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Brilliant 14th century stealth adventure A Plague Tale: Innocence is next week's Epic Store freebie

And it's joined by 2D combat-racer Speed Brawl.

Developer Asobo Studio's wonderful, rat-infested medieval stealth adventure A Plague Tale: Innocence will be free on the Epic Games Store starting next Thursday, 5th August.

A Plague Tale unfolds in a bleak, but gorgeously wrought, version of 14th century France, and follows the harrowing journey of Amicia and her sickly 5-year-old brother Hugo, the children of a nobleman, after they're forced to flee their home in an attempt to escape the Inquisition.

What follows is a brilliantly engaging single-player adventure - primarily built around simple stealth and dual-character puzzling - that sees players evading ravenous rat hordes, English soldiers, and other perils as they traipse across the desolate, plague-ridden landscape.

Cover image for YouTube videoA Plague Tale: Innocence - Launch Trailer
A Plague Tale: Innocence - Launch Trailer.

Mechanically, it's occasionally a little unrefined, but a gripping story and a wonderful cast of characters give the whole experience real momentum and heart.

Or as Eurogamer contributor Edwin Evans-Thirlwell put it in his A Plague Tale: Innocence review, "Though let down by an over-reliance on mandatory stealth, which drains a little of the sorcery from some astounding locations, it is a wonderfully dark and tender fairytale whose key draws are its frail but indefatigable protagonists."

A Plague Tale: Innocence - which is getting a sequel on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC next year - will be free to add to your Epic Games Store library from Thursday, 5th August until 12th August, as will 2D combat-racer Speed Brawl. Until then, you can grab this week's freebies: bullet-hell FPS Mothergunship and the self-explanatory Train Sim World 2.