34 Reviews liked by Innkepr
Raft
2018
Pyre
2017
The credits song sings a glory anthem to the player and changes verses to all the major decisions you've done throughout your journey + all the victories/losses along the way.
If that is not peak videogamey interactivity and something developers should strive to do more as a medium we might as well banish gamers into the Downside to be doused into Pyres until they develop good taste.
If that is not peak videogamey interactivity and something developers should strive to do more as a medium we might as well banish gamers into the Downside to be doused into Pyres until they develop good taste.
Pyre
2017
Pentiment
2022
The roots of our communities are an intricate system, too large for any one of us to imagine. In every discovery of fresh soil, we find a long history of its breaking and in our investigation find those same roots again. They connect us all, they teach us lessons. They wrap around our necks, crawl around old bones. We perform dramas about escaping their hold or burning the whole tree but these roots remain. Sooner or later, someone's bound to find our choices in the soil.
Pentiment
2022
This review contains spoilers
"The human heart is no small thing. It can hold so much."
In the second act of Pentiment, Andreas, lost in a labyrinth of grief following the death of his young son from the plague, returns to Tassing with his young assistant Caspar. As the act progresses you are presented with several opportunities to define their relationship: you can be cold and borderline cruel, or neutral and indifferent, or you can be kind. You can care. His relationship with Caspar can provide you with an echo of the father that Andreas could have, should have been. Kindness, even at its most difficult, is always an option.
The Abbey burns. Andreas dies, and then he lives. And then, in the third act, you learn the consequences of your actions: if Andreas treated Caspar with kindness, he died trying to save him. If you were cruel to him, Caspar leaves Andreas to burn - he abandons you, but he lives.
I knew what would happen. I knew the consequences. I knew that if I wanted to save him from his fate, I would have to break his heart. Crush his spirit. I was determined. And even still, while replaying Pentiment for the first time since its release...I couldn't bring myself to do it. With every encouraging word, every smile, every act of compassion, I doomed him to his fate. It hurt, but it in the most bittersweet, beautiful way. Kindness, even at its most difficult, is always, always, an option.
I love this game. I loved it the first time I played it, and I loved it even more on the second go. Pentiment isn’t a perfect game, but it is the sort that sticks with you long after the credits roll. A gift, from beginning to end.
In the second act of Pentiment, Andreas, lost in a labyrinth of grief following the death of his young son from the plague, returns to Tassing with his young assistant Caspar. As the act progresses you are presented with several opportunities to define their relationship: you can be cold and borderline cruel, or neutral and indifferent, or you can be kind. You can care. His relationship with Caspar can provide you with an echo of the father that Andreas could have, should have been. Kindness, even at its most difficult, is always an option.
The Abbey burns. Andreas dies, and then he lives. And then, in the third act, you learn the consequences of your actions: if Andreas treated Caspar with kindness, he died trying to save him. If you were cruel to him, Caspar leaves Andreas to burn - he abandons you, but he lives.
I knew what would happen. I knew the consequences. I knew that if I wanted to save him from his fate, I would have to break his heart. Crush his spirit. I was determined. And even still, while replaying Pentiment for the first time since its release...I couldn't bring myself to do it. With every encouraging word, every smile, every act of compassion, I doomed him to his fate. It hurt, but it in the most bittersweet, beautiful way. Kindness, even at its most difficult, is always, always, an option.
I love this game. I loved it the first time I played it, and I loved it even more on the second go. Pentiment isn’t a perfect game, but it is the sort that sticks with you long after the credits roll. A gift, from beginning to end.