The Kids Are Alright
08
April, 2020
Game Data
Platform: | PS4 |
Price at Purchase: | AU$41 |
From: | eBay |
Developer: | Asobo Studio |
Publisher: | Focus |
Released: | 14 May 2019 |
Rated: | MA15+ |
Genre: | Action Adventure |
HowLongToBeat: | 10-16hrs |
MetaCritic: | 81 |
Game Size on Disc | 38.4GB |
Game Version at Review | 1.07 |
Asobo’s “A Plague Tale: Innocence” is a better game than it’s awkward klunky title might suggest.
It has a strong narrative that takes many interesting twists and turns.
It has a compelling central cast.
Interesting game mechanics – rather than “Action Adventure” genre I’d suggest it was more like Action Puzzle. There’s very little combat but most of the game’s simple mechanisms are well paced and well explored. I particularly liked the way you never felt under-skilled but new additions always added to one’s feeling of mastery as the game unfolded.
It looks amazing and like the game engine was developed in-house – it has wonderful anti-aliasing and a way of artfully guiding one’s focus that reminded me of Octopath Traveller but all grown up. One downside of the effect was that it did look in places like I was playing a 3D game and should have been wearing the correct glasses.
I found the controls a bit fiddly at times and even turning the camera feels like you’re in treacle but you get used to it.
The game does a great job making the rat swarms icky – which I’m sure was harder than it might seem.
What I did find jarring was how grown-up many of the game’s prepubescent characters seem to be. Maybe it’s because my own kids are developing a little slower – maybe it’s that the current times are inhibiting progress in ways that oldern-times did not. Maybe the kids in this game were all just early bloomers.
There was something about the line delivery that felt like the script had been run through a clumsy translation service – there was an unnatural remove about it but again its an element that grinds the pedantic gears initially but fades a little with time.