This April, I was invited by Focus Entertainment to come and play Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy early, and I have to say that what I saw completely blew me away. I replayed the first two games prior to the event, but this spin-off title improves on so many things that I think many will easily consider it their favorite entry—myself included.
The game is set in Crete, around 15 years before the events of Plague Tale: Innocence, the series’ inaugural title. You play as Sophia, a girl troubled by dark visions and premonitions, journeying through the ruins of the Minoan civilization. The setting is dominated by ancient Greek myths and legends and particularly focuses on the tale of the Minotaur and its related stories and characters.
During the events of the game, the Most Serene Republic of Venice is invading Crete and setting up shop there, and Sophia must clash with its mercenaries to reach her goals, firmly placing the game within a realistic historical framework while maintaining the mystical and fantastical nature of its core plot.
Resonance shares the name, overarching setting, and core DNA with the previous Plague Tale games, so that means you’ll be solving many puzzles, finding your way through treacherous caverns, forgotten temples, and the remnants of a lost civilization, all while experiencing supernatural events you cannot quite understand.
The game even sends you into the past as Sophia receives visions of an ancient time where legendary characters like Theseus would fight to the death to appease the bull-god of the Minoans. These glimpses were brief in the build I played but genuinely so hype that I had to mention them, as they really spoke to me on a personal level due to my heavy interest in Bronze Age Mediterranean societies.
The best thing about Resonance compared to the previous games is undoubtedly the combat, which goes from purely ranged to visceral and melee-focused. Every fight feels like a dance. It flows perfectly, each attack chains together with the last, and it doesn’t stop until either you or all your enemies are dead. As the developers told me, Ghost of Tsushima was a key inspiration for the game’s combat, and it really shows in more ways than one.
Of course, I have to mention the music, especially the main menu theme. It’s perhaps the best main menu song I’ve ever heard in my life, sung in Greek and accompanied by traditional Mediterranean music. I hope the devs will spot me an mp3 of it so I can play it on repeat until the game comes out later this year.
And, yes, you do have a companion much like in the previous games, but she is a lot faster and a lot more capable when things get heated than that damned little brat.
