I’ve found it increasingly difficult to talk about stealth games. What’s the point? People who know, know. Then you have games like A Plague Tale: Innocence which definitely aims to cast the net wider than just your skulkers in the dark audience. Does it succeed, though?

What begins with a teenager accompanying her father on make-belief hero’s quest quickly turns into a nightmare set in rural France during the 14th century. Amicia de Rune, a noble tomboy, quickly finds herself without mother and father as armed men invade their estate leaving only carnage in their wake. Sole objective remaining to find her five year old brother Hugo and take him to an alchemist as directed by her mother. Why? Well, Amicia hasn’t seen much of Hugo on account of his sickly nature confining him to his room and their mother’s mysterious healing seems to have been the only remedy for his condition. With no one else left it falls on our heroine to reach the nearby village, find alchemist Laurentius and get him to continue the treatments. However, in the shadows of it all, a mysterious plague is starting to spread with Hugo seemingly playing a pivotal role.

One thing I really like about the narrative is just how much gravitas there is to events transpiring. That’s not to say Amicia or Hugo are above humor, especially as they both change, but with ever-escalating stakes this is a story where what appear to be the End Times get the warranted treatment. Even while we don’t know exactly what’s going on until a good halfway point we have an established antagonist to hate from early on. It’s equally pertinent to character development since Amicia especially gets more than her fair share, but our protagonists have their hand forced more than once before the story’s over when it comes to moral event horizons. Sometimes you have to kill to survive.

Despite having a small cast of characters I was disappointed more of them didn’t get additional attention.

Beyond our immediate siblings, who go from a somewhat rebellious teenager learning what it’s like to be a real big sister and, well, a five year old coping with matters far beyond what he should be worrying about, it’s the resident alchemist-in-training Lucas who sees the most nuance. Probably because he’s the first “sidekick” introduced and finds himself in awkward situations out of his depth. There’s a particular oddly humorous cart-pushing scene that gets a callback by a different character towards the end of the game, Rodrick the smith in this case, but plays out to a drastically different outcome. There are also the thieving twins who end up saving Amicia’s life and vice versa, but one is essentially a YEAH, GIRL POWER and other joins the group too late to matter significantly. I’ve already hinted at the fact, but the real antagonist of the piece takes a good while to reveal himself and never really builds upon the connection he has with Hugo. Or rather, one he develops.

In most stealth games it is extremely advantageous to find yourself breathing down your enemy’s neck because that means you can initialize the desired takedown. Well, in A Plague Tale: Innocence that’s bad news because Amicia doesn’t have melee to begin with. From the tutorial game establishes slingshot is your weapon of choice and that never changes throughout the game. You get your pick when it comes to different ammo types, be it regular stones to fire-starters and helmet-melting alchemist concoctions, but you ALWAYS want to maintain distance and distract enemies with sounds. Light sources also play a role, albeit somewhat lesser until the secret is finally out of the bag and you have to contend with rat swarms since light is the only thing they avoid. This results in guards also carrying torches… and Amicia conveniently has tools to extinguish fires from afar.

Final results are these rather confined zones clearly meant to funnel you from A to B using whatever latest gadget you now have access to, but near the end of the game you are given more leeway in how to go about clearing levels. Keeping in mind there’s a somewhat tacked-on upgrade system, with only few truly altering upgrades like ability to fire off two shots before restringing, and that your craftable ammo types draw from the same pool of crafting materiel, you’ll be spending quite a decent chunk of time scrounging looking for ingredients. I did this more because I wanted to rather than being compelled, however. If you end up relying on certain mixtures that can A) protect from an enemy about to stab you or B) easily clear a large area of rats, you’ll run into serious rationing issues and could hamper your upgrades.

With all of the above does the game deviate from stealth norms? I wouldn’t say so. Inability to do direct confrontation means you’ll value those few levels Rodrick is with you, for example, since he can get up close and personal to snap necks. Most of the time you’re throwing pots to distract enemies, using your slingshot to headshot strays and navigating your way around rats. Much, much later you become the real menace to everyone else due to a unique ability unlock, but that happens so late it feels like a welcome reprieve from skulking around for so long. I just wish levels were more than pretty-looking corridors made only further obvious by levels set in the countryside when you can go off the rails and show your kid brother some frogs.

In terms of problems there’s one that stands out for me in A Plague Tale: Innocence – escalation of events and desire to have setpiece moments, not to mention couple of boss fights, really ends up conflicting with core designs of the game. I can’t got into it clearly due to spoilers, but this is a game designed to be somewhat slow on moment-to-moment level as you’re darting between torchlights and wondering just how much resources to spend to get past those two armored guards blocking the way. Not watch a henchman get covered by rats only to ignite his sword and chase after you, or to handle 5+ enemies with headshots while covering your ally. Systems in the game aren’t built for such snappy reactions and you’ll feel the sluggishness. My only deaths came from rats acting unpredictably and those tense action scenes when experience just wasn’t on the level established up to that point.

Lastly, all I can say about production is the game looks and sounds gorgeous. Character models are probably the weakest aspect which isn’t saying much considering game makes terrific use of lighting, ambient and otherwise. One of the benefits of employing darkness and gloomy atmosphere, I suppose. Soundtrack and voice performances especially stood out. Strings, give me more strings. I vividly remember one scene when our assembled group decides they now have the weapon and it’s time to take the fight to the Inquisition they’ve been running away from the entire game. And then everything clicks. Now that I think about it the soundtrack ends up highlighting so many key aspects of the game. From locations to events and big character moments.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Stealth adventure with aspirations to be more, I think A Plague Tale: Innocence could’ve dropped some of those “more” aspects and it would’ve resulted in better overall package. Amicia de Rune has to save her brother Hugo amidst what appears to be plague in the 14th century France, and this five year old is somehow linked to it all. Escaping the Inquisition you must master your slingshot, scavenge for material to craft ammo and upgrades, all the while avoiding the ever-growing rat swarms as well as guards. Game takes a while to truly give you the freedom to use all the tools at your disposal and towards the end stealth seems to suffer at the altar of action and highly produced set piece these systems weren’t exactly built for. Older sister learns what it truly means to be one.