Why you can trust Windows Central
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
I’ll admit it, I’m the guy who side-eyes sequels and especially prequels. Maybe it’s childhood trauma from sitting through the first three Star Wars movies, but prequels and I have never really gotten along.
I don’t know what it is specifically, but the prequels I come across tend to be pointless. Adding nothing to the existing story, or go off in different directions that have no relation to the original stories. That’s where Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is different.
The deeper I got into the game, the more I realized just how good it really is. The story doesn’t just tag along for the ride; it actually builds on the Plague Tale universe. And Sophia? She plays nothing like Amicia de Rune, which is something I didn’t know I needed so much of.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is like the best recipe from Asobo Studios, mixing in the action vibes of the Tomb Raider reboots and tossing in a dash of early Assassin’s Creed storytelling. The result is that Resonance easily becomes the best Plague Tale game so far.
From the stillness of silent trekking to open-area sword combat, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is both similar yet an entirely reenergized overhaul of the Plague Tale we’ve grown to love in all the right ways.
This review was conducted using a pre-release code of Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy provided to Windows Central by Asobo Studios. The company had no input or prior knowledge of its content.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy — Story
As I said in the beginning, prequels are very hard to get right. One of the many repeated mistakes I see with prequels is the lack of ties into the story of the main entries. Something substantial has to be there, not just a hook where both main characters once ate at the same diner or some other crap. While I obviously am not the one who’s going to spoil a single second of Resonance’s fantastic storytelling, I will say that the tie-ins are more than sufficient to warrant a prequel.
From the jump, you can feel the Plague Tale DNA pulsing through the game. You step into the shoes of young Sophia, darting through crowds with a frame not much bigger than Hugo de Rune. Her childhood wasn’t great, as growing up in a house of God wasn’t exactly a blessing. The Nuns put her through a gauntlet of injections, sparking nightmares of a mysterious island that sends her father, and eventually herself, on a quest for the reasons behind the dreams.
The deeper she dives, the further her connection with the island grows; a reimagined story of the ancient Greeks’ Minotaur island. The contraptions of Daedalus, Minoan civilization, and the myth of the Minotaur all blend beautifully and terrifyingly with that of the Prima Macula, the main “antagonist” of the Plague Tale series.
That same connection with the island grants her a unique ability to see into the past of Theseus, legendary hero of Greek mythology. These sequences offer a glimpse of new details she may have missed, or of a puzzle that went missing centuries ago.
Both stories unfold over the 10+ chapters of the game, and I was absolutely hooked. I’m an absolute sucker for ancient mythology, and when you add a new take on top of it? Sign me up!
The pacing of Resonance never once felt dull, not even for a moment. Tension was high nearly throughout the game, with quieter moments offering a much-needed respite. Honestly, by and far this is one of the best narrative-driven games I’ve ever played.
My only major plothole was the random intervals of enemies you come across in the game. You’ll enter locked areas that no one has entered for centuries, and that your friends have tried to enter for years.
Finally, with the right equipment, you get inside, only to be met by an army of men that followed you to the island. Their constant invasion into spaces that are otherwise sealed felt beyond odd, but at least I got to kill them all!
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy — Gameplay
The big kicker with Resonance is the newly added gameplay mechanics that nearly overhaul those of the previous games. Gone are the days of knocking guards out with stones; in are the split-second parry moments of Sophia.
Sophia gets her hands on a bunch of different swords, each with its own twist that bolsters some talent of hers. She can block, and if you time it right, pull off a parry that fills up the enemy’s stun meter. Once that’s maxed out, you can land some seriously heavy hits through the use of Critical Strikes.
Sure, these mechanics don’t sound astonishingly new, but what’s there is incredibly polished. I don’t usually see developers that nail that feel from stealth jump to melee combat with any success, as there always seems to be a specialty that they’re better at. But Asobo Studio has disregarded that notion and succeeded.
They nailed the flow of combat in a way that feels responsive and intuitive throughout the campaign. I never once thought, “Wow, I really wish this worked better, or it wasn’t like this,” which is a rarity for someone like myself who prides their gameplay on Soulslike adventures.
That’s not to say Resonance is some game-changing masterpiece, but it’s very refreshing to see a developer who can deal with opposite genres so well. Some small things that could be improved? Absolutely, but they won’t break the game for anyone.
Things like Sophia’s rope hook feel a little pre-programmed. Like, I know this isn’t Naughty Dog we’re talking about, so I don’t expect Nathan Drake levels of swinging, but I also didn’t expect every rope interaction to be static.
Climbing walls is straight up and down, while swinging from rope hook placements above your head, which there are plenty of, is also fairly static. I feel like this mechanic alone could have been spruced up just a bit, and the world expanded as a result of it.
Take, for example, the puzzles. Clearly, a lot of refinement and effort went into making the puzzles of Resonance more so than any before. Partly because the scope of said puzzles has expanded beyond fire and into the use of more directional-based lighting mechanics.
As you progress, more puzzle mechanics are unlocked, and with that, the equivalent level of difficulty. Resonance does a very good job of providing environmental clues as time goes on without being completely blatant about the solutions (although there’s a clever amount of that as well).
Mirror usage, for example, is pretty frequent, but the ways in which you use mirrors develop over time. Subtle yet noticeable hints lead you in directions of these mechanics without some massive text tutorial spelling it out for you. Even puzzles that aren’t so obvious will see Sophia using her notebook to jot down answers or clues that players can make use of to solve things that aren’t so obvious.
With that said, it wasn’t always perfect. I did think some of the puzzles were either too simple or relied too heavily on using the notebook. For me, it felt like the notebook couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be optional at times or mandatory to use. This makes sense early on (if you play the game, it makes even more sense), but as you progress, it becomes narratively weirder to rely on.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy — Performance, graphics, and the world
Yet again, another stellar showing from Asobo Studios. While the worlds of Plague Tale have always been nothing short of beautiful, what the developer has done between the interwoven worlds of Sophia’s present and her linked past is none other than masterful.
The Plague team has always had a special way of depicting worlds on the brink of collapse, but it’s always a pleasure to watch them distribute beautiful environments as well. Much of the Ancient Greek portions are gorgeous to look at, and more often than you’d think, I found myself taking a moment to pause and look over my 4K OLED screen to get a better look at each individual thing on screen.
All of this beauty surely comes at a cost, right? Well, yes, at least if you’re looking to run it at native 4k Ultra settings. But if you’re willing to run things with a little DLSS Quality or Balanced, you’ll be just fine.
The two builds I used were my laptop with a 4060 mobile chip at 1080p, and my main rig, an RTX 5080, 9800X3D, and 64GB of CL30 DDR5 RAM at 4K. For each, I ran at Ultra settings, with DLSS set to either Quality or Balanced, and I don’t recall ever dropping below 60 frames per second. In fact, I played most of the game well above 100 when mixing in a little frame gen.
Yes, I know, “Boo, frame gen sucks!” and I hear you, but hear me out too. Frame gen works rather well when a game is already pushing past 60, and even better when it’s not a twitch shooter. On third-person action games, the difference in smoothness far outweighs the precious sadness over “fake AI frames.”
Note: I did not get a chance to test the Xbox version, but I’ve been told it targets 60 fps with a dynamic 4k resolution.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy — Should you buy it?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: yes. Fully summarized answer: this game isn’t for your normal everyday Call of Duty or Madden player. Games like these are meant to be played by those who are drooling for gorgeous vistas, well-planned puzzle mechanics, and a story that forces you to feel.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is beyond a shadow of a doubt the best entry in the series. Every new title showcases just how far Asobo has come in terms of quality and talent on their team.
I can’t believe I’m already saying this cause this game hasn’t even technically released yet, but I absolutely need a sequel to Plague Tale: Requiem with Amicia, Sophia, and crew. That, or whatever this studio decides to make.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
