A Plague Tale: Innocence shows off 8 minutes of screaming rats

The terrible cacophony produced by the rats in the A Plague Tale: Innocence footage above is enough to put me off animals and videogames forever. They make an unearthly, ear-piercing racket, presumably screaming for their dinner. They're so hungry they'll happily devour a human in seconds.

It's eight minutes of uncut footage from a new level, showing off a wee bit of everything. As a pair of siblings on the run—only one featured here—you're at a bit of a disadvantage when dealing with the heavily armed Inquisition chasing you, at least head-on. So expect to do a lot of sneaking around, sticking to the shadows and creating distractions so you can slip past nosy guards.

While the rats are an obstacle, it looks like they'll sometimes come in handy. They don't care if dinner is a guard or a kid, so you can set them on your enemies. Manipulating them is as straightforward as shining some light on them. For some reason these rats are terrified of it, so you can chase them away from some areas, or you can invite them into others, maybe where there's a guard hanging around.

The atmosphere seems appropriately gloomy and harrowing, the rats are terrifying and the stealth seems fine, but it gets a bit weird when, while sneaking around, Amicia comes across a crafting bench and starts making some ammunition. We can't escape crafting even on a family trip through medieval France.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is due out on May 14, and a story trailer also went up a wee while ago, so give it a watch below.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.