Pentiment Reviews
Pentiment is a beautiful art piece that offers immersive visual style and complex story. It has its lows, but they don't spoil the overall picture.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
"Pentiment" delivers a murder mystery, a period piece, and a deeply moving examination of the human heart over the course of years, all in a single game that doesn't require hundreds of hours to get through. Come for the point-and-click adventure, stay for the heartbreaking narratives interwoven into the tapestry of a small town.
Pentiment has unexpectedly shot towards the top of my favourite games of the year. It’s yet further proof of the amazing talent and creativity bubbling away in the Obsidian studios and is one of the best examples of a game that dares to be different by not trying to do everything, instead focusing its approach. Smartly written, beautifully drawn, and masterfully designed, Pentiment is an intelligent, humorous adventure that is as enriching as it is enjoyable.
Despite bringing a limited, sometimes repetitive, and somewhat simple gameplay experience in RPG elements, Pentiment is one of the best examples of historical fiction that the video game media has ever produced. Its narrative has an engaging mystery, a historically rich context with several good points for reflection on the passage from the medieval to the modern era, a coherent and immersive audiovisual and, above all, a unique text design that makes every word say much more than its mere meaning.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Pentiment is one of those games that you might not expect much and will blow you away. Even if it feels a little heavier in the discourse at the beginning, Obsidian crafted a wondeful world with rich characters and a town that feels alive. Even if is a little light on the puzzles and the mystery is a fantastic time of a great studio.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Pentiment is one of the most interesting games I’ve played in 2022, going far beyond even what most RPGs can manage when it comes to player choice and consequence. Between its setting, its graphical style, and its fantastic story, Pentiment demands your attention.
Pentiment is probably the most interesting, uninteresting game I’ve ever played.
It is in the background a kind of great interactive book, like a great manuscript capable of leading us to a better understanding of this sixteenth century. Nothing is left to chance. There aren't many games like this, esumsome any passion or desire of a designer, more than following a business orientation or selling a product that is known to be of popular taste. Maybe that's why Pentiment is a remarkable and convincing effort by 13 producers, almost a football team. And it is already known that a team united around a captain can go very far in this arduous journey of creation.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Through interactions with these people and many others – the insights into their lives gleaned from talking to them while they work, or the hopes and fears they reveal around the dinner table as you share pottage and bread – Tassing comes to feel like as real a place I’ve ever visited in a video game. As the months and years roll by, you feel those layers settling in, the weight of decisions these people have made – and that you’ve made too – shaping the history of the place.
Pentiment plays like a living storybook. You walk, talk and act in a medieval style book that is written as you progress. The game leans heavily on storytelling and its historical background. The game is special in a good way. It's not for everyone, but if you're remotely interested in this turbulent times or a good murder mystery, you should really try this one out.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Pentiment is an absolute must-play game.
Pentiment is unlike anything you’ll play throughout the rest of the year and well into the next. All that patience pays off in spades as you learn that your decisions have consequences, and each choice is costly.
Pentiment did not give off the best first impression. But the more I played, the more I was engulfed with the game’s layered narrative filled with mysteries and intrigue. Dialogue choices were well realized, but the consequences didn’t garner the expected reactions. Despite being off-putting at first, the game’s visual and audio presentations complement its 16th-century art style well. Although the game’s limited scope is quickly apparent, Pentiment’s narrative design has a lot to offer and is another feather in the cap of Obsidian’s story-telling credentials.
Pentiment is a masterpiece, I’ve never played such a unique game. It combines traditional classic RPG stylings with modern game mechanics for such a perfect interactive atmosphere.
Pentiment might just be one of the weirdest AAA-games released this year. By stripping gameplay down to little more than walking and talking, this medieval crime drama feels like a visual novel that took the genre’s title a little too literal. The graphical style is heavily inspired by the illustrations of medieval books, which ties directly back into the main character’s background story as an illustrator. With an excellent story, great dialogue and too many mysteries for just a single playthrough, this odd little gem is one that may take some getting used to, but will reward you for your patience with a story more interactive and deeper than most.
Review in German | Read full review
Pentiment is a game that will stick with you for a long time after you play it. Its unique blend of thought-provoking discussion, historical accuracy, and challenging a player’s morals all work to push players to consider everything going on in the game and weigh the pros and cons of heavy decisions that must be made with limited information…It takes a very special work of art to make an observer feel as much as Pentiment does, and the game manages to do so consistently throughout its entire runtime.
Pentiment is definitely not going to appeal to everyone and that's okay because Game Pass is made for those games. If you get through the slow start, you will discover a captivating murder mystery. Although it is very different from other Obsidian titles, you recognize the signature of the studio with its highly developed characters. And, of course, you can easily get lost with the many secondary elements in this very detailed universe. I especially loved the unique looks of the game that goes as deep as 16th century calligraphy which is very impressive. The game isn't without its flaws, but fans of a good narrative will love it.
Review in French | Read full review
Narratively, Obsidian leaves no loose nail in a complex and multi-layered story that oscillates between comedy and drama with surprising ease. None of its elements seem randomly placed, everything aligns to make us ask ourselves a series of questions that only we can answer: in what way should we remember the past? How do we deal with the mistakes we helped generate?
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The adventures of Andreas Maler, a 16th century artist in a bavarian village and its murder mysteries are just captivating. Obsidian Entertainment goes off the beaten tracks with Pentiment and delivers a slow-paced, beautiful medieval visual novel with a lots of choices while playing. The attention to detail with displaying the game in the look of a medieval book is excellent and sets the mood perfectly. Though there were some smaller bugs present and the absence of voice acting is a real shame, the quality of the writing and the graphical presentation really compensates for that. If the setting and genre is to your liking this title absolutely deserves a closer look.
Review in German | Read full review
Pentiment is, for better or worse, a sort of big interactive comic book showing a huge love for European medieval history, with an intriguing plot but with a great deal of text to read and interactions limited mainly to map exploration and dialogues. A fascinating title, mainly thanks to its subject matter, but definitely not for everyone.
Review in Italian | Read full review