Pentiment is frustrating. It feels as if it could have been great. The writing and historical worldbuilding is good, and I grew to like many of the characters. Seeing the impact of your choices over a long time period was probably my favorite part.

Yet all that goodness is dragged down by the plot. I feel it fundamentally fails on its premise as a mystery game. At several points there are obvious investigative angles that you're not permitted to pursue, and you receive unactionable information that should be forefront to the investigation. I understand that uncertainty is a crucial element of this game's themes, and I respect that as a narrative goal. However, the method used to reach that goal is a rail-road in which you're constrained to surface-level inquiry on the suspects, with Andreas seemingly only being concerned with establishing motive---in some occasions, also means---even when there's ample opportunity and time to collect more concrete information. In this manner, it pursues ambiguity to a fault.

The overarching thread-puller plot-line is definitely the worst part of this game. On night 1 of act 1 I found a tremendous lead that should have led Andreas straight towards the thread-puller. He even verbally acknowledged this find as a breakthrough. However, when I tried to pursue this lead the next day, I found that there simply isn't a followup to it. There is no dialogue option that acknowledges this lead's existence beyond that point, not with the characters who certainly would know something about it, not with anyone. When the suspects relevant to that lead are narrowed even further after the act 2 timeskip, with that same lead being just as relevant as it should have been in act 1, Andreas is still somehow incapable of remembering or investigating it.

When the thread-puller is finally revealed at the end of Act 3, it's an extremely lackluster moment. Their motivation is nonsensical, demonstrating severe ignorance of the entire cast's knowledge and beliefs. An antagonist possessing a skewed world view is not itself surprising, the issue is that the execution here is so unbelievable that you would think this character was blindfolded with their ears plugged their entire life. The writing in that scene doesn't appear to be self-aware either. As if the writer did not recognize that this was a misapprehension. This is further driven home by the final choice bearing absolutely no consequence, which makes that overarching plotline feel pointless. Like, I see what the writer was trying to do with it, it's at least somewhat adjacent to the story's themes, but as a climax it's incoherent.

It's just disappointing.