Reviews from

in the past


I think God sent one of his specialist angels to give this game to me. Beyond having phenomenal writing, the medievalisms are so well researched and thought out that I was stopping and taking pictures constantly for a good two hours my first playthrough... they even have Prester John in this game!

Pentiment is immensely impressive in its construction and detailed analysis of faith and art within the Middle Ages, all wrapped into a neat little murder mystery. It's distinct style captured me almost immediately, yet it's mechanics may be seen as anything but at first. But the point-and-click style narrative leans heavily in favour of the game's central murder mystery narrative as the detailed level of player choice given is wholly impressive. You really get to decide the fate of many and your choices really, truly, can affect the future whether you may realise it immediately or not.

While the murder mystery is what got me at first, I'd say that the game's overwhelming focus on faith (going as far to highlight any mention of God) is what kept me the most interested. Seeing the clash between the creation, sale and preservation of art from the Abbey under God vs the rejection of Tassing's people, who have no one else but God to turn to in face of hardship, was an incredibly compelling narrative that resulted in quite a strong climax.

I'd say the third act is what somewhat lets this game down for me. While the concept of the mural and the preservation and artful retelling of history ties right into the game's themes, I think the slower pacing of Act 3 and how it somewhat veers away from the strong points of the first two acts is a little disappointing. I'd say the ending and the reveal of the murderer was pretty great, but ultimately it feels like more could've been done on the whole art vs religion aspect of the game.

Overall though, this is a truly unique game amongst a sea of games that advertise player choice yet cannot emulate the same feeling that Pentiment does when you can unknowingly change the lives of one or many for years on end through either your own inaction or hubris. A stronger final act could've cemented this higher up as a true pantheon amongst story-rich games, but Pentiment more than makes up with it with a compelling narrative that heavily emphasises unity within faith and the importance of art and history, amongst many, many other things that I can't seem to put to words straight away. A great game worth checking out.

Played first 5h sometime during release on Gamepass, recently finally bought it on Steam because I am here to support niche passion projects especially coming from Obsidian.

And oh how I don't regret buying it.

The third act is so emotional and bittersweet. I wasn't ready to tear up during a labyrinth mini game. The little animations, the care that went into making every book, every painting, every dialogue. The feeling of getting closer to characters when sharing a meal. This game goes from a who dunnit mystery to something much deeper.

(Act II is slightly weaker but I love all three acts)

Pentiment is a fantastic interactive visual novel. Everything about it oozes passion and creativity. The story is extremely page-turning.

One of my favorite aspects about it is that there are a lot of "persuasion checks" in the game that aren't blatantly shown to you, and you'll probably see "THIS WILL BE REMEMBERED" a lot of times when you won't expect it. The game essentially demands that you think carefully about the characters you speak with - consider their motivations, personalities, beliefs, and so on. From what I understand, the differing pathways don't have a large effect on where the story ultimately leads, but it still made the game feel like a much more interactive, organic experience than most narrative driven games.

If you're a fan of this type of thing, you will not want to miss this game!

need a moment to take it all in honestly, SUPERB vidcon

Lovely point and click whodunnit with a lot of heart. There's plenty of dialogue and it starts a little slow but after the first hour or so I was hooked. I'm not even a history buff at all so I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging this was, I think the main selling point of this game is the rich cast of characters and how you interact with them.

Un juego que consigue meterme perfectamente dentro de su época y consigue contar una historia sólida y potente pero al que le falta un empujón.

Pentiment presenta tramas de misterio a través de los años que hablan sobre tanto la sociedad de la época como la importancia de las relaciones dentro de una comunidad tan pequeña. Enmarca este misterio en un sistema que te impide conocer todo. Es un misterio imperfecto, que puede que sea más fácil o más difícil de averiguar completamente según las características de RPG de tu protagonista. Tiene sentido dentro de su mensaje sobre el tiempo y el traspase de conocimiento.

Tiene unos diálogos sublimes. Muchas opciones con resultados tanto sutiles como importantes. Pero por ejemplo, al contrario que Disco Elysium, creo que su sistema de gestionar persuasiones o checks es demasiado simplón y demasiado binario. O has conseguido rellenar una barrita de "persuasión" o fallas.

Pentiment es una obra que nos propone pensar en el pasado y en la fe desde una perspectiva histórica que mezcla lo aséptico y lo emotivo. Ves tanto lo más pequeño dentro de este mundo como lo que los años hacen cambiar toda una sociedad. Es todo un logro y un juego original a celebrar. Sin ser un juego RPG o de misterio superlativo, sigue siendo una propuesta extremadamente sólida en ambos que sé que gustará más a otras personas quizás.