A Plague Tale: Requiem will have 300,000 rats, sixty times more than the first game

A Plague Tale: Requiem will feature 300,000 rats on PS5, that's sixty times more rats than the original game. 

As revealed in a new PlayStation blog post, the A Plague Tale sequel has been upgraded for PS5, so much so that developer Asobo was able to add even more rats to the game, sixty times more in fact. According to the post, "for this second game, we wanted to push new-gen possibilities to the max to bring the rats-induced horror and trauma to a next level," lead engine programmer of the game Nicolas Bécavin says. 

"The number of rats on-screen has been multiplied by 60, growing from 5,000 to 300,000," Bécavin explains, "it’s a good number to convey the vision of the apocalypse which keeps increasingly oppressing our heroes." It isn't just the amount of rats that has changed, the developer also adds that the team changed the aspect of the rats' movement "so that they move like a giant wave," which is exactly what Amicia and Hugo want, a rat tsunami. 

Another way that the developer has been able to enhance A Plague Tale: Requiem comes down to the PS5's haptic feedback. According to the same post, the PS5 DualSense controller will provide realistic sensations for Amicia's weapons meaning if a weapon requires more pressure, adaptive triggers will adjust the effort needed from players. 

As well as this, the post mentions how the game's audio has been "fully reworked" with haptic feedback. What this means is that "swarms of rats can be subtly felt through the pad, through stereo vibrations." It also means that you'll be able to feel movements around you through the controller as you play, including what direction the rats are coming from. 

To get an idea of the kind of atrocities Hugo and Amicia will have to deal with this time around, take a look at our A Plague Tale: Requiem hands-on preview.