The year is 1518, the baron has been murdered and your friend is on the hook for the murder. Freeing him means condemning someone else who may or may not have done it to death. Welcome to Pentiment.
Pentiment
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Price: $19.99
Platform: PC / XSX
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review
Pentiment takes place in a small town in 1500’s Bavaria, where you play Andreas Maler, an artist who gets wrapped into the drama of the town across three acts that span over twenty-five years. What starts as a simple day in the life of an artist turns grim as a local baron is murdered, Andreas’ friend is blamed for the killing and you put it on yourself to find the actual killer. What’s interesting about Pentiment’s various murder mysteries is how the game never tells you whether or not you correctly guessed the killer; it’s less concerned about whether or not the person actually did it, and more about the consequences of your decision. Any of the suspected parties are definitely capable of being the murderer, but the game instead asks you to decide who you think is the most culpable through your own bias with the knowledge that they’re going to be put to death if selected. The game even sprinkles in some more antagonistic characters, teasing you into selecting them out of your disdain for the character even if you know there’s a good chance they likely didn’t commit the deed. It’s a morality tale at the end of the day and begs you to ask yourself if you’re cool putting one person to death, who may or may not be guilty, to save someone else.
The game isn’t just three random events across the years. Pentiment’s three acts have a narrative throughline that connects them all with a conspiracy about the history of the town some characters are keen to keep hidden. Andreas himself can be customized in a way, with you able to choose various aspects of his background such as where he lived before coming to Bavaria or what he studied in school. These choices help determine whether you can get an edge in certain dialogues to pull additional information from a character, or sometimes it’ll do as little as just add some flavor to a conversation. Besides that, how Andreas responds will also be remembered as you can behave smarmily towards characters, or be a bit more civil. All of these elements play into major persuasion checks you’ll find yourself occasionally doing, and you never know when they might appear or what conversations will play a factor in them. This element of the game was frankly a *bit* frustrating as you basically need to perfectly fill the persuasion bar to win the check, and you’re likely to fail most of these checks on your first playthrough because some conversations that factor into the check can be from obscure conversations you just didn’t end up having with a person at a certain time.
You can’t go running around chatting everyone up as a timer starts when the main mystery begins and you’re tasked with gathering as much evidence as possible before the trial. You’re free for the most part to chat with most folk and time won’t move ahead, but any conversation that actively involves the current mystery will move that clock forward. So you’re forced to choose how to spend your day, knowing you might miss out on some potentially damning evidence from someone you didn’t go see. Throughout all the detective work is a heaping helping of exposition dumps on the town’s long and complicated history. You’ll chat with dozens of townsfolk, each with their own personality and viewpoint on events happening, and you really get a sense that the town feels lived in. After you enter a new act, the first thing I found myself doing was looking for some of my favorite townsfolk to see what they’ve been up to in the years passed.
I will say as fun as the first two acts are with their mystery, the third act felt a bit underwhelming and slower-paced. Mainly because most conversations you’ll have with the townsfolk for a good chunk of the third act is just them repeating the events of the first two acts and their various opinions on the choices you made. It’s definitely interesting to see all these different perspectives on your actions, but most of that act feels like you’re having the same conversation a dozen slightly different ways.
As well as impressively realized as Pentiment’s world is therein lies its main issue: it’s probably one of the hardest games to recommend I’ve ever played. If the idea of sitting there for fifteen hours and seeing folk discuss the potential ramifications of reformation in the church, or give history lesson dumps on a small Bavarian town doesn’t excite you then Pentiment is a hard sell. This is a game for folk who get giddy when a new Hardcore History episode drops. Its cast of characters are all incredibly well-defined with their own personalities and opinions on events that happen across the game’s three acts, but it’s definitely a dry read. And I want to emphasize the “read” there because Pentiment is probably the most book-ass adventure game I’ve ever played. Barely any music ever plays, as you’re treated to mostly ambient sounds like birds chirping, so it really is just you sitting there and reading for the game’s runtime. All adventure games or visual novels are basically books in video-game form, but there’s just something about Pentiment that makes it that much more obvious which is likely to put off some players.
The Final Word
Pentiment is probably the most interesting, uninteresting game I’ve ever played. Only a very specific type of person which makes it a hard sell to most, but for those it does click with will find themselves enthralled by its narrative and cast of characters.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
