I have a tendency to understand dangerous new concepts over protected sequels, so I used to be fairly to see what the Plague Tale sequence could be like with out its signature tornadoes of man-eating rats. However whereas Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy makes loads of intriguing modifications, like its give attention to a special protagonist and all-new solid of supporting characters, most trigger it to fall wanting capturing the identical magic as its predecessors. This prequel story strikes away from rat armies into extra historic, unexplored horrors that don’t dwell as much as the excessive requirements of the sequence, and its shift from stealthing round as a conflict-averse baby to straight up knifing of us to dying in melee fight by no means fairly works when the preventing itself is just too naked bones to maintain this 12-hour marketing campaign. That stated, the easy however entertaining puzzles, attractive environments, and tense stealth sections that ultimately arrive afterward are nonetheless largely price taking part in, however this facet quest feels prefer it takes extra steps backward than forwards total.
Resonance follows the identical third-person journey playbook that you just’re in all probability already accustomed to. Within the storied custom of fellow “crevice crawlers” like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor or God of Conflict, you’ll cross by means of a sequence of small fight arenas and puzzle rooms with a companion in tow as you banter with each other and the load-bearing story slowly unfolds. Most of this feels fairly just like the earlier Plague Tale video games, with some fairly notable exceptions: Hugo and Amicia have been changed with one of many supporting characters from A Plague Tale: Requiem, Sophia, and the stealth mechanics have largely been swapped out for the standard third-person melee fight that’s frequent in these sorts of video games. Sadly, like lots of its friends, it additionally does that tremendous annoying factor the place characters instantly shout out the options to each single puzzle mere seconds after you step right into a room – however fortunately there’s an possibility to show that off, which I did instantly and with nice prejudice.
Whereas Resonance’s story is one among its robust fits, it’s nonetheless not fairly on par with the remainder of the Plague Tale sequence. What begins as an Uncharted-like treasure hunt devolves right into a horrifying doomsday state of affairs that mirrors a whole lot of the identical themes as Innocence and Requiem, however with a solid that will get considerably much less care in how they’re developed. It’s like they have been making an attempt to speedrun by means of the backstory for Sophia, who was a reasonably flat character in Requiem. There, she was a generic outsider with a coronary heart of gold who doesn’t have a lot of an arc, so Resonance had fairly a little bit of heavy lifting to do whereas fleshing her out. It succeeds solely modestly on that entrance – I positively knew her higher and cared about her extra after experiencing her harrowing story firsthand, but additionally discovered myself perplexed by the truth that she nonetheless doesn’t have an actual character arc, starting and ending as the identical scallywag in pursuit of treasure. That feels just a little incorrect with the lifetime of trauma I simply piloted her by means of.
As a substitute, the traditional historical past you uncover really pays off excess of Sophia’s private journey. The bits and items which might be revealed by means of flashbacks unravel the thriller of the long-dead civilization that’s on the heart of her treasure hunt, and the characters, twists, and dialogue in these sequences drew me in excess of the hunt itself. By the top, it nearly felt like Sophia was only a sidekick alongside for the trip (like she was in Requiem) moderately than the main focus.
The facet characters have most of the similar points as Sophia, like Leni, the luck-obsessed pickpocket who tags alongside however by no means has something attention-grabbing to say, or Faro, the captain of your pirate crew whose solely likable trait is how a lot of a whole knucklehead he’s at each leg of the journey. Regardless of spending a reasonably good chunk of time fixing puzzles and chatting with these of us, they by no means grew on me as a lot as I’d hoped, even when Faro’s hilariously horrible haircut did make me snigger each time I noticed it. That basically highlighted how crucially necessary the connection between Hugo and Amicia has been within the different Plague Tale video games, and this solid doesn’t fill the void all that successfully. They’re not dangerous per se, however don’t depart practically as robust of an impression as I’ve come to anticipate from video games which might be as centered on the story as this.
The largest distinction with this prequel spinoff is that as an alternative of creeping round armored enemies you haven’t any probability harming, you’ll be standing your floor with a sword in hand, parrying and dodging concerning the battlefield and taking out enemies in easy, repetitive encounters. The shift from stealth to all-out fight isn’t essentially the most seamless transition – not precisely dangerous, however constantly shallow and typically sloppy, with customary mild and heavy assaults, a kick to interrupt your opponent’s guard, and only a handful of dangerous guys with two or three totally different assaults to be taught. A lot of the time between its entertaining puzzles is spent in these claustrophobic arenas, however there’s so little depth to fight that it nearly instantly felt too one-note to maintain my curiosity. I largely simply needed to get these humdrum encounters finished with as shortly as potential to get again to the story and puzzles which might be a considerable step above.
You a minimum of have a ability tree you’ll sometimes be capable of purchase a brand new perk in, which do issues like offer you a extra highly effective kick that knocks folks again or achieve non permanent safety from injury after killing enemies. However these are largely modest upgrades that assist fight go by just a little quicker with out making it any extra entertaining. Hilariously, each infrequently Resonance will introduce a brand new mechanic to shake up the motion, like glowing purple assaults you may’t parry, solely to then provide ability tree upgrades that make it so you may simply… parry these purple assaults, functionally eradicating that new mechanic so fight stays overly simple.
In between fight, you’ll have a welcome break from preventing as you clear up the sorts of light-manipulating puzzles for which the sequence has at all times been identified. These are simply essentially the most pleasurable a part of the journey, although lots of them are tremendous easy mild reflecting puzzles the place you’re shifting mirrors round to level a beam at a door. I’ve in all probability performed a couple of hundred video games with puzzles precisely like this, and whereas I don’t want Resonance to interrupt a ton of recent floor right here, they do really feel like a little bit of a step backward in comparison with the intelligent methods the opposite Plague Tale video games requested me to clear my path of rat hordes. That stated, when the puzzles do hit, which is perhaps half the time, it may be a whole lot of enjoyable to snoop round previous locations and piece collectively clues from an previous journal like one thing out of Indiana Jones.
Fortunately, these excessive factors develop into extra frequent afterward, when the horrors of the rats are lastly changed by a brand new sort of hazard. I received’t spoil it for you right here, however sure sections return to the kind of enemy you’ve no hope of dealing with head-on, forcing you to get artistic in escaping it. You struggle this new downside by, you guessed it, reflecting mild into darkish areas, so among the puzzles are the identical sort of unoriginal stuff you have been already doing – however as a result of the stakes are a lot increased and the method of outsmarting the enemy is a lot extra thrilling than merely opening a door, these sections instantly really feel attention-grabbing and unique in the best way most encounters lacks for a big chunk of the story. This kind of stuff is what the Plague Tale video games have at all times finished finest, and introducing a brand new sort of factor to be frightened of is fairly superior, even in the event you do must take care of the considerably much less thrilling fight encounters that proceed to occur in between.