Plague Tale fans beware: the new game, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, appears to have been cracked and shared online a week before release. It means spoilers may start appearing online, so be careful what you watch and read.

News of Resonance's pirated PC version originally spread on the Plague Tale subreddit, but moderators there are working hard to stamp out any information, screenshots, or videos shared from it. "No more temp bans," the moderators said, with their best stern faces. "Any more posts on the leaks/asking for info about the game via the leaks will result in a permanent ban. If it continues, the sub will be locked down for a week." I've contacted Asobo for comment.

Watch on YouTubeResonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is due for release 27th August - next Thursday - and marks a notable departure for the series in that it has a new main character and introduces new core gameplay. Gone are Amicia and Hugo, the sister and brother duo who led the previous two games, and in their place is Sophia, who we met in A Plague Tale: Requiem.

This is the story of Sophia's connection to the Macula, that spooky rat plague, in events that occurred 15 years before the original Plague Tale game - before Hugo and maybe even Amicia were born. Although it's also about the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, whose timeline we explore parallel to hers.

Gone, also, is the core stealth gameplay of the series in favour of more upfront combat, as Sophia takes the fight to her enemies, weaving around them with a variety of different blades and their associated moves that she can collect, and roping in enemies from afar. Combat works well, as I discovered after playing a chunk of Resonance: A Plague Tale earlier this year. And that's on top of pleasantly taxing light-related puzzles, and of course the cinematic splendour the series is known for.