A Plague Tale: Requiem is the sequel 2019’s cult hit deserves

polygon.com:

Rats swarm an otherwise peaceful city, pouring through sewage drains and crashing against walls like an endless expanse of ocean. Citizens scream in terror, swallowed by the plague’s insatiable hunger. Amicia watches, horrified, knowing that her little brother is no longer safe from the Macula, the ancestral curse, and it will slowly devour him from the inside. Despite the disease’s momentary absence, there is no escaping the horde.

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However, this is not how A Plague Tale: Requiem begins. It starts on a slow note, illustrating that Hugo and Amicia have found a temporary but welcome peace after the events of A Plague Tale: Innocence. Quiet, serene moments abound: Amicia wandering through the derelict ruins of an old keep with Hugo in tow as he conjures up imaginary scenarios of being a goodly and kind king; watching her brother race through gorgeously rendered fields of lavender and wildflowers. Developer Asobo Studio has done a fantastic job of balancing these opening segments with their altogether darker counterparts, weighing hope and helplessness, and allowing the narrative to weave itself in a way that managed to keep me interested in all of its twists and turns.

After Hugo has a dream about curative waters on a far-off Mediterranean island, he and his big sister set off to find a potential cure for the illness that plagues him. Upon reaching the island, the denizens