Summary

Pentiment is a highly stylized narrative driven adventure RPG developed by Obsidian and released in 2022. It follows Andreas Maler, an artist and illuminator working for an abbey in 16th century Bavaria. You become embroiled in a series of murders and must navigate the changing world around you.

Gorgeous game and as a fan of Obsidian's style of storytelling, I think this has quite the potential to it. The Steam description read off like a list of things that I'm interested in which is always an excellent sign.

Review

Very enjoyable story. Love the whole idea of getting to know a place over a period of many years. First act and third were a little slow at times, but the second in particular sped by like a good book. And the game is a good book. Even the visuals are certainly unique. I love how much love is evident in the game. Not a period of time I have any particular love for or care of, but I could feel the interest the authors had and that made me interested.

An addendum, something that I've thought of about since playing Pentiment that I find to be interesting. In many ways, it sort of functions as an anti-Obsidian game. Obsidian is often known for its shades of gray, choices mattering etc etc approach to games. While Pentiment leads with picking various traits that determine dialogue options throughout the game. And much of the core gameplay consists of choosing who to talk to, what to say, who to accuse in your various investigations...these choices do not really matter. That is, of course, one of the central premises of the game. History is taking a course. You are a small part of it. Your actions certainly matter to the people you are interacting with. But there are things bigger than you and you have no real means of affecting larger change. Sort of anti-butterfly effect, if you will. And I just think that that's a really interesting position for Obsidian the company to take. Both because it runs counter to their typical steeze as well as gaming's larger approach. Where there seems to be an inherent desire towards more comprehensive simulation. Certainly something that can be appreciated. But I find there's an honesty in taking the opposite approach. Things are so often out of your control. You don't have perfect information. And even if you did, you can't just do anything. Really interesting, love that they went for it. And that Obsidian in particular went with it.

Links

Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXbBIoFOxaQs0ajub_MjybywoomThGEa6