Asobo Studio's latest entry in the A Plague Tale series, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, expands the franchise's formula with toe-to-toe combat and a new lead character, Sophia. While these additions bring a fresh perspective and engaging gameplay elements, the game's relentless descent into grimness in its latter half significantly impacts its overall enjoyment.
Resonance distinguishes itself by shifting focus to Sophia, a young thief with a difficult past, whose story unfolds alongside the established De Rune family. The narrative is driven by Sophia's quest to uncover truths about her father's demise on a Minoan island, pursued by her father's treacherous second-in-command, Faro. This setup allows for a charming tutorial sequence where players meet Sophia's fellow thieves, including the notable Leni, with whom she shares a close bond.
New Combat and Puzzling Mechanics
A significant departure from previous titles is the introduction of direct sword combat. Sophia is portrayed as an agile fighter, drawing comparisons to the likes of Hellblade's Senua but with greater flexibility. The combat system incorporates a parry mechanic and an enemy poise meter, encouraging players to engage directly with threats. A Resonance point system allows for meaningful upgrades, such as enhancing Sophia's dodge capabilities or increasing parry effectiveness, with the ability to respec choices at any time. These combat encounters are complemented by an appealing perk system via armbands and beads, offering defensive or situational advantages, rewarding thorough exploration of each area.
Beyond combat, Resonance embraces more traditional adventure game elements. Exploration often involves minimal guidance, echoing older Tomb Raider titles, with no in-game map and a hint system that requires a deliberate button press for subtle nudges. This approach encourages players to get somewhat lost, adding a sense of discovery. The game heavily features light-reflecting puzzles, inspired by ancient civilizations, which are generally enjoyable, with satisfying payoffs as dormant mechanisms are brought to life. Sophia's habit of sketching environmental clues in a notebook, a feature borrowed from the Uncharted series, serves as an organic hint system.
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The game's presentation is a strong point, with Asobo's camera often focusing closely on character faces, enhancing the cinematic feel. Olivier Deriviere's musical score, blending frantic strings with mournful Greek-Cypriot vocals, further enriches the atmosphere. Accessibility options are comprehensive, including toggles for motion sickness, color presets, customizable controls, and difficulty modifiers like an invincible mode.
A Darker Turn
Despite the engaging gameplay and charming character interactions, particularly between Sophia and Leni during quieter moments, Resonance takes a significant tonal shift in its second half. As Sophia delves deeper into ancient ruins, the narrative becomes increasingly steeped in graphic and disturbing imagery. The game presents artfully horrific tableaux of corpses and introduces terrifying new foes that are sensitive to sound and movement, requiring tense stealth sequences. These sections, while thematically fitting for a game with "plague" in its title, are described as escalating into "abject misery" and feeling excessive, even for the genre.
The review notes a tendency in modern AAA games to depict extreme horror and violence, particularly concerning female protagonists enduring prolonged hardship and trauma. Resonance is cited as falling into this pattern, with lingering close-ups of a deeply traumatized Sophia experiencing agony, which becomes wearying for the player.
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In its final act, the game's pacing falters, oscillating between providing too much and too little visual guidance, particularly within labyrinthine environments. The repeated insistence of characters that the ordeal will soon be over feels more like a plea to the player than a narrative beat. This arduous conclusion, intended to reflect Sophia's suffering, ultimately detracts from an otherwise enjoyable experience, leaving a bittersweet impression.
A copy of Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy was provided for this review by Focus Entertainment.