A beautiful, very long, very boring tale
Pentiment by definition is the revealing of a painting that has been covered by another layer of paint. And that is what this game really is, on the surface you have a seemingly normal town with normal folk, but once you go under that surface layer you’ll find some people’s true nature, in this latest game from Josh Sawyer and Xbox’s Obsidian Entertainment. While there are some interesting ideas over the course of the game, unless you really enjoy visual novel type games, this one was pretty boring by Xbox’s usual standards.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
In Pentiment, players play as young artist Andreas Maler, who is attempting to finish up his masterpiece while working for the Kiersau Abbey, near the town of Tassing. A visit from a local baron sets the town a buzz with activity but not even the nuns of the Abbey are prepared when he ends up dead… cue dramatic music. Andreas’ mentor is the initial suspect but due to his age and frailty, Andreas is convinced he couldn’t have committed the heinous deed and thus becomes a private detective in order to discover the truth.
While the murder is the initial narrative, this game tracks the various characters and village for 25 years through 3 acts of play. Choice is the name of the game here, and as the players progress, they will build their version of Andreas. For instance, through conversation with local townfolks you will reveal details about yourself; it is during these times that the game will have players choose, with one of the first being about his background. Was Andreas a Craftsman, who lived to work or was he a hedonist giving in to lives many pleasures? While these things may not seem important initially these decisions will dictate how Andreas will respond in various situations. This is only a small example, there are many choices that will help to drive the story, so that everyone’s playthrough will end up different. Some of the choices even evoke Fallout games in the best possible way, there are consequences for each decision and really making the player connect emotionally is something Pentiment does quite well.
My issues with Pentiment isnt with the story, while it has some highs and lows there were some standout bits, like being able to follow and befriend a little girl and see how she grows up in the years to follow. While these things are nice, the moment-to-moment gameplay in Pentiment is, well, boring. While I love the art style and how it depicts old colorful storybooks from the 1500’s, each character and building drawn and colored like those old-world masters is impressive to see in motion. Walking back and forth and having a text conversation with a person is only fun for so long. Adding to the issue is the game uses an extremely stylized font that emulates the books of the past. On paper (pun intended) this sounds cool and works but, in the game, the various fonts will become hard to read after some time. There is an option to use a slightly normal font but even it was a bit ‘too’ much after so long. If there is any game that would have benefited from having some voiceovers, it’s Pentiment.
Pentiment is not a bad game, it’s just not one that I have no real interest in; It’s more along the lines of an interactive, mystery novel than a video game. While I loved the storybook art style, the overly stylized font was just too much to look at for long play sessions. And Pentiment tends to drag on a bit too long for my taste, but for those that have a love of history, murder, religion, betrayal, secrets, walking from left to right/right to left and reading your video games; then I think you should try Pentiment, especially at the price of $19.99 or included with your Game Pass subscription.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
