In terms of "heavy on reading" narrative game, this is not as dynamic and interactive as a Telltale game like The Wolf Among Us nor as richly built and in-depth as Disco Elysium. It is its own thing, but not always for the better.

My main issue is that the game is to grounded in reality, trying to portrait what's authentic and how life was like in this period. This results in a myriad of conversations and small talks about villages, farming, food, religion, faith, family, etc. If this sounds like your thing, than you're in for a treat. I, on the other hand, would've liked a more fantastical approach to the narrative. The dream sequences and the inner monologues are a great starting point, but it needed to expend in that direction.

The pacing is also quite tedious. I ended up getting used to the flow of the game near the middle of the second act, but without spoiling anything, it changed back up in the last act and made thing so slow once again.

If you're a medieval history nerd or are interested in diving deeper into a religious setting, than you'll probably enjoy this a lot. I certainly respect this game for what it was trying to achieve, but I don't think it'll succeed for everyone.

Kinda went into Pentiment expecting to have to "eat my vegetables"; its aesthetic being artistically sound, but not really the kind of thing I'm generally into, and its premise sounding intellectually invigorating in a games industry that's arguably in arrested development when it comes to making mainstream experiences for adults, but maybe not enough to keep me personally going for a playtime of over 20 hours. And well, I was pretty fuckin' wrong! And not even in the Disco Elysium way where after I got over the hurdle of the first hour or two that it finally clicked (not to say that Disco Elysium's intro isn't basically perfect in its own way), Pentiment managed to sink its teeth into me right away. The game's art is also a lot more affective and unique than I would've expected just from the couple trailers I'd seen, and despite the entire game taking place across only a handful of screens (contextualized as pages in a book), there were many times that I found myself stopped in my tracks, contemplating the beauty of a specific moment.

It's also just as real as fuck without succumbing to either condemnation or romanticization. Pentiment's perspective on history and the people who shaped it is complex without cowardly labeling every participant as a morally grey agent -- there are unabashedly terrible and evil people in this world, people who are deceptive in their self-servitude, and even inarguably cruel entities like the Catholic Church house individuals who really do want to make the world a better place in their own way and even people who are in the church due to societal forces beyond their control. Pentiment is a game that tries its best to be honest about the world. It's also a game that's absolutely more intelligent and worldly than I'll ever be, and I really don't think I can do it the full justice it deserves in my own analysis of its setting and themes, so I'll just leave it there.

And yeah, Pentiment is also just a great example of how to make a dialogue-focused adventure game fun. Like, part of that is probably because I chose hedonism as one of my skills and made Andreas into a terrible little boyslut, but you know how it is. The dialogue never bored me, every character feels truly alive -- and that's without voice acting! I actually appreciated that there wasn't any honestly, it's a double-edged sword in a lot of games like this, and it only would've detracted from the bespoke aesthetic decision to give every character's spoken dialogue in "their own handwriting", in quotes because I'm not entirely sure what the implication was for the characters that are by their own admission illiterate (but I did love that Claus the town printer's dialogue is the only one that uses an actual typeface, accompanied by the satisfying thuds of a printing press).

By the end of the game, Tassing really does begin to feel like your home as well, not only because many pivotal events in Tassing's recent history are influenced by the player, but because you've grown close to the town's citizens and watched them grow and change as well. Pentiment isn't a power trip in that sense -- you cannot save everybody or give everybody a happy ending, not that you'd want to with some of the assholes you run into honestly -- but it does manage to encapsulate the warm and fuzzy feeling that despite the world being dogshit, we can still do our best for those around us, be a part of a greater whole with honest fervor. The player and Andreas will inevitably fuck up a lot, but it's something we have to live with, something to learn from. Things like that feel self-evident in the real world and are rarely explored properly in games, but the fact that Pentiment lacks a manual save function really sells that feeling. But even if we can't meta-game Tassing into the perfect little Bavarian town suffering under feudalism and religious oppression, the Tassing we end up with is undeniably ours. I think that's probably why I might never replay Pentiment, which is rare for me, since I tend to replay games I love quite often.

Also the "third act" is pretty good! Saw some people criticizing the shift in gameplay focus, but it was a nice change of pace and was probably my favorite part altogether. Don't normally recommend games on here, but honestly, check it out for yourself. I can't really think of many demographics that'd be outright disappointed by Pentiment. It's good. :)

Un juego que consigue meterme perfectamente dentro de su época y consigue contar una historia sólida y potente pero al que le falta un empujón.

Pentiment presenta tramas de misterio a través de los años que hablan sobre tanto la sociedad de la época como la importancia de las relaciones dentro de una comunidad tan pequeña. Enmarca este misterio en un sistema que te impide conocer todo. Es un misterio imperfecto, que puede que sea más fácil o más difícil de averiguar completamente según las características de RPG de tu protagonista. Tiene sentido dentro de su mensaje sobre el tiempo y el traspase de conocimiento.

Tiene unos diálogos sublimes. Muchas opciones con resultados tanto sutiles como importantes. Pero por ejemplo, al contrario que Disco Elysium, creo que su sistema de gestionar persuasiones o checks es demasiado simplón y demasiado binario. O has conseguido rellenar una barrita de "persuasión" o fallas.

Pentiment es una obra que nos propone pensar en el pasado y en la fe desde una perspectiva histórica que mezcla lo aséptico y lo emotivo. Ves tanto lo más pequeño dentro de este mundo como lo que los años hacen cambiar toda una sociedad. Es todo un logro y un juego original a celebrar. Sin ser un juego RPG o de misterio superlativo, sigue siendo una propuesta extremadamente sólida en ambos que sé que gustará más a otras personas quizás.

This game is difficult to assess — on one hand, it offers a considerable amount of choice, and goes to great lengths to make it feel like your decisions have impact. It also gives you freedom to think through the investigation yourself, even if it does mean that you end up solving the big mystery in Act 1, and have to wait until the end for the characters in the game to figure it out, as I did... The game also explores potent and complex themes, with believable characters — however, going into detail here would not be feasible, and would spoil the main draw of the game for prospective players, so I shall restrain myself.

At the same time, the gameplay itself can be a drag — it is pretty much just reading, and the prose is not particularly interesting, largely due to the fact that most all text is dialogue. The pacing also suffers in the third act, as you are not really investigating anything anymore, and it becomes more of a checklist for you to fill out whilst the game shows off how much impact the decisions in the first two acts had... the third act is the longest in the game.

I have already mentioned my main gripe with the plot, but I feel that it bears repeating: I quickly figured out that there was a major suspect whom the game would not let me accuse, and as the game kept going, the evidence just kept piling up and the characters would not acknowledge it until the big reveal at the end. It was kind of infuriating.

Overall, I like this video game — the graphics are good, the freedom of choice and the genuine detective work serve it well, and it does discuss many interesting things outside of the main murder mystery. It also has no combat, which saves it from being absolutely awful to play; A fate which befell Tyranny, the other Obsidian RPG I have played.

📌 RUS Version
Очень авторская игра Obsidian Entertainment.

«Pentiment» — это вариативная новелла в сеттинге страдающего средневековья, где вы играете за творца — писателя, художника и кого-то там ещё, в зависимости от выбора —, который в разные промежутки времени охватом в 25 лет становится свидетелем нескольких убийств и вынужден их расследовать.

Поначалу я думал, что текст и манера его подачи будет вычурной и рофельной — типа «Inkulinati» —, под стать визуальному сеттингу. Но это оказалось не совсем так, и уже через 10-15 минут игра как-будто начала меня душить унылостью и медлительностью. И тут я опять ошибся.

На самом деле она постепенно погружала в теплоту, быт и обычаи мира. Возня крестьян, их склоки с местным аббатством, которое дерёт с них огромные налоги, глубокое обсуждение религии и священных текстов, недоумевание текущей политической обстановкой — из всего этого и создаётся приземлённая и погружающая атмосфера «Pentiment».

Конечно, я что-то подозревал, но всё окончательно стало на свои места, когда узнал, что ведущий геймдизайнер студии Джош Сойер — дипломированный историк. Он всю жизнь мечтал сделать подобную игру.

Что ж, фанатов и задротов своего дела мы уважаем. Эпоха и правда воссоздана эталонно, с большой любовью и вниманием к огромному количество деталей — однозначно ставлю ❤️.

Единственно, кому-то может не понравиться "нюанс" «Disco Elysium». Это когда основной сюжет линейный, а подача и всё вокруг него максимально вариативное. Я считаю, в этом нет ничего плохого, и даже больше — это прекрасный формат, где разработчик может полностью справиться с ветвистостью нарратива, а игрок получает свою уникальную версию расследования и взгляда на мир/персонажей.

Детективная составляющая здесь клёвая, интересная и стреляет в конце, просто когда сядете за игру, имейте ввиду: основа здесь всё-таки не она, а именно быт, приятные персонажи со своими житейскими проблемами и главный герой, которого богачи-заказчики заебали правками к его картинам.

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📌 ENG Version
A very original game by Obsidian Entertainment.

"Pentiment" is a variable novella in the setting of the suffering Middle Ages, where you play as a creator — a writer, an artist and someone else, depending on the choice — who, at different intervals of time, covering 25 years, witnesses several murders and is forced to investigate them.

At first, I thought that the text and the manner of its presentation would be pretentious and rollicking — like "Inkulinati" — to match the visual setting. But it turned out not to be quite like that, and after 10-15 minutes the game seemed to start suffocating me with despondency and slowness. And here I was wrong again.

In fact, she gradually immersed herself in the warmth, way of life and customs of the world. The fuss of the peasants, their squabbles with the local abbey, which charges them huge taxes, in—depth discussion of religion and sacred texts, bewilderment at the current political situation - from all this, a down-to-earth and immersive atmosphere of "Pentimentum" is created.

Of course, I suspected something, but everything finally fell into place when I found out that the studio's lead game designer Josh Sawyer is a certified historian. He had dreamed of making a similar game all his life.

Well, we respect the fans and nerds of our business. The epoch is really recreated as a reference, with great love and attention to a huge number of details — I definitely put it ❤️.

The only thing is that someone may not like the "nuance" of "Disco Elysium". This is when the main plot is linear, and the pitch and everything around it is as variable as possible. I think there's nothing wrong with that, and even more — it's a great format where the developer can fully cope with the branching of the narrative, and the player gets his own unique version of the investigation and view of the world/characters.

The detective component here is cool, interesting and shoots at the end, just when you sit down to play, keep in mind: the basis here is still not her, namely everyday life, pleasant characters with their everyday problems and the main character, whom rich customers fucked up with edits to his paintings.

Creo que dice mucho el hecho de que, una vez empecé a hablarle del juego a un colega, ni pudiera parar ni pudiera dejar de sacarle cosas buenas.

Me ha llegado a la patata por más de un motivo: por conectar conmigo a varias niveles o por su historia. Pentiment me parece un trabajazo y un currazo espectacular que debería ser digno de estudio.

Lo único malo que tengo que señalar del luego son ciertos diálogos que me hicieron cuestionar cosas pero luego son tonterías que no entorpecieron mi experiencia

Pentiment debería ser jugado al menos una vez por cualqueri fan de la buena literatura, los videojugeos y el arte.

Pentiment is immensely impressive in its construction and detailed analysis of faith and art within the Middle Ages, all wrapped into a neat little murder mystery. It's distinct style captured me almost immediately, yet it's mechanics may be seen as anything but at first. But the point-and-click style narrative leans heavily in favour of the game's central murder mystery narrative as the detailed level of player choice given is wholly impressive. You really get to decide the fate of many and your choices really, truly, can affect the future whether you may realise it immediately or not.

While the murder mystery is what got me at first, I'd say that the game's overwhelming focus on faith (going as far to highlight any mention of God) is what kept me the most interested. Seeing the clash between the creation, sale and preservation of art from the Abbey under God vs the rejection of Tassing's people, who have no one else but God to turn to in face of hardship, was an incredibly compelling narrative that resulted in quite a strong climax.

I'd say the third act is what somewhat lets this game down for me. While the concept of the mural and the preservation and artful retelling of history ties right into the game's themes, I think the slower pacing of Act 3 and how it somewhat veers away from the strong points of the first two acts is a little disappointing. I'd say the ending and the reveal of the murderer was pretty great, but ultimately it feels like more could've been done on the whole art vs religion aspect of the game.

Overall though, this is a truly unique game amongst a sea of games that advertise player choice yet cannot emulate the same feeling that Pentiment does when you can unknowingly change the lives of one or many for years on end through either your own inaction or hubris. A stronger final act could've cemented this higher up as a true pantheon amongst story-rich games, but Pentiment more than makes up with it with a compelling narrative that heavily emphasises unity within faith and the importance of art and history, amongst many, many other things that I can't seem to put to words straight away. A great game worth checking out.

Played first 5h sometime during release on Gamepass, recently finally bought it on Steam because I am here to support niche passion projects especially coming from Obsidian.

And oh how I don't regret buying it.

The third act is so emotional and bittersweet. I wasn't ready to tear up during a labyrinth mini game. The little animations, the care that went into making every book, every painting, every dialogue. The feeling of getting closer to characters when sharing a meal. This game goes from a who dunnit mystery to something much deeper.

(Act II is slightly weaker but I love all three acts)

Pentiment is a fantastic interactive visual novel. Everything about it oozes passion and creativity. The story is extremely page-turning.

One of my favorite aspects about it is that there are a lot of "persuasion checks" in the game that aren't blatantly shown to you, and you'll probably see "THIS WILL BE REMEMBERED" a lot of times when you won't expect it. The game essentially demands that you think carefully about the characters you speak with - consider their motivations, personalities, beliefs, and so on. From what I understand, the differing pathways don't have a large effect on where the story ultimately leads, but it still made the game feel like a much more interactive, organic experience than most narrative driven games.

If you're a fan of this type of thing, you will not want to miss this game!

So I wrote this big long in depth review of Pentiment, and then accidentally hit some key that magically CLOSED THE MUTHAFUCKING REVIEW WINDOW WITHOUT ASKING ME TO SAVE AND LOST ALL MY WORK. Sigh.....

So after much swearing and yelling, Ill just say that Pentiment has a really great story, well written and impeccably researched. The artwork and music are exquisite too. But the simplistic and boring gameplay mechanics definitely mar the experience, and made going back to replay the game again an unappealing prospect. If the game didn't rely so heavily on pure dialogue, so as to make 90% of the game a continuous mashing of the X button to get through dialogue sections, it would be a greatly improved experience. I also thought the big reveal at the end was rather weak and not very believable either. Nevertheless, the story and worldbuilding are amazing, and definitely makes it an easy recommendation, at least as a one time playthrough.

"Beneath a patch of grass, her
Bones the old Dutch master hid
While elsewhere Tobias
And the angel disguise
What the scholars surmise was a mother and kid

Interred with other daughters
In dirt in other potter's fields
Above them, parades
Mark the passing of days
Through parks where pale colonnades arch in marble and steel
Where all of the twenty-thousand attending your footfall
And the cause that they died for are lost in the idling bird calls
And the records they left are cryptic at best
Lost in obsolescence
The text will not yield, nor x-ray reveal
With any fluorescence
Where the hand of the master begins and ends"