Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy review – Asobo takes a risk and delivers the best game in the series

August 26, 2026 - 21:36

I will admit it straight up. When I first heard that Asobo Studio was planning to lean harder into the climbing, swinging, and puzzle-platforming side of their Plague Tale series, I rolled my eyes. The idea of turning Amicia into a medieval Lara Croft felt like a cheap way to pad out the runtime. I was wrong. Dead wrong. Resonance, the new entry in the saga, takes that risky pivot and turns it into the strongest, most confident game the studio has ever made.

The core loop is still familiar. You sneak through rat-infested ruins, use fire and light to push back the swarming darkness, and solve environmental puzzles. But the difference here is in the flow. The traversal is not a series of disconnected climbing sections. It is woven into the story, into the tension, and into the character of Amicia herself. She moves with a desperate, athletic grace that feels earned after everything she has been through. The jumps are not floaty. The handholds are not glowing yellow. You feel every scrape of her boots on wet stone.

What surprised me most was the emotional weight of the action. In previous games, the combat and stealth felt like a necessary evil. Here, the physicality of Amicia's movements tells a story of a woman who has been pushed to her absolute limit. The game does not shy away from showing the toll that all this climbing and fighting takes on her body and her mind. There were moments where I had to put the controller down, not because the game was frustrating, but because the narrative hit so hard.

The risk Asobo took was in stripping away some of the safety net. The puzzles are harder, the enemy AI is more aggressive, and the environment is less forgiving. But that risk pays off in spades. The pacing is relentless. There is no filler. Every corridor, every collapsed bridge, every narrow ledge serves a purpose. The story, which I will not spoil, takes a bold turn that recontextualizes everything you thought you knew about the plague and the curse.

If you were skeptical like me, do yourself a favor. Give this one a chance. It is not just a good Plague Tale game. It is a masterclass in how to evolve a series without losing its soul. The medieval Tomb Raider comparison is still there, but it is a compliment now. Asobo took a gamble, and they hit the jackpot.