5 things to know about A Plague Tale: Requiem

A Plague Tale: Requiem is the sequel to the previous game in the series, with the subtitle: Innocence, which saw players step into the shoes of the protagonist Amicia de Rune.

Set during the Black Plague in 14th century Aquitaine, France, the game sees Amicia take her younger brother Hugo and run away from their home, as soldiers of the French Inquisition capture their parents, in an attempt to capture the young boy.

The game sees the two siblings travel across the land, evading soldiers and rats carrying the plague, looking for refuge and meeting different people along the way. The story reveals that Hugo is capable of controlling the rats with a supernatural power known as the Prima Macula. This is also why the Grand Inquisitor of France, Vitalis, wishes to capture the boy to use for his own ends.

While Innocence ends with Hugo defeating Vitalis, and he along with his sister returns to a relatively normal life, A Plague Tale: Requiem picks up the story from there.

With a new trailer of the game shown during the Xbox & Bethesda Games event, more details regarding this upcoming sequel have come to light. Thus, here are 5 things of note regarding A Plague Tale: Requiem.

Note: The article reflects the writer's opinion.

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A Plague Tale: Requiem will shed more light on Prima Macula and offer a deeper look into the game's world

1) The Black Plague is back

By the end of Innocence, the black plague has disappeared from France, as Amicia and Hugo along with a few others settle into a normal life. However, as the trailers from the sequel have already shown, the rats are back, and in greater graphical detail than ever before.

As this is possibly going to be the potential hook for the narrative to start off, any answer as to why the plague is suddenly back should not be expected until the game is released. Although, from trailer footage it can be noted that Amicia and Hugo will get to spend some time in peace before the rats eventually arrive in tides.

As was established in the previous game, Prima Macula is the force that controls rats and is responsible for previous outbreaks of the disease in history. While the nature of this is unclear after the previous game, A Plague Tale: Requiem might provide some concrete answers.

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2) Amicia has to deal with some changes

As seen throughout the last game, Amicia has to work through some dark stuff as she’s faced with the decision to kill people, and some way into the game, she’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep her brother safe. From the most recent trailer for the sequel, the focus seems to be on this aspect of Amicia.

In the trailer, she is closely followed by her friend Lucas at most points, who reminds her to not kill soldiers on more than one occasion. Amicia disregards this, and proceeds as she usually would, performing some lethal stealth takedown, either by herself or by horrifyingly pushing an unwary soldier into a mound of plague ridden rats, as her voiceover gets increasingly unhinged.

Considering that Amicia stops and asks herself what is wrong with her later in the trailer, it might be safe to assume that she is being set up for a reckoning for all the killing she will do in A Plague Tale: Requiem. Either that or she might discover that she has abilities of her own, although that seems like a longshot.

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3) Travel to an island

Amicia embarks on a voyage in A Plague Tale: Requiem (Image via Asobo Studio)

Seen in multiple trailers for A Plague Tale: Requiem, is a shot of Amicia on a ship out in the middle of the sea, bound for a landmass. Considering that the games take place in 14th century France, the options on if this will be a historically important location, or a purely fictional one, is up in the air at this point.

The official page of the publisher, Focus Entertainment, sheds some light onto this with the game’s synopsis. In the write up, the island is featured heavily, stating that it might be the key to saving Hugo, although from what exactly is not mentioned. Finally, a brief shot of a seemingly decayed corpse is shown at the end of the first trailer for the game.

While there is no indication of where that location might be, the surroundings do suggest a cavern like structure. This might be part of the island, and the figure could be an individual who was once able to control the Macula like Hugo.

It should be noted that the trailer shots only show Amicia on the ship heading for the island, meaning that she might be making the journey on her own in A Plague Tale: Requiem.

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4) Hugo might die

Amicia and Hugo enjoy a festival (image via Asobo Studio)

There's another important point to note. For a lot of the gameplay seen so far, including the recent trailer, Hugo is not present for a lot of it. Amicia is seen travelling with Lucas in the beginning, while being mostly on her own for the rest.

A Plague Tale: Requiem will definitely start out with the two siblings together, enjoying a relatively brief time of peace before the events of the story eventually kick in. But from the trailers, it is evident that Amicia and Hugo will get separated at some point with Hugo possibly being captured by the enemy.

Lucas even outright says what the audience is thinking, right at the beginning of the second trailer by asking Amicia to carry on for Hugo, to which she responds that he is not dead yet. While killing off the character midway through the game might be a bit too sudden, it could be a larger foreshadowing to the final act of the game.

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5) A new mechanic to control rats

A rat horde surrounds the Amicia and Lucas (image via Asobo Studio)

Towards the end of Innocence, Hugo learns the ability to control the plague ridden rats that players have been trying to avoid for most of the game. This meant being able to use the power in the final battle against the main antagonist of the game.

While the same will probably be featured in A Plague Tale: Requiem, a brief glimpse from the latest trailer does go on to show a new look at the ability. Taking the perspective of the rats themselves, audiences saw a wave of the vermin swarming over to a soldier, highlighted in orange.

This might just be another ability, a stealth variant of controlling rats while Hugo is with Amicia. The view from the trailer suggests that enemies will be highlighted so as to be easily identifiable, while players are possibly in control of the direction in which the rats manoeuvre and move.