You play as Amicia de Rune, a teenage girl from a noble family. Her village is raided by the Inquisition, who are searching for her brother Hugo, who has a mysterious illness. They flee and head to the home of Laurentius, Hugo's doctor. He is bedridden by the Plague, and instructs them to complete their mother's work, who was working on a cure.
The Plague seems to have wiped out many villages, and often the dead line the streets and animal carcasses are piled up in the fields. The pursuit by the Inquisition implies that Hugo's illness is somehow tied to the Plague.
In terms of storytelling, the game does well in creating a great atmosphere, and shows how the two siblings need to quickly mature in this world full of death and constant peril. Well, Hugo doesn't quite understand the situation. His child naivety sometimes causes danger; sometimes throws tantrums, or wants to run off and explore. Amicia often reminds Hugo the world isn't safe any more and things have to be different. It's kill or be killed, and the first kill for Amicia is a big deal.
A large part of the gameplay is stealth, especially early on since you aren't a fighter and don't have the equipment to do so. Later in the game, there are combat scenarios. The game uses the simple stealth mechanics you have seen in many games. Guards either stand still and guard a position, or patrol an area in robotic movements. They are easily distracted, have fairly limited vision, and will happily return to their patrol if they lose sight of you. It's the classic stealth clichés where they exclaim phrases like “must have been nothing”. Amicia can throw pots or throw rocks into armour boxes to create a distraction.
You will hide behind walls, or move through long grass to stay out of sight. Early on, you don't have many tools to fight guards, as using your slingshot to launch rocks at their heads is noisy, and also won't work against helmeted soldiers. If the guards do catch up to you, they will slay you in one hit.
After a few hours into the game, rats will become the main hindrance. They often create the puzzle aspects of the game. They are scared of the light, so you will need to create fires in order to light the way through. You will be also putting out fires to create danger for the patrolling guards. Rats love meat, dead or alive, so will swarm the guards, or animal or human carcass.
If you play this game, I hope you like rats because there's lots of them. When they appear, they tend to appear in swarms. I thought the quantity of them and the speed that they move looked a bit silly. With the sheer number of them, there's many moments where the frame rate drops, which is no surprise; the developers were asking for trouble.
I found a lot of the puzzles were just simple distractions. If there's a box, then push it. If there's a unlit torch/brazier, then light it. Whenever you need to pick up a stick and light it, the fire will go out around the time it takes to reach the next brazier. When there is a sequence of braziers with sticks next to them, then it just seems really predictable and bland game design. Any time you need to create any kind of ammunition for your slingshot, the parts will be there on the ground/box/wall/cart. I found this design really broke the immersion of the game.
The parts you find can be used to create the ammunition, or add permanent upgrades to your sling. So you can increase your reloads speed, ammo capacity etc. As the story progresses, you get more tools in your arsenal, utilising Amicia's alchemy skills. Your sling can create fires, extinguish fires, wipe out rats, attract rats, cause guards to take off their helmets.
There are a few secret collectible flowers and items to find by straying off the main path.
Sometimes Hugo, or other accomplice you meet along the way are used in the puzzles. For example, you have to instruct them to pull levers at the correct time. Since Hugo is small, he can fit through small gaps that Amicia cannot get through. Hugo normally moves with Alicia by holding her hand (which slows your movement down), but you can instruct Hugo to stay in position which is useful if you want to take out a guard, or venture somewhere quickly.
The graphics, music (composed by Olivier Deriviere) and voice acting are impressive for an Indie game.
I really enjoyed the setting of the game, and even though a lot of the gameplay has been seen before, I did still find myself enjoying the game. Many people say this game is a story-focussed game, but the story isn't actually that strong and it does get silly towards the end of the game.