If you don't like rats, look away now, this story isn't for you. If you're still here, then you should know that A Plague Tale: Requiem is leveraging current-gen hardware so that it can increase the number of rats on screen at any one time by 60 times, from 5,000 in A Plague Tale: Innocence to 300,000 in the sequel.
Nicolas Bécavin, lead engine programmer wrote on a recent PlayStation Blog post (via Games Radar) that the team had opted against developing the game for last-gen "to set ourselves completely free from last-gen constraints and make the most out of the features brought by the new gen."
As well as all the standard boring stuff like faster load times and greater render distances, "The number of rats on-screen has been multiplied by 60, growing from 5,000 to 300,000!" That might be too many rats, but it is a plague, after all, that's kind of the point.
Now, it's important to note that Bécavin is speaking specifically about developing the game on the PS5, so we aren't sure if this will be the case on Xbox Series S. The Series X will likely boast the same features as the PS5, however, as they're both powerful flagship models.
Bécavin says that the movement of the rats has also changed, and now "they look like a giant wave, much like a tsunami crashing down on you." Those little rat tornadoes in Innocence were bad enough, but now we've got more natural disaster rats to look forward to. We've also sort of seen rat earthquakes when they burst through the soil and demolish towns. What's next, a rat volcano? Actually, that would be awesome.
A story trailer for Requiem was revealed two days ago, showing how truly despairing things have gotten for the de Rune children. It's a dark world, one that kids shouldn't have to deal with, and the trailer is keen to let us know the toll it's taking on both Hugo and Amicia.
