Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy [REVIEW] – A Brilliant (and Rat-free) Journey into the Labyrinth

If you’re a returning fan of the series, you need a bit of warning: if you play Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy expecting to be immediately swarmed by an ocean of diseased rats (which was actually one of my favourite features from previous titles), you might be in for a bit of a shock. The team at Asobo Studio have changed things up with this prequel, stripping away the franchise’s signature rodents and heavy reliance on stealth to deliver something that feels more like a traditional, action-orientated third-person adventure. Thankfully, it works really, really well, with the narrative engaging, the gameplay a lot of fun, and the overall vibe maintaining that unsettling atmosphere that helped previous titles stand out.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Set roughly 15 years before the events of the previous game, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy puts us in the boots of fan-favourite Sophia, long before she became the infamous pirate captain we already know and love. Here, she is dealing with the trauma of being experimented on by sinister nuns as a child, an ordeal that has left her plagued by mysterious visions of the ancient Greek hero, Theseus. Looking for answers (and, of course, a bit of treasure), Sophia and her best friend Leni travel to a cursed Minoan island. What follows is a brilliantly paced tale about lost innocence, grief, and betrayal, with the narrative heavily revolving around her deteriorating relationship with her adoptive father, Faro, whose obsession with the island’s secrets slowly tears them apart. It’s incredibly effective, and with the game also throwing in some flashbacks to ancient Greece and the legend of Theseus, there’s a real historical flair that keeps things unpredictable. I loved it.

When it comes to the gameplay, the shift from survival-stealth to full-on action is IMMEDIATELY obvious. Unlike in previous titles in the series, you’re not playing as a mostly helpless kid here, but rather a highly capable fighter who can take down enemies with ease. The combat is incredibly fluid and relies heavily on an aggressive rhythm – you have a strict three-hit health pool, but pulling off an enemy execution restores one of those hits, meaning you are constantly incentivised to stay in the thick of the fight rather than running away to hide. But come on, you wouldn’t have it any other way, right?

“Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is a brilliant pivot for the series, swapping the iconic rat swarms and stealth-survival for fluid action-packed combat through an ancient (yet absolutely gorgeous) locale.”

Fights are heavily focused on parrying to fill up enemy stagger meters, and once they are off balance, you can unleash some genuinely brutal finishing moves. For attacks that flash red and cannot be blocked, dodging is your best friend, though you can eventually unlock a skill that lets you parry those too. Sophia’s toolkit is rounded out by a grappling hook to yank enemies out of position and a charged dagger strike that feels immensely satisfying, ensuring combat is as stylish as it is brutal. It all helps ensure that the game has a steady sense of progress that sees your skillset improve in order to keep combat interesting (and help you deal with an ever-growing threat) – you gather hidden Resonance points, rings, and charms by exploring tombs, which allow you to buy perks from a concise skill tree that never feels bloated or overly complicated.

When you are not trading blows with foes, you will be exploring the island’s breathtaking (and highly vertical) environments. The level design naturally funnels you downward through ancient pits and ruins without forcing any tedious backtracking, whilst breaking up the exploration are loads of environmental puzzles. Early on, you get your hands on a magical sphere that manipulates light in clever ways, which you will use to reveal hidden symbols like a blacklight, or split white beams into red, green, and blue to activate different crystals… you get the gist. A quick warning, though: there are a LOT of light-reflection and mirror puzzles, so if you’re not a fan or find them a bit too familiar, puzzling might get tiresome fast. Luckily, they’re well-designed and intuitive enough to keep players invested, but I wouldn’t say that Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy would earn too many accolades for puzzle originality.

Check out some screenshots down below:

My favourite thing about the series is how dark and terrifying it can be, and believe me, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy throws you straight into a nightmare at times. I don’t want to give too much away (though the references to Theseus might be clue enough), but there’s a particularly monstrous sequence later in the game that plays into this perfectly, adding an almost horror-like element to the game that matches the unsettling terror brought by the plagues of rats from previous titles. It is things like that that really help the Plague Tale titles set themselves apart from similar titles, and believe me, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy takes no prisoners.

And, of course, the game is also drop-dead gorgeous. The jaw-dropping scale of the Minoan ruins and the unsettling, corpse-littered darkness of the labyrinth look bloody fantastic, and with the haunting, Greek-inspired choral soundtrack ramping up the tension perfectly, it’s clear that this is an audio-visual delight. Asobo Studio have shown they can build fascinatingly beautiful worlds in the past, but honestly? Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy might just be their best yet.

Developer: Asobo Studio
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, PC
Website: https://www.focus-entmt.com/en/games/resonance-a-plague-tale-legacy