News | First Gameplay A Plague Tale: Requiem Shown
An extensive new trailer for A Plague Tale: Requiem was shown during The Game Awards, showing the first gameplay footage.
The sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence was revealed earlier this year. In the sequel, the main characters Hugo and Amicia return, as does the swarm of rats. Players follow Amicia and her brother Hugo on a new adventure as they try to survive.
The first game is set in France in the year 1349, when the country is ravaged by the Black Death. Amicia must protect her younger brother Hugo while the two are pursued by the Inquisition and try to survive in the unforgiving world.
A Plague Tale: Requiem is coming to Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PC in 2022. The game will also be available on Game Pass immediately upon launch. The game will be released via cloud streaming on Nintendo Switch.
News | Sequel A Plague Tale: Requiem announced
A sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence has been announced, called A Plague Tale: Requiem.
In the sequel, the main characters Hugo and Amicia return, as does the swarm of rats. Players follow Amicia and her brother Hugo on a new adventure as they try to survive.
The first game is set in France in the year 1349, when the country is ravaged by the Black Death. Amicia must protect her younger brother Hugo while the two are pursued by the Inquisition and try to survive in the unforgiving world.
A Plague Tale: Requiem will be released next year on Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PC. The game will also be available on Game Pass immediately upon launch. The game will be released via cloud streaming on Nintendo Switch.
News | Nominations BAFTA Game Awards announced
The nominations for the BAFTA Game Awards were announced on Tuesday on the award show's website.
The most striking nominations ais the Untitled Goose Game, which recently won Game of The Year at the DICE Awards. And is now again nominated for best game of the year. The game is also nominated for the best family game of the year.
Best Game
Control– Remedy Entertainment, 505 Games
Outer Wilds– Annapurna Interactive, Mobius Digital
Luigi’s Mansion 3– Nintendo, Next Level Games
Untitled Goose Game– House House, Panic
Disco Elysium– ZA/UM
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – Activision, From Software
Best artistic achievement
Concrete Genie – Pixelopus
Control – Remedy Entertainment, 505 Games
Sayonara Wild Hearts – Simogo,Annapurna
Knights and Bikes – Double Fine Productions, Foam Sword Games, Foam Sword
Disco Elysium – ZA/UM



British Game Award
Knights and Bikes– Double Fine Productions, Foam Sword
Heaven’s Vault– Inkle
Planet Zoo– Frontier Developments
DiRT Rally Day One Edition 2.0- Codemasters
Observation– Devolver Digital, No Code
Total War: Three Kingdoms– Sega, Creative Assembly
Best debut
Manifold Garden – William Chyr Studio
Ape Out – Devolver Digital, Bennett Foddy, Gabe Cuzzillo, …
Knights and Bikes – Double Fine Productions, Foam Sword Games, Foam Sword
Katana Zero – Devolver Digital, Askiisoft
Disco Elysium – ZA/UM



Best new IP
Control – Remedy Entertainment, 505 Games
The Outer Worlds – Obsidian Entertainment, Private Division
Untitled Goose Game – House House, Panic
Disco Elysium – ZA/UM
Death Stranding – Kojima Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Baba is you – Hempuli Oy
Best multiplayergame
Luigi’s Mansion 3 – Nintendo, Next Level Games
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Infinity Ward, Activision
Borderlands 3 – Gearbox Software, 2K Games
Apex Legends – Respawn Entertainment, EA
Tick Tock: A Tale for Two – Other Tales Interactive
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2-Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft


Best evolving game
Fortnite – Epic Games
No Man’s Sky Beyond – Hello Games
Apex Legends – Chad Grenier, Drew McCoy
Path of Exile – Grinding Gear Games
Destiny 2 – Bungie
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers – Square Enix
‘Game Beyond Entertainment’
Neo Cab – Chance Agency, Fellow Traveller
Life is Strange 2 – Square Enix, Dontnod Entertainment
Ring Fit Adventure – Nintendo
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm – 2K Games, Firaxis Games
Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to) – Popcannibal, Clark Aboud, Ziba Scott
Death Stranding – Kojima Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Best family game
Concrete Genie – Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, Pixelopus
Wattam – Annapurna Interactive, Funomena
Luigi’s Mansion 3 – Nintendo, Next Level Games
Knights and Bikes – Double Fine Productions, Moo Yu, Foam Sword, …
Untitled Goose Game – House House, Panic
Vacation Simulator – Owlchemy Labs
Best mobile-game (Chosen by the public)
Tangle Tower – SFB Games
What the Golf? – Triband
Dead Man’s Phone: Interactive Crime Drama – Electric Noir Studios
Pokémon GO – Niantic
Call of Duty: Mobile – TiMi Studios, Tencent Games
Assemble with Care – ustwogames
Best technical prestation
Control – Remedy Entertainment, 505 Games
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Activision, Infinity Ward
Metro Exodus – 4A Games, Deep Silver
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – Activision, From Software
Death Stranding – Kojima Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment
A Plague Tale – Asobo Studio, Focus Home Interactive

News | A sequel of A Plague Tale is in development
Asobo Studio werkt mogelijk al aan een vervolg op het eerder dit jaar verschenen A Plague Tale: Innocence.
The French publication Xbox Squad reports that publisher Focus Home Interactive has requested a follow-up from the developer. The website claims to have learned this from an anonymous source within the publisher. The game was to be announced in 2020, but should only appear in 2022. Focus Home has neither confirmed nor denied the rumor against Eurogamer.
The game takes place in France in the year 1349, when the country is plagued by the Black Death. Amicia must protect her younger brother Hugo, while the two are being chased by the Inquisition and trying to survive in the ruthless world. Hugo also suffers from a mysterious illness.

In our review we gave the first game a 9.0 and wrote: “Although A Plague Tale: knows Innocence clichés, it is the sum of credible characters, a great soundtrack and an atmospheric setting that turn the whole into a convincing and compelling adventure. If you are a lover of single player experiences, you cannot let this pass you by. “
A Plague Tale: Innocence appeared for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 last spring.
Review | A Plague Tale: Innocence
Dark, grim, and especially daring, that's how I would describe A Plague Tale. The French developer Asobo Studio has been working in the industry for years, but mainly has small-scale Disney licensing games on the resume when it decides to make a name for itself. This very ambitious game is the symbolic baptism of fire for the developer and the talented people at Asobo have survived without getting burned. The result is a game that once again underlines the power of story-driven single player games.
No knights in shiny armor or magicians in lavish robes adorn the cover of this game. In A Plague Tale: Innocence you control fifteen-year-old Amicia at the time of the Middle Ages, when the Black Death seized itself in France and left millions of victims behind. The corpses are piling up and the survivors are looking for a sin block. They find that in five-year-old Hugo, Amicia’s brother. Hugo has been suffering from a mysterious illness since his birth and lives separately from his sister, until the Inquisition comes knocking on and he barely escapes with Amicia.
Amicia and Hugo, luridly robbed of their peaceful lives as little Lady and Lord of the De Rune family, suddenly find themselves alone in a world torn apart by war and illness. With Hugo by her side, Amicia has to stay out of the hands of the Inquisition and other evil-minded parties by sneaking around unseen and leading soldiers around. You do that for example by throwing stones with her slingshot, but later you also learn all kinds of alchemy recipes that lead to more creative solutions.



These creative solutions often go hand in hand with a different kind of evil that only shows its razor sharp teeth when it gets dark. The Black Death gets its own face in this game, or rather, thousands of faces. We are of course talking about the rat plague. They throw themselves over fields like a tsunami and crawl out of holes in walls like a jet-black waterfall. With literally hundreds at a time, they crawl across your screen, which is just as impressive as it is disturbing. The only thing they shun is light; everything in the shade is eaten to the bone.
Initially the rats are an extra obstacle for Amicia and Hugo and you have to find a safe way through darkness through torches, but gradually you also learn to manipulate light sources and you can even use the rats to your advantage. For example, smash the lantern of an unsuspecting soldier and watch him be devoured alive while you sneak past Hugo. It is a tough world in which you must be willing to sacrifice everything in order to survive. It is clear that Amicia is not that innocent.
One thing is clear, no matter how tough she is, Amicia is not a fighter and she will not win a direct confrontation with a halberd-wielding soldier. The entire game, which roughly takes p fifteen hours, you are therefore mainly concerned with stealth, interspersed with simple puzzles and exploring the beautiful nature at your leisure during quiet moments. There is a fine balance between those three elements and thanks to the division into chapters, you can clearly feel how long you have left when the snapping, puzzling or exploring starts to get boring. Moreover, the redemption always seems to come at exactly the right time and the chapters never feel too long or too short. It is a small detail, but that makes playing A Plague Tale feel like reading a good book.
Although it is difficult to lay down the controller, there is also plenty to notice about the story. Amicia and Hugo are credible characters, but in the beginning the story pinches itself in weird turns to push the plot in a certain direction. For example, Hugo is a smart, well-balanced boy for his age, which means that an unhappy timed outburst of anger comes out of the blue. And although Amicia and Hugo and their later allies look very human and undergo character development, the villains remain one-dimensional until the end. There had been more to it.



The power of the story of A Plague Tale is therefore in the small things. The whispered conversations between our heroes as you sneak through a hostile camp, Amicia’s increasingly louder heartbeat as a soldier approaches her hiding place; the spontaneous violin swings that scare you when sparkling red eyes emerge from the darkness, everything contributes to creating an immersive experience.
The graphic beauty of this game also plays an important role in this. Thanks to a soft, diffuse light, the enchanting landscapes, castles, cathedrals and villages that you pass get an almost supernatural look. You would almost forget that under that beauty there is often death and destruction. Contrasting with the beautiful nature you will find rotting carcasses, teeming rats and rivers of blood. In A Plague Tale, beauty is treacherous. It is a horribly beautiful, beautifully horrible game.
Fortunately, these environments are not only for walking from point A to point B, but you are also encouraged to explore the levels well. In every chapter, all kinds of collectibles are hidden, such as flowers and objects that give more context to the time in which the game takes place. Consider the scourges of flagellants or a rosary. The game cleverly responds to the secluded upbringing of Hugo, which makes him ignorant and curious about everyday things. Amicia is fortunate to explain to Hugo about these objects, and by extension the player.
A less well elaborated element is the crafting system for making alchemy brews and upgrades for your equipment. Anyone who has played a survival or open world game lately can imagine this, but the concept does not fit well with this game. This way you can make the decision to sacrifice many valuable materials for a strong remedy that can save you from a painful death, but due to the many checkpoints you can better invest those materials in a good upgrade of your slingshot. In addition, the game always ensures that a neat stack of materials is ready to solve the next puzzle, so there is no reason to use alchemy sparingly. The absence of a heavier degree of difficulty to make the materials more scarce and thereby offer additional challenges, therefore feels like a loss.
That does not mean that A Plague Tale: Innocence has become a beautiful game that continues to fascinate you from start to finish and is wonderfully consistent. Nothing about the game is really weak, but all elements reinforce each other and make the whole experience exactly that, an experience. It is an incredible debut for Asobo Studio and a win for the single player genre.
Score:
9,0
+ Exciting ambiance thanks to atmospheric graphics and sound.
+ Varied and refreshing gameplay
+ Compelling story
– Occasionally falls into clichés
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