also scared of the light, so using the slingshot to light braziers and torches in areas that you need to clear is also a big part of the game mechanics.

The action is separated with stealth sequences and dialogue/cutscenes. I found the pace of the game worked nicely for me, although if you are impatient when it comes to stealth, then I would say you might get a little frustrated at times. You will get caught and killed and eaten a few times before you figure out what you need to do to pass an area. Hints are readily available if you idle too long on a certain puzzle or area. I didn't feel stuck at any point in the game. The challenge does get harder at both stealth and combat as the game progresses, however it did give me a good sense of accomplishment once I completed a chapter. Overall the challenge of the game was quite easy and I would like to see some harder difficulty options added for a greater challenge.

There are 16 re-playable chapters within the game, which took me about 12 hours to complete. There are lots of hidden items in the game such as "Hugo's Herbarium", a number of flowers you can find hidden throughout the game. You can also find other curiosities to collect which gives us achievement hunters something to strive for.

Cringey Dad Gaming has scrapped review scores, as we feel gaming is subjective. What I will say is I had fun watching this story adventure evolve. it had a few twists and turns, some gruesome horror, action and stealth. If you like any of those things from a game then I would recommend you play it.

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