A Plague Tale: Requiem upgrades brother Hugo for the sequel

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A Plague Tale: Requiem, the sequel to 2019’s A Plague Tale: Innocence, is one of the bigger games launching this fall. GamesBeat got to play a short chunk of the upcoming title, and one difference is immediately apparently: Pint-sized deuteragonist Hugo has gotten a heckuva power upgrade.

The first Plague Tale game followed children Amicia and Hugo as they flee their home and face religious persecution and an apocalyptic horde of plague rats. Amicia does most of the work, as Hugo is around 5-years-old when they go on the run. He would try with all his little heart to help, but Hugo was definitely not a fighter. That was kind of the point.

I would argue that the developers did this too well. I am, in real life, also an overprotective big sister, and the age difference between me and my brother is about the same as that between Amicia and Hugo. This means that I couldn’t play A Plague Tale: Innocence for long periods. Any time Hugo was in danger or upset — which was very often, given the circumstances — it sent me into a state of primal distress (for the record, my brother is now in his 20s and baffled about why I kept going to him for hugs while playing).

However, sequel Requiem is giving Hugo a boost in power. While he steadily improved as a companion throughout the original game, here he’s got several abilities that can help through stealth sections. Spoilers for the end of Innocence, but Hugo gains the ability to control the plague rats late in that game — too late for the player to really enjoy it. In Requiem, Hugo has more control over his