Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy Preview – More Action, More Freedom, Same Heart
Pulling down archers with a grappling hook should be in every game now.
Asobo Studio really made its mark with A Plague Tale: Innocence back in 2019, and while I wasn’t fully sold on the sequel and felt it was somewhat of a step down from the original, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is exactly the kind of creative shift the series needed.
I had a chance to play two sizable missions from the upcoming adventure and came away wanting more. The developer’s willingness to move beyond the established formula, while improving the combat and pacing, makes for a more engaging and confident experience. Here are my early thoughts on what I played.
Sophia and the Beast
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is set 15 years before the events of the first A Plague Tale and stars Sophia, who was introduced in the sequel. In the preview, Sophia and her friend Leni arrive at Minotaur Island in search of something both ancient and deeply personal. Given her background as a plunderer, Sophia is a capable fighter who is skilled with a blade and knows her way around long-forgotten ruins.
The island is beautifully rendered thanks to Asobo’s in-house engine and the team has managed to create environments that feel detailed yet easy to navigate without relying on aggressive traversal markers. There are usually multiple paths to your next objective, and taking time to explore often rewards you with useful loot, mostly trinkets that provide passive buffs.
Combat is the biggest departure from previous titles. Sophia can attack, kick, parry, and execute enemies without constantly needing to hide behind cover. It is not the most complex combat system, but it feels satisfying thanks to its contextual executions, which there are a lot of. The camera is pulled back enough to give you a clear view of the combat arenas and the game avoids indicators for incoming attacks for a clear presentation. I particularly enjoyed pulling archers from elevated positions using the grappling hook and getting a few slashes in as they crashed to the ground.
Enemies are also more aggressive than expected. Powerful attacks are telegraphed with large red indicators and must be dodged, while regular enemies rarely wait their turn to attack. There are moments where you’ll parry multiple incoming strikes in quick succession, and successfully pulling it off feels great. There is some jank here and there, but this is a preview build, and the combat is already a major step forward compared to the previous games, where your options were far more limited.
Combat is only one part of the gameplay loop. You’ll also solve large environmental puzzles to progress through multiple areas. Whether it’s redirecting a light source to unlock a door or following patterns to avoid spike traps, these puzzles do a good job of keeping the pacing fresh. The closest comparison would be Uncharted and the modern Tomb Raider games, just not the combat. Missions are broken up with character banter, traversal sequences, large-scale puzzles, and bursts of combat that help maintain a steady rhythm.
That is only true of the first mission I played (which was Mission 5 to be specific), however, because things take a dramatic turn in the second. After an unfortunate development, Sophia finds herself trapped deep within the site she has been trying to unlock and comes face to face with a mysterious cosmic entity lurking beneath the island. It’s hard to explain, but this supernatural force can drain the life from anyone standing in darkness, reducing them to ash within moments in a fairly grotesque manner. What follows is a tense survival horror sequence where staying in the light becomes your only means of survival.
It is a striking change of pace and effectively conveys the creature’s terrifying presence. It lurks within the shadows, moves at incredible speed, and relentlessly pursues Sophia as she navigates a sprawling underground labyrinth. Rather than fighting back, you are forced to find cover, move between light sources, avoid the creature’s gaze, and stay crouched as you search for an escape route.
In just two missions, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy managed to stay fresh, engaging, and surprisingly willing to reinvent itself when necessary. While it does not play much like the first two games, its tone, atmosphere, and characters still feel true to the world Asobo created.
