Pentiment Reviews
For a title so reverent of history, it feels like divine justice that Obsidian's special narrative adventure earns such a high spot in the annals of its own.
Pentiment delivers a thoughtful, intriguing story with a wonderfully compelling cast of characters.
Pentiment is an excellent "artistic" game, although it suffers from overly simple puzzles and poor replayability. The excellent narrative section, combined with a very successful technical presentation, creates a title that is as playful as it is educational.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Pentiment is a game with a modest budget and equipment, which does not mean that it does not achieve a high standard of quality. During the approximately fifteen hours that Pentiment can last, we will be able to immerse ourselves in the life of a 16th century abbey and in the life that surrounds it. Its peculiar style helps to achieve this and, if we approach it with the right mentality, we can enjoy it from the audiovisual, plot, environmental and development perspective of the adventure.
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
A journey to medieval Bavaria with its human joys and numerous sorrows – not without routine and uneven pace, without any intelligible gameplay, but authentic, vividly written and with a deep message.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Pentiment is an excellent narrative adventure with Obsidian's quality seal. No fan of the genre should miss it. It is a unique game thanks to its incredible visual presentation and historical background. The studio manages to move away from the hardcore RPG to give us an alternative and great vision of role-playing games. It is clearly a niche game that probably not everyone will appreciate.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
Obsidian Entertainment looks at European history with respect and lots and lots of study. "Study" means first of all commitment, passion, enthusiasm. It means love, and in Pentiment, there is so much love.
Review in Italian | Read full review
With its style, Pentiment is a playful work of art that is second to none, but can also inspire with its story.
Review in German | Read full review
Pentiment won’t be for everyone. It’s bookish, sometimes a bit dry, and demands you take its questions about the nature of religion, art, and other heady subjects seriously if you want to get the most out of its narrative. If that sounds like your sort of thing, you can look forward to a rich, well-researched world you'll truly feel a part of and a fantastic story that serves up numerous memorable, moving twists and turns. Pentiment will leave an indelible mark on you if you just give it a chance.
Pentiment's vivid art style, tight narrative, and choice-driven gameplay are a treat to experience. However, the restrictive save system and constant clicking to finish dialogue conversations can be detrimental to your enjoyment.
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 is not going to be popular. I do think however that it will become a cult classic. I can’t think of another game from a 1st party publisher to tackle a subject like this. Nothing about it feels forced to try and earn the most money, instead, it is a labor of devotion to telling a brilliant story at a specific period and place in our past. Life may rarely go the way we want, but there is power in our choices and I’m glad that Xbox allowed this game to be made. It’s a unique, dazzling work of art that will stand the test of time for as long as we remember it.
Pentiment is a fascinating dive into XVI century Bavaria, that combines a murder mystery spanning over twentyfive years with a quick but accurate portrayal of the tumultuous social upheaval of the time. Its choice-based dialogue system only marginally influences the central elements of the plot, but the characters are well-written and artistically, the game is excellent.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Pemtiment is without a doubt one of the best games of 2022. If you're a fan of classic point & click adventure games, you're going to have a blast playing pemtiment.
Review in Persian | Read full review
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 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
A beautiful and beautifully-written narrative game that makes masterful use of its early modern setting. One of Obsidian's finest.
Pentiment is an unconventional take on a colorful and intertwined story that knows what it is doing very well. The free hand in decision-making creates a significant butterfly effect and can mess with the search for the killer. The period artwork enhances the entire experience wonderfully, and the solid historical foundations give the story even more depth.
Review in Czech | Read full review