A Plague Tale: Innocence
XBOX | PS4
DEVELOPER: Asobo Studio
PUBLISHER: Focus Home Interactive
RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2019

For anyone who is exhausted by the current state of video games, oversaturated with endless “games as a service” BS, a good old-fashioned single-player experience is always a most welcome option to have. The recently released A Plague Tale: Innocence is one such option.

The game, which comes from independent French developer Asobo Studio, is a third-person adventure set in medieval France. It follows a girl tasked with protecting her young brother as they fight to survive in a dangerous world devastated not only by war but also by the horrific Black Death plague.

Publisher Focus Home Interactive has released an interesting new promo video for the game A Plague Tale: Innocence. In the video, which can be seen below, Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings star Sean Bean recites a lyric poem titled “The Little Boy Lost,” which was written by William Blake for the collection Songs of Innocence in 1789. Not something you see video game promos doing every day.

Blake’s writings were among developer Asobo Studio’s inspirations in creating the game, which follows a brother and sister named Amicia and Hugo as they navigate a world devastated by war and the Black Death. Fittingly, Black Death is also the title of another good movie Bean has starred in, so the actor has a little experience with the horrific plague.

Developer Asobo Studio and publisher Focus Home Interactive’s A Plague Tale: Innocence arrived this week, and a launch trailer was released to accompany it.

The game follows a girl and her young brother as they fight to survive a dark, devastating world ravaged by war and plague. You can read more about A Plague Tale: Innocence and check out the launch trailer along with some additional trailers and gameplay videos below.

I’ve never heard of A Plague Tale: Innocence from developer Asobo Studio, let alone seen anything from it. But it’s been in the works for a while now.

The game follows the journey of a brother and sister across 14th century France as the Black Death ravages the world around them. For Gamescom 2018, publisher Focus Home Interactive has shared a 16-minute gameplay demo to showcase how it looks. And it looks pretty darn good. Dark and depressing, but good nonetheless.

Continue below for more on the game and to check out the gameplay demo, along with some previously released trailers.