Highlights

  • A Plague Tale: Innocence portrayed a harrowing depiction of a medieval pandemic with realistic repercussions.
  • The game's intense experience confronts players with the impact of The Black Death.
  • Its legacy remains strong, offering a unique look at historical events through creative storytelling.

Released on May 14, 2019, A Plague Tale: Innocence arrived somewhat out of left field for its time. The title was labeled an "AA" production, somewhere above indie but not quite the upper tiers. A Plague Tale: Innocence nevertheless impressed players and critics with its blend of action/adventure/stealth mechanics, compelling characters, and story. Most notably, though, these were set against the backdrop of the disease historically known as The Black Death, which affected large parts of Europe during the Middle Ages, upheaving society and causing irreparable damage in many sectors of it. The source was eventually discovered to be a bacterium. However, rats were long attributed and depicted as being the cause, as they were a vector for it to infect humans.

There have been myriad games based on deadly diseases, plagues, and other outbreaks. Still, almost none have come close to A Plague Tale: Innocence's unrelenting rendition and presentation of the one that occurred in Europe during the 1300s. Though it contained supernatural elements in its explanation for the root of the outbreak, it also showed some extremely realistic repercussions of the actual pandemic, though some were admittedly exaggerated for dramatic effect. The impact this imparted on the characters and audiences alike, though, resulted in an intense experience that stands out to this day as one of the medium's most fascinating looks at such an event, remaining memorable half a decade later due to its design and vision.

Asobo revealed in 2023 that it was working on another project , although whether it will be related to A Plague Tale is currently unknown.

The T-Virus (Resident Evil), Syphon Filter and Green Poison (The Division)
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A Plague Tale: Innocence Stands as a Harrowing Depiction of a Pandemic in Gaming

Amicia and Hugo's Journey in A Plague Tale: Innocence

Like titles framed around viruses, games set in the historical medieval period have also been plentiful. A Plague Tale: Innocence follows the trials of young French nobles Amicia (age 15) and Hugo (age 5–6) de Rune. Siblings and members of a royal family, the duo are shortly forced to flee their fortified castle home from A Plague Tale's version of the Inquisition, which is active due to the ongoing Hundred Years War, but also searching specifically for Hugo for nefarious ambitions that are directly related to the onset of the plague spreading across the lands.

From then onward, the two find themselves in increasingly dangerous situations, starting when they attempt to hide in a local village and seek help, but find most of the citizens already desperately scared. Their fear and uncertainty about the situation and cause of the plague start to bring their darker sides to the fore, turning former neighbors against each other, locking their doors and refusing to speak, while bandits begin to roam the streets. Food and other necessities are being hoarded or prices inflated, and the entire population is on edge.

Amicia must deal with her younger brother 's (and her own) previously more naive and isolated worldview while attempting to keep them both safe in the circumstances as best she can manage.

A Plague Tale: Innocence's Portrayal of the Medieval Pandemic

One of the most memorable and exemplary portions of A Plague Tale: Innocence happens when Hugo and Amicia, along with their traveling companion, apprentice alchemist Lucas, must wade through a battleground littered with casualties from the war as well as those that have succumbed to the plague, human and animal. It is gruesome and explicit, with mounds of dead littering a vast ravaged meadow while ravenous hordes of countless rats swarm, ready to pounce upon the trio as they attempt to cross.

Those overwhelming numbers of rats, while certainly greatly inflated compared to real life, were also one of A Plague Tale: Innocence's touted features at the time, with the sheer amount that could be rendered with accompanying unsettling AI behavior being positively highlighted. Similar scenarios subsequently occur in the plot. Other allies join them, but the ongoing situation starts to take its toll on everyone, as the group is confronted more and more with the grim realities of their circumstances.

A perhaps underappreciated but important ingredient is these moments being accompanied by a haunting orchestral soundtrack that moodily reflects and punctuates the characters' shock of witnessing and dealing with the tragedies taking place around them. Amicia is forced to make agonizing choices in A Plague Tale as she is pushed into taking more desperate measures to ward off the encroaching dangers while trying not to lose her emotional connections to her friends and family along with her sense of self.

Amicia & Hugo From A Plague Tale Innocence
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A Plague Tale: Innocence's Legacy in a Post-Pandemic Industry

Of course, only about a year after A Plague Tale: Innocence was released, COVID struck. While such things are unpredictable, the timing perhaps created an unintentional but nevertheless more relevant connection, as many turned to gaming as a therapeutic source and method of staying connected with loved ones while having to be physically separated. A Plague Tale, though set centuries prior, examines the same sobering existential/psychological struggles and harsher life-altering aspects that something of that nature can thrust upon humanity.

A Plague Tale: Innocence captured a well-known and devastating event in history, specifically that of a pandemic, and filtered it through a creative artistic license with an informed presentation and uniquely unapologetic take on what it might have been like; something generally rarely attempted, especially in gaming. It also did so on top of delivering an emotionally affecting story with well-designed third-person action/stealth and other engaging gameplay elements. A Plague Tale: Innocence's direction and staunch commitment to its vision of the medieval plague serves as one of the most interesting, well-realized, and highly effective versions of it to appear in gaming to date.