Who hasn’t wanted to introduce a plague to thin the ranks of humanity just a little bit? Developer Forever Entertainment S.A., known bizarrely for its family-friendly point and click adventures under the name of Teddy Floppy Ear has decided to give the introverts brutal power not seen since the release of Plague Inc. Aiming for a release in the fourth quarter of this year, We Are The Plague promises fast, tactical combat across a variety of landscapes, with a beautiful art style most akin to Darkest Dungeon in its foreboding aires.
With powers gained from removing tattoos from people to apply to yourself, and grotesquely misshapen mutants helping our villainous protagonist in his quest, this is not a game for everyone. Yet it looks to be a blast.
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As one could expect in such a dark time of humanity’s past, We Are The Plague offers a twisted version of medieval times, with religion, fear, and murder taking up the majority of the surprisingly quick gameplay.
The protagonist controls his character across a grid-like map to encounter enemies; the combat is fast and fluid, with cut-takes showing brief moments of combat along with the numbers of damage done. While the cut-takes ensure combat isn’t an arduous ordeal that takes minutes (looking at you, Final Fantasy series), it can become somewhat disorienting to go from isometric to 2d, and back again. Occasionally, tracking where your guys are versus where the enemy is, becomes a headache in an otherwise acceptable combat system.
Moving about the map can become frustrating as well, as the demo currently gauges whether or not you’re in combat with the existence of enemies on the map; this halts your movement to only where you can see at the moment, which can make plugging along annoying.
The inventory system provides a bit of intrigue as well, where players remove tattoos from the fallen to apply to their skin; ostensibly, they keep the swatches of skin in their pockets until such a time arrives that they need to drape it over their face to gain the latent powers within.
Yet the currently present errors will be ironed out as the game comes closer to release; the graphics are beautiful and are only bound to get better. A beautifully gothic style reminiscent of murals depicting the Spanish flu and black death weaves effortlessly through the story, with jovially dancing skeletons and undead ensconcing dismal depictions of the living. Likewise, the character depictions are pale and deathly, with sunken eyes and grim faces. The art style of this game alone is enough to merit a look at what the previously family-friendly studio is cooking up.
We Are The Plague has recently released a demo on Steam that’s available for all to test.
