Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy review: Break the curse

Asobo Studios' latest installment in the Plague Tale series has a heavier focus on combat, along with a new protagonist.

With Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, Asobo Studio returns to its cinematic adventure series through a new lens. While the first two games were primarily stealth games with light combat segments, Resonance puts the action at the forefront with a new combat-trained protagonist.

A visual marvel

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy follows Sophia, a young smuggler emburdened with a curse that causes her to see strange visions of a past that traces back to the Minotaur Island of legend. After her home is invaded and burned to the ground, Sophia flees with her more-than-friend Leni, to the only place that makes sense: the island where she can find answers to the trauma she’s endured her whole life, the island of the Minotaur.

An absolutely stunning game, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy has some of the most awe-inspiring environments I’ve seen in a game. I was constantly marveling at the scale of the structures and statues, as well as the detail in all of the textures. The visuals of Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy are almost photorealistic, especially from a distance. I couldn’t stop opening the photo mode when I’d enter a new area.

This level of detail extends to the performances as well. The facial capture is incredibly precise and detailed, and that’s only elevated by the superb voice acting done by every member of the cast. The cutscenes in Resonance also have a movie-like quality to them, which worked in tandem with the incredible soundtrack to get me to care about these characters. I loved Sophia and Leni’s relationship and their banter throughout the journey.

Hunting treasure and solving mysteries... sound familiar?

During Sophia and Leni’s exploration of the island, there’s also a second story being told through Sophia’s visions. Sophia’s curse is seemingly linked to the ancient soldier Theseus, and throughout Resonance, she sees visions of his trials that took place on the same island, centuries in the past.

The central plot that binds these two stories together is a deeply emotional one, but ultimately, it didn’t grab me as much as the characters and their interpersonal developments did themselves. 

In its gameplay, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy feels a lot like Uncharted. In Resonance, Sophia has to solve various puzzles to unlock doors, avoid traps, and make her way through the island. She uses a journal with clues that help you solve these puzzles as you get to them. The gameplay loop consists of mostly puzzle-solving, some light parkouring/platforming, and some short stints of combat.

The puzzles in Resonance aren’t “turn your brain off” easy, nor are they incredibly difficult. A lot of the puzzles deal with the usage of light sources, and I found them pretty clever and enjoyable. Sometimes I had to shine a light on a piece of stone to reveal a hidden symbol, or find a way to reflect light in a way to have it hit a spot on a door that will get it to open. Usually when I’d get to a new puzzle, I had to stop and think for a minute or two to understand what was being required of me.

Take up your sword

Combat is more present in Resonance, than in the prior games, but it’s still quite simple. The combat system is fairly basic, with the standard attack, dodge, and parry. On normal difficulty, Sophia has three health points. Taking damage removes one point, but killing an enemy restores a point. So you can die pretty quickly if you let your opponents hit you, but I honestly never found it particularly challenging to just not take damage at all, bar one or two boss fights.

Enemies die very quickly when you use the charged attack, and the parry window is quite forgiving, so if you’re keen for more of a challenge, I’d recommend playing on either the Hard or Nightmare difficulty.

There is a small skill tree that I almost completely unlocked by the end of the game. In addition, there are accessories that you can find around the world, which give you combat benefits and all remain active simultaneously. I didn’t worry much about either of these systems though, as I already felt strong enough with my base abilities.

With such a simple combat system, it starts to feel a little repetitive toward the end of the game, and I almost got bored of having to fight more enemies. That said, Sophia has a viciousness to her fighting style that made watching the combat unfold feel really hype.

Stealth returns

To my surprise, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy dives quite deep into horror territory at times. Like its predecessors, Resonance features several prominent stealth segments. This time around, there’s a creature that resides in the depths of the island. Every moment I had to evade this monster felt tense. The chase scenes gave me a similar feeling to running from Jack Baker in RE7 or The Girl in RE9. By the end, though, a lot of these segments started to feel samey, and I was about ready to be done with it during the last three chapters or so. 

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is a fun time. Its simple combat system makes the game approachable for a variety of players, even if it may get a little repetitive toward the end. The top-notch art direction, outstanding performances, and incredible soundtrack, however, create a movie-like experience that made me fall in love with its characters, and feels reminiscent of first-party Playstation games like Uncharted or The Last of Us.

This review is based on a Steam code provided by the publisher. Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy releases on August 27, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

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Review for
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
8
Pros

• Top-notch acting performances
• Beautiful world
• Clever puzzles
• Stealth segments feel tense and genuinely scary

Cons

• Repetitive combat
• Segments start to feel samey toward the end
• Skill tree doesn't add much