Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy Review – Big Style, Not Enough Substance

When you’re three games deep in a series, it’s usually common to keep playing things safe. Asobo Studio opted to try something new, however, ditching the stealth-focused drama and rats of A Plague Tale for high-thrill adventures and no rats in Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy.

Resonance is set 15 years before A Plague Tale: Requiem, putting you in the shoes of the smuggler Sophia, back when she was but a humble plunderer. The prequel also teases some of the origins of the disease that plagues Hugo, the Prima Macula, tying it to ancient Minoan mythology. It’s a nifty enough premise, as Sophia is plagued with visions of Theseus as he goes through King Minos’ trials to fight the Minotaur and claim the throne. I just wish some of the characters were a bit more fleshed out since most of them, Sophia included, don’t really evolve throughout the game’s 15-hour-ish journey. Resonance does a pretty good job of teasing out the mystery of the minotaur, however, and what’s secretly lurking on the island, even if the present-day plot of exploring the ancient temples is plagued by some annoying plot contrivances and wishy-washy character development (or lack thereof).

If you’ve played the first two Plague Tale games, you’re probably familiar with its slower-paced, stealth-focused gameplay. Resonance opts for a more action-oriented direction, with Sophia ready to throw hands at whatever comes her way. Equipped with a sword, you’ll fight through waves of cookie-cutter soldiers and repeat the same pattern of “parry until they’re stunned, then take a few swings, rinse and repeat” till the combat’s over. Sophia can earn resonance points, which can be spent to upgrade her abilities, like making it so she can now parry previously unblockable attacks or an alternate parry that sends the enemy into their friends, stunning everyone. Unfortunately, most of these abilities don’t spice up the combat enough; in fact, at times it really feels like it’s dumbing it down even further.

You can find charms hidden throughout the game that give passive upgrades like increasing your parry window or making it so you have a higher risk of automatically dodging arrows shot at you. But again, these feel like they’re there to help you get the combat over with so you can get to the next story or puzzle section.

Speaking of, when she’s not busting heads across the island, there’s a plethora of puzzles to solve across the various temples you’ll explore. Early on, you’ll acquire a sphere known as “the key,” which is your main puzzle-solving device. Practically every puzzle in this game is a light-based one, and your sphere can swap between two modes: the first simply radiates light around you and reveals hidden messages, and the other fires off three lasers that need to hit matching points. As Sophia, you’ll come across moments like spike-trap floors that you’ll need the light from the sphere to show you which paths are safe to take, for example. Or one puzzle might need you to get yourself into a particular position by moving blocks around so you can line up the lasers emitted from your sphere to light up three points. They don’t ever get too particularly complicated, but they’re a nice reprieve from the combat segments.

At points in the game, Sophia will experience a vision that lets her live out a moment in the life of Theseus as he goes through the trials she’s also experiencing. Whereas Sophia usually deals with the puzzle part of the trial, it’s fun to switch over to Theseus for the combat side of things that Sophia doesn’t get to experience. These moments, while significantly stripped down since Theseus lacks all of Sophia’s combat abilities, are held up entirely on pure presentation. These stages are stunning, with gorgeous colors saturating every inch of the screen and some of the best music I’ve heard in a game in a minute. It’s very style over substance, but Asobo Studio really swung for the fences with some of these Theseus flashbacks.