As revealed earlier this year, Asobo Studio plans on making use of the beefier current-gen hardware, by doing things that were previously impossible to do for the sequel to A Plague Tale, A Plague Tale Requiem. While many were quick to infer this statement pertaining to the visuals, it seems that additional power these consoles provide will allow the team to not only expand on the narrative scope of things, but the gameplay itself. 

Speaking in PLAY Magazine (issue #19), which is a PlayStation focused magazine, Asobo Studio’s Lead Level Designer Kevin Pinson spoke briefly about the team using the power of the PS5, and how it has allowed them to make use of lighting, and how players will see that in the gameplay itself. 

“Specifically, we are a game about light,” Asobo Studio’s lead level designer Kevin Pinson told Play Magazine. “The power of the PS5 allows us to have more lights, [and] do more things with it. It’s really expensive from a game engine perspective to use the light as a gameplay mechanic, but this current gen allows us to use more dynamic lights.” Light was, of course, an important mechanic in the previous game, enabling you to keep rats away from Amicia, but that’s being expanded with the use of tar. When you throw it at an open flame, that sticky stuff will increase a torch’s flaming radius for a time, the broader light allowing you to reach areas you couldn’t before.

And while the team has had some experience with both current-gen platforms with the release of a remastered version of A Plague Tale, on the PS5 side of things, they note that they’re “doubling down” on the DualSense features.

The process of remastering the original game for PS5 was beneficial to the team, helping them work out early on what unique features they could implement on the console. Naturally the studio is doubling down on using the DualSense’s haptics to ensure you really feel that dreadful sensation of being swarmed by rats between your fingers. Pinson adds, “With Requiem it’s also a lot about the soundscapes and the physicality of the environment, so we try to transcribe that into the haptic feedback. It’s really good playing with the PS5 DualSense. I’m happy that people will soon play and give us feedback about it!”

Glad to hear the team is making use of the DualSense features. We, as well as many others, cannot wait to try it ourselves, and luckily that wait isn’t that much longer as A Plague Tale Requiem is officially launching on October 18 for the PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.