A Plague Tale: Innocence draws a lot of comparisons to The Last of Us. It makes sense; both games revolve around stealth and have you escorting a younger person through a deadly outbreak. The 2019 historical fiction survival game does enough to distinguish itself from Naughty Dog's opus with the setting and focus on avoiding combat rather than direct confrontation.
Both games force you to do unseemly things in the name of survival. Some of these happen during cutscenes while others occur during gameplay. The Last of Us 2 in particular is considered hard to stomach. The entries below highlight the most gruesome moments from A Plague Tale: Innocence that give The Last of Us a run for its money in terms of brutality.
8 Feeding The Pig To The Rats
Early on, you have to distract the rats in a barn by luring a pig towards them. You do this all in front of Hugo, who scolds you for destroying such an innocent animal. The fact it is a pig and not another farm animal makes it so much worse. Anyone who grew up in rural areas can tell you how heartwrenching a pig's death gurgles are. It also hurts more that Hugo was being so friendly to the pig beforehand. Farm animals are innocent creatures, so it feels doubly dirty to sacrifice the pig. On the other hand, most of us are not vegetarians, either.
7 Using Live Soldiers As A Distraction
This one is directly tied into the gameplay. Sometimes you have to put out a light above a live soldier in order to lure the rats away from Hugo and Amicia's path. They are all enemy soldiers, but it barely makes it easier to do.
Most of them are injured and some are pleading for their lives. At this point, Amicia feels no sympathy for the people who ruined her home. Even though they are enemies, it still feels wrong and dishonorable to sacrifice them when they are so vulnerable.
6 Rodric's Last Stand
In the last chapter, Rodric pushes a cart to shield Hugo and Amicia from arrows. He is vulnerable, however, and ends up taking several hits while pushing the heavy wagon. It is a harrowing moment hearing the pain he is going through and hearing Amicia plead for Rodric to leave the cart behind and make a run for it. He accomplishes his goal and protects the two heroes, but it ultimately costs him everything. Rodric was only introduced a couple of chapters before, so it feels like we barely knew him. He goes out like a real hero if that's solace for anyone.
5 Killing The Helpless Soldier In Chapter 5
There is a moment in Chapter 5 when you walk down a small hallway with a torch, slowly pushing rats towards a helpless soldier at the other end of the corridor. He begs for mercy and Amicia is extremely apologetic at inadvertently killing him. Fortunately, you can actually save the soldier if you know what to do. Just use the sling to shoot Ignifer at the unlit torch nearby the guard and you will save his life. The guard is so thankful, he promises not to alert his comrades.
4 You Can Watch Hugo Getting Eaten Alive
Chapter 14 has you take control of Hugo in the cathedral looking for his mother. For the most part, your only option is to sneak around. If guards spot you it is an immediate game over. With rats, however, you actually see the child get consumed by the animals for a moment before it cuts away. Though it is not canon, it is still an extremely brutal moment and surprising to know they show it for a bit.
3 Stealing Hugo's Blood
Vitalis, the game's main antagonist, wants to use Hugo's power to stop the plague and gain control of France. To do this, he literally steals Hugo's blood and injects it into his own veins. This idea alone is enough to make our skin crawl. It makes it more disturbing to know Hugo is a kid. At least they did not have to kill him like potentially making a vaccine from Ellie's immunity in The Last of Us.
2 Burning People Alive
In the first town Hugo and Amicia visit, they witness townspeople burning innocent people alive.
They are all driven mad by the plague and look for a scapegoat. The cutscenes don't directly show anybody set aflame, but you do see a scorched corpse and another woman begging for help. The woman's fate is unknown since the village people start chasing Amicia and Hugo.
1 You're A Young Person Killing People
Amicia is only around fifteen years old. After just a couple of chapters, she makes her first kill. It devastates her, but it is far from the last fatal injury she delivers to an enemy. Later on, Hugo, who is only five years old, gets the ability to control the rats and you use this power to send them towards enemy guards. At his age, Hugo might not even understand the full scope of what life and death are. We hope A Plague Tale: Requiem, which had a dramatic E3 2021 trailer, explores what effect this has on Hugo.