izigame.me

Quite honestly, it took me a while to decide how to rate this game. But in the end, I am going with not recommended.
Having said that, I also want to make one thing clear - Plague is not a bad game and I can see why many people would love it. So let's see why the negative review:
Pros
There are a lot of things that this game does exceptionally well, and these are the highlights:
- The French medieval setting is absolutely marvellous and visually stunning at times. Both lighter and darker moments are very atmospheric and feel natural
- The story (while totally linear) is decent, accompanied by a well-done narrative. To add to this, the voice acting is a real highlight and deserves some praise as it is one of the main reasons why it's possible to connect to and actually build a sense of care about the characters.
- For me, the game run very well and everything felt smooth (no bugs to mention)
- The character of the inquisition knight Lord Nicholas, (one of the main antagonists) is portrayed supremely well and it adds a lot of value to the grim and harsh moments of the story
Cons
- Unfortunately, the linear story also translates to extremely linear and sometimes even repetitive gameplay. The game literally forces (guides) you towards certain paths, actions and puzzle solutions. Even worse, once you make progress on the main level path, any backtracking is virtually impossible. So if you go to the right, forget about any loot or exploration that was on the left side - you can't get back.
- Even if you manage to explore, it is non-rewarding and basically pointless. There is no special loot and the collectibles are utterly redundant (add nothing to the game/story)
- The stealth aspect suffers from all the traditional cliches, but sometimes the NPCs feel just a bit too brain-dead. This is especially horrible when playing as Hugo (I almost put the game away here), when you literally just press the "move forward button" throughout an entire level and nobody notices unless you stand directly in front of them.
- Equipment upgrades aren't very impactful, as you can easily handle the game without them, therefore there is no sense of achievement when you finally use that improved sling of yours.
- For a story-driven game, the main villain is just .... underwhelming and forgetful. In addition, the ending doesn't really provide any closure - you stop the bad guy and wait for a sequel.
- Little value for the money: you can finish the game in ~10h and because of the linearity, the replayability potential is basically non-existent. Imho, not worth the price tag of 40€.
Overall: 5/10
- Get this game (maybe on sale) if you want to enjoy story-driven, relatively short and slow-paced gameplay with great visuals and voice acting. If you are looking for a somewhat challenging stealth experience, with the possibility to experiment and explore, go and look elsewhere.