Pentiment Reviews
A brilliant narrative adventure that is filled with intelligence and heart.
A beautiful and beautifully-written narrative game that makes masterful use of its early modern setting. One of Obsidian's finest.
Pentiment is a clever Medieval detective story with a gorgeously-realized world that I can hardly recommend highly enough.
"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.
Despite some issues with the audio and the slowness of the third act, Pentiment is a wonderfully unique storytelling experience overflowing with respect for the historical era it strives to recreate. Much like the game’s themes of stories persisting over time, I’ll be thinking about Andreas Maler and the town of Tassing for years to come.
Pentiment too often limits its most enjoyable pieces to reach an ending that makes sense but is still unfulfilling.
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.
A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage.
Pentiment is an excellent dialogue adventure that takes all the best aspects of Obsidian's previous titles and marries them to a distinguished aesthetic. The whole game feels like a medieval manuscript brought to life and there is very little out there like it. While an interest in the historical setting would obviously add to the experience, the writing alone is good enough to draw any fans of adventure games in and there are so many superb details that really show the depth of the developer's engagement with their influences. If the past is a foreign country, then grab your passports and get ready to be illuminated.
Pentiment is a different graphic adventure, based on dialogues and with a great story. We love its medieval setting, but it has a slow pace that won't catch all players.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Pentiment is, despite its scarce and more than simple gameplay and its few hours more, a game that shines with its own light in a year with great releases. The new Obsidian manages to hook by its history and all its turns, but without forgetting its social, political and religious context; rich in nuances and depth. A must for fans of both RPG's and narrative adventures, a jewel that you can not miss.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
Pentiment is about that phenomenon, and also a manifestation of it. It's one of the most engaging and accessible works of living history ever commissioned, and the fact that it exists at all - let alone as a major platform holder's first-party RPG heading into the Christmas season - is a miracle worthy of the saints.
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 is a stunning piece of work, with a rich story, gorgeous artwork, and fleshed out characters that keep you hungry to learn more.
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 an enthralling murder mystery that uses the rich backdrop of 16th-century medieval Europe to masterful effect.
Pentiment does what it does with a magnificent blend of dialogue, characters, and narrative. The winding path you'll take has plenty of off ramps, and while all roads lead to Rome, the journey there feels unique to you. It's so fascinating getting to your specific ending, you'll probably even play it again to see what other decisions look like. Pentiment might not be for everyone, but for the genre, it's a magnificent and compelling work of art.