It's hard to find the words for this one. Pentiment is really good and really unique. It's more novel than it is video game. More choose your own adventure than RPG. It's in that Disco Elysium mold of point and click mysteries where you learn as much about your character and yourself as you do the story in which you're immersed.
The game is very Disco Elysium-esque. There's a profound impact and comparison here that is hard to avoid if you've played both games. Pentiment isn't as good as Disco Elysium, which is unfair to Pentiment since Disco Elysium is among the greatest games of all time, but it's absolutely worth every minute you'll spend with it. The writing is strong not just for a video game, though it's in the 99.9 percentile there, but for any media.
I won't waste time covering the entire narrative here but I'll jump right to what I've found to be the most common complaint of the game. It seems those who weren't quite satisfied with Pentiment found issue with the 'lack' of impact of your choices on the story's outcome. It is a complaint I could not possible disagree more with. The choices you make are the story. Precisely because there are no 'correct' choices is why the choices have so much meaning. My playthrough of Pentiment felt deeply personal and while it admittedly offers little reason for me to replay it, I feel no need to. I don't need to alter the story I experienced. It was a wonderful experience. The game offers you several key choices that dramatically impact the narrative and you have to live with what you've decided.
The narrative is full of moral twists and demands you make tough decisions. But it does so by introducing you to a very living world that replicates its time period very faithfully, pun intended. The experience is highly immersive and you feel an immediate understanding of the world around Andreas and Magdalene. You feel the heart of Tassing and the weight of its history. The ripple effects of every event in the chain of time that's led to the town's state in each act. Each character and family is well written and connected in a weave of crucial relationships and connections across generations of this sleep Alpine town.
It's all tied together with a tremendously unique and effective artstyle. The game is an excellent adaptation of medieval illuminated manuscripts and its accompanied by wonderful sound design. In a game without voice acting, the entire experience feels brimming with life. A stark contrast to a game like Pokémon Scarlet whose lack of voice acting was hardly compensated by any such care and left the game feeling shockingly sterile. Pentiment is choc full of life at every page turn and every step. The textboxes being presented like scribed text with erasing typos was a phenomenal artistic choice and the game rewarded it at every step.
There's a number of teeny quibbles with some narrative choices. There's some complaint with quest design aspects. But very minimal. To dwell on them would detract from the praise this game deserves. Writing this compelling, this well thought out, this engaging deserves to be praised in a video game. It's a crowning achievement. And to nitpick at the frays of a masterwork quilt belies all that comprises the fabric. Simple gameplay layered on top of a lovely, lovely story. It's worth the game of the year acclaim it's received.
The game is very Disco Elysium-esque. There's a profound impact and comparison here that is hard to avoid if you've played both games. Pentiment isn't as good as Disco Elysium, which is unfair to Pentiment since Disco Elysium is among the greatest games of all time, but it's absolutely worth every minute you'll spend with it. The writing is strong not just for a video game, though it's in the 99.9 percentile there, but for any media.
I won't waste time covering the entire narrative here but I'll jump right to what I've found to be the most common complaint of the game. It seems those who weren't quite satisfied with Pentiment found issue with the 'lack' of impact of your choices on the story's outcome. It is a complaint I could not possible disagree more with. The choices you make are the story. Precisely because there are no 'correct' choices is why the choices have so much meaning. My playthrough of Pentiment felt deeply personal and while it admittedly offers little reason for me to replay it, I feel no need to. I don't need to alter the story I experienced. It was a wonderful experience. The game offers you several key choices that dramatically impact the narrative and you have to live with what you've decided.
The narrative is full of moral twists and demands you make tough decisions. But it does so by introducing you to a very living world that replicates its time period very faithfully, pun intended. The experience is highly immersive and you feel an immediate understanding of the world around Andreas and Magdalene. You feel the heart of Tassing and the weight of its history. The ripple effects of every event in the chain of time that's led to the town's state in each act. Each character and family is well written and connected in a weave of crucial relationships and connections across generations of this sleep Alpine town.
It's all tied together with a tremendously unique and effective artstyle. The game is an excellent adaptation of medieval illuminated manuscripts and its accompanied by wonderful sound design. In a game without voice acting, the entire experience feels brimming with life. A stark contrast to a game like Pokémon Scarlet whose lack of voice acting was hardly compensated by any such care and left the game feeling shockingly sterile. Pentiment is choc full of life at every page turn and every step. The textboxes being presented like scribed text with erasing typos was a phenomenal artistic choice and the game rewarded it at every step.
There's a number of teeny quibbles with some narrative choices. There's some complaint with quest design aspects. But very minimal. To dwell on them would detract from the praise this game deserves. Writing this compelling, this well thought out, this engaging deserves to be praised in a video game. It's a crowning achievement. And to nitpick at the frays of a masterwork quilt belies all that comprises the fabric. Simple gameplay layered on top of a lovely, lovely story. It's worth the game of the year acclaim it's received.