Rats Care Not for Your Allure

Feminina O'Ladybrain

Jul 7

Some spoilers for story and mechanics in Plague Tale: Innocence

Butch:

Did a confusing plot dump, something something book, stages of whatever Hugo has, etc. Did a bit where I'm trying to get to a university to get the something something forbidden book. Learned that monks with brands or something on their heads want weird rat crystals and were nice enough to let a recipe slip for no real reason. I was doing quite well, until I got to the last bit, lots of Kevin, door to the university, and then I got tired, hit a wall and COULD NOT GET PAST IT so I stopped.

Maybe I'm just tired, or excited for my trip, but I'm getting exponentially more confused every time I play this. Who's the Magistrar? Is that the dude with the helmet? Who's the dude with the helmet?

To make matters worse, I'm getting confused as to what I have at my disposal. Sure, I just did that for 89 hours with Horizon. "Oh, right, I have [traps/bombs/potions/slings/shredders/everything]...." This game, though, you really have to remember all that. You can't say "Oh! A new toy! How nice. I'll stick to the bow I've been using since the Daunt, but how nice." This game actually expects you to KNOW stuff.

Half my brain is on vacation and the other half is stressed, man! I don't KNOW stuff!

Plus, some of the stuff they want you to know is rather disappointing. I was going to do that whole "chuck the new rat attractor at Kevin" trick they taught us. Kevin was RIGHT by rats! I thought he was, anyway. I chucked it, hit him and the only thing that happened was "What was that someone threw at me?" Then he found me and I died. Not what I was going for.

I'm so confused.

Feminina:

Yes, I found the rat attractor to be of very unreliable efficacy. Maybe...uh...inconsistent potency of the rat crystals? You know that's an issue when your pharmaceuticals are compounded by rodents.

Or maybe there are just certain enemies that they want you to defeat some other way. Because there were definitely times when I'd throw the rat attractor right on someone, and the nearby rats would shrug and ignore it.

And yes, you DO have to know stuff, and it did get kind of exhausting. "Wait, what do I have to hit this guy with?" And then sometimes you have to do these quick-changes with the sling, like "OK, put out the light here, swap ammunition, attract the rats there, swap ammunition, hit the guy in the helmet with the burning-helmet stuff, swap ammunition and hit him again with a rock..."

As for the story...it's something. Basically, Hugo has some kind of hereditary, rat-related progressive illness that his mom and Laurentius or whoever were working on stopping, and someone else, either helmet man or someone he works for, are aware of this and want to use it for their own nefarious purposes in some way.

I feel like that's the summary.

Butch:

Ain't it always the way? Some innocent has a thing and then everyone gets all weird about it?

Changing ammo is finicky. I kinda love the remove helmet then rock trick, but many a time I have not correctly selected ROCK in my haste and died. It's tense doing it that quickly! Amicia needs that slow down time shit Aloy had.

Feminina:

So finicky! And it's so easy to THINK you've selected the rock, but accidentally have gone too far along the wheel and...not selected the rock. And then the guy says "hey, who threw rat crystals at me?" and kills you.

To be fair, we kind of deserve it for the rat crystals. I imagine they must be solidified urine, and that's just gross.

Butch:

Or even selecting nothing! If I overshoot rock in the wheel, I choose an empty space! Amicia all "oh, I just wanted you to take off your helmet. Carry on."

Feminina:

"Just thought I recognized you from somewhere and wanted to see your face to check! But it turns out I don't, so let's move on?"

Hugo and Lucas meanwhile just shaking their heads, thinking "one of us needs to learn to use a sling so we can provide backup here."

Oh, and I see the sequel is available for pre-order, but looks like it's not shipping until December. Also, it's $60, which...I can certainly afford, but that seems maybe a little high for a short game like this.

On the other hand, it's not like I can't afford, it, and we must support small games...but we'll see what else we're doing in December. Maybe wait a while until it goes on sale.

Butch:

Huh. Must've gotten delayed. Thought it was out this week. Ah, well. I'm only on chapter eight.

Ponder what's next then. We must stay sane!

Feminina:

I forgot how many chapters there are, and was going to guess 20, but the internet says 17, so I'll go with that. Regardless, you've got some time.

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