Pentiment Reviews
Pentiment is the interactive choose-your-own-adventure story I’ve been waiting for my whole life. I love that I get to immerse myself in the game world without having to stress about button-mashing battles or jump scares. It’s delightfully engaging without being distressingly hard, and I’m loving every minute of it.
Pentiment is a short but sweet adventure from Obsidian, one that plays to their strengths when it comes to dialogue and gives players enjoyable mysteries to figure out.
An evocative recreation of 16th-century Bavaria examines how the tide of history crashes against the lives of everyday people, all framed by an intriguing crime story
These human texts open up genuinely insightful questions about authenticity in art and what it will come to mean centuries later, as well as what to do when your history has been lost to you. It is a beautiful portrait of history that doesn't limit itself from commenting on labor inequity, parental loss, or artistic hopelessness, all things the medieval and early modern art it draws from portrays so vividly. In bringing some of those stories to us today, Pentiment accomplishes the remarkable goal of being both clear-eyed about the period's faults, and sincere about its masterpieces.
"Many developments are outside of your control, yet rarely in games does the passage of time feel so intimately significant."
A Dark Ages mystery whose gameplay and dialogue are as unique as it's daringly unconventional premise and visuals.
Pentiment is a slow and deliberate novel of a game. Though quite lively at times, this is still a game that asks players to read long, intricate conversations and remember scores of characters in a historic setting. The mystery is interesting, and the history is fascinating, but if these aren't enough to pull you through, you might want to look elsewhere. For patient players, Pentiment is a game like no other, teaching lessons on history, community, and the nature of life itself.
A game like Pentiment doesn’t come around often. Top developers like Obsidian Entertainment usually leave smaller productions like this on the editing floor. The vast majority of games with fantastic stories usually ask players to kill something, solve puzzles, or have some other gimmick to it so that they remain engaged. Pentiment dares instead to rely on its craftsmanship, authenticity, and choice-based dialogue, trusting that the murder mystery is enough of a draw to pull players in. And despite some minor quibbles, Pentiment succeeds in its pursuit, creating a fantastic generational period drama with a wonderfully original vision.
As a story-driven adventure game, Pentiment is a history lesson come to life, with some intriguing mysteries to solve and tricky decisions to make. It's a vertical slice of history, and it provides a glimpse into a turbulent period through the experience of a small town. The experience can be a bit sluggish because it sometimes values historical accuracy over player comfort. Your choices impact the Bavarian town of Tassing over a quarter of a century, all while uncovering a truly interesting mystery. Tassing is the actual protagonist here, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being an integral part in its community and participating in its struggles. It's a bit special and stubborn in its delivery, but Pentiment is an interesting and worthwhile investigation of the period, its customs, and its issues.
Pentiment is a game from artists for art lovers. This is a crafted honestly made game, which, of course, has flaws. Some of them also left a bigger aftertaste in my mouth. But what work of art does not have them? And, although I'm afraid that the title won't impress ordinary gamers too much, I still firmly believe that this unique work by Obsidian will eventually find its fans.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Pentiment is a true achievement of marrying story, style, and theme into a magical and cohesive whole. In lieu of 3D graphics that try too hard and still fail to represent an authentic-feeling world, Obsidian's artists opted for a more illustrative aesthetic to tell their gripping story of a murder in an abbey, a choice that resonates throughout the entire game. While it might not satisfy every player, especially those expecting a more traditional RPG or adventure experience, those who can immerse themselves in Pentiment's vision of 16th century Bavaria will find one of the best games of the year.
A beautiful and beautifully-written narrative game that makes masterful use of its early modern setting. One of Obsidian's finest.
Because even though Pentiment is set in the past, it demonstrates how history is never static, and how it influences places, communities, and individuals. That’s something that’s easily lost when we look back through time, but Pentiment’s living characters and spiraling mystery won’t let you forget it.
Pentiment does an excellent job of making my journey feel natural, with results that directly reflect my dialogue and action choices.
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
Pentiment manages to bring a unique experience to a catalog increasingly focused on big blockbusters.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A brilliant take on narrative adventure games by Obsidian. Pentiment is an awesome portrait of XVI century Europe and a compelling game about the sense of history, religion, tradition and personal beliefs. Sometimes the narrative structure is constraining, but overall the writing is amazing, the style is great, and the bibliography become part of the game in a clever way.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Pentiment goes all in as a dialogue-heavy historical murder mystery that you won't want to stop playing. You will question your actions throughout the game because your choices truly matter. No two endings will be the same, which makes you want to replay the game to delve deeper into the mystery. How will your story end?
Pentiment is a clever Medieval detective story with a gorgeously-realized world that I can hardly recommend highly enough.
The slow pace and amount of reading required may put some people off, but I'd encourage you to try it all the same — it's a fascinating period piece that tells both history lesson and original narrative while reflecting on the importance of art and stories, and comfortably one of the best examples of its genre in recent years and best Game Pass games.