With Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey sailing past $1billion at the box office, there’s never been a better time to peddle Ancient Greek myths to the public. Enter Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, a new game that lets players voyage across the sea and clash with legendary monsters from the comfort of their couches.
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Stepping into the worn leather sandals of scoundrel Sophia, you’ll actually begin this gripping thriller with a daring 14th-century heist. Abandoned at birth, our heroine was adopted by Venice’s most feared gang of thieves – who taught her to swashbuckle and steal. There’s more than a whiff of Assassin’s Creed to Resonance’s early stages, as Sophia leaps between late Byzantine-era buildings, dealing death from above to unsuspecting city guards. But when the job goes badly wrong, she flees on a ship to the Greek island of Crete – encouraged by visions of long-lost treasure.
As implied by its clunky title, the third game in the Plague Tale series is an entirely standalone spin-off. In previous games, disgusting streams of infectious rodents helped you dispatch unlucky foes. In Resonance, the slimy pests are (mercifully) nowhere to be seen.
Crete in ‘Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy’. CREDIT: Focus Entertainment
Once you reach the mysterious island, you’ll clamber across the ruins of King Minos’ once-great realm, navigating its crumbling walls which feels pleasingly familiar. Much like the other games, Resonance prioritises a slickly delivered linear story over freeform exploration. This is an adventure in the Uncharted mold, asking you to jump over spiked traps and step over skeletons before solving tricky puzzles to stay alive.
Where former entries focused on frustrating insta-fail stealth sections, Resonance wisely swaps sneaking for deft swordplay, slingshots and crouching behind cover for brutal kill animations and precision parries. This shift to full-on action is well-judged and remains a constant delight throughout. Even more excitingly, Sophia’s visions flash you back to the Minoan Era – where warrior Theseus undertakes Minos’ gruelling and gruesome trials.
While the overall story is a mixed bag, the core cast of characters comprise a fairly compelling crew. Sophia’s fellow brigand and lifelong friend, Leni, forms the other part of an endearingly authentic relationship. The main buddy you’ll get acquainted with though, is your trusty notepad. Scribbled with sketches pieced together from Sophia’s dreams and notes from her Minos-obsessed dad, this enigma-cracking bible is brought up at the touch of the d-pad. Luckily, this means you’ll never get stuck on one challenge for long – but so much of this classical caper is spent on these brainteasers that they become boring anyway, even if quickly worked out.
Ancient Greeks do battle in ‘Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy’. CREDIT: Focus Entertainment
Resonance dials up the darkness for its finale, thankfully exchanging trial-resolving tedium with all-out terror. As a terrible evil awakens, we return to the series’ stealthy roots – Sophia creeping through the gloom past a monstrous, Venus Flytrap-esque horror. Fail to leap out of the way of its H.R. Giger-style tendrils or crawl past seemingly immobile stone creatures that lurch alarmingly to life and it’s curtains for you. Then, a cinematic climax wonderfully blends the demons of the past with the perils of the present. A late-game enemy even cleverly leverages a light-emitting puzzle mechanic to vanquish undead abominations. It’s just a shame these novel ideas are saved for the tale’s end.
‘Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy’ is out now for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. It is also on Xbox Game Pass
VERDICT
A Plague Tale’s latest instalment wears its various influences proudly on its tattered sleeve. The atmospheric adventuring ultimately remains refreshingly singular though. It may lack the series’ signature rodents – and, bafflingly, an actual minotaur – but Resonance reliably scratches that Uncharted itch. If you need a breezy linear adventure to immerse yourself in, you could do far worse than playing this flawed yet intriguing game.
PROS
A winning blend of puzzle-based trickery and unsettling horror action
Surprisingly great combat sequences
The narrative intrigues throughout, telling a unique story
CONS
Repetitive puzzles in the mid-section kill the pacing
The ambitious tale’s emotional climax fails to fully land
Where’s the minotaur?!
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