There’s nothing quite like a good murder mystery, a story that manages to pull you along a string while delightfully sprinkling in intrigue and mystery. Video games are certainly no stranger to the genre, but Pentiment feels like it really gets what makes a murder-mystery tick, more than any other video game I’ve ever played.
Obsidian Entertainment has built its reputation with hugely complex RPGs that feature a ton of systems and player choice. While Pentiment isn’t a massive RPG, it still has a lot of what makes Obsidian’s game so special, with strong writing and an enormous focus on player choice and consequence. It’s clearly a massive passion project for the studio, and one that fills a niche that might not appeal to everyone. However, it’s a game with a singular vision that it manages to fulfill in some incredible ways, telling one of the best stories of the year in the process.
Pentiment takes place in 16th-century Bavaria, specifically in a small out-of-the-way town called Tassing, which is overseen by the Kiersau Abbey. You play as Andreas Maler, a journeyman artist endeavouring to become a master by working in the Scriptorium of the Abbey.
Early in the story, just weeks after Andreas arrived in Tassing, a brutal murder takes place, with one of Andreas’ friends accused of the crime. Because of that, Andreas takes it upon himself to investigate the murder and find the true culprit, but things don’t necessarily go to plan.
“While Pentiment isn’t a massive RPG, it still has a lot of what makes Obsidian’s game so special…”
Pentiment’s gameplay style is reminiscent of point-and-click adventures, heavily revolving around conversation and some light puzzle-solving. Andreas has full run of the town and abbey and travels and can travel across the various areas talking to NPCs, making dialogue choices, and partaking in the occasional mini-game.
Andreas himself is a fascinating character, not quite a blank slate but blank enough that you can essentially decide his personality. He feels a lot like Commander Shepard as a character that has some core traits you build a personality around. At the beginning of the game, a few conversations have you picking important background info for Andreas, such as which country he studied in, what subjects he studied, and some of his past actions. The choice you make at the beginning can open up new dialogue options and choices later on. For example, I chose that Andreas had studied the occult while in school, which would allow me to pick “Occult Knowledge” options in dialogue across the game.
The town of Tassing and its people are the central focus of the story, and the way that Andreas interacts with characters can decide the future of the town, how it develops, and even the fate of some townspeople. The narrative plays out across 25 years, with each “chapter” taking place at a different period of time.
At the start of Pentiment you’re mostly following a linear story, but once the murder happens you suddenly have a wide array of investigation avenues. The game’s narrative plays out across 25 years, and each chapter is essentially a different time-period. The things you choose to investigate and the dialogue choices you make have a massive influence on how the town changes, meaning the next chapter might be remarkably different from another playthrough.
“Pentiment’s gameplay style is reminiscent of point-and-click adventures, heavily revolving around conversation and some light puzzle-solving.”
Each chapter revolves around a central conflict, like the murder, that you need to spend lengthy time investigating, before laying out all the facts and making some kind of decision. The one bizarre choice the game makes is with these kinds of “skill-check” moments in dialogue, where past choices and experiences you have pop up in a little box with up or down arrows to signify the likelihood of convincing the character you talk to.
Conversation checks are nothing new for RPGs, but there’s no indication on when these checks are coming, and I oftentimes found myself not knowing why I wasn’t able to convince someone. Luckily, these moments pop up infrequently enough that they don’t ruin the experience, even if they do momentarily pull you out of the immersion.
There’s a fascinating comparison to draw between Pentiment and Twin Peaks, as Andreas almost fills the same style of role as Agent Dale Cooper. Andreas is an outsider but the people of Tassing inexplicably trust him, and because of that his choices have a singular effect on the fate of everything. At the same time, there’s an underlying sense that something isn’t quite right in the village of Tassing, and that sense of uneasiness only builds throughout the game.
Pentiment’s writing is utterly charming and really adds a lot to the overall feel of the story. Many of the townspeople have fascinating stories to tell, and the way they all weave together across time is something that kept me hooked throughout the entire experience.
“Pentiment is absolutely gorgeous at every turn, and there are loads of little touches that help the game ooze personality…”
While the writing is certainly special enough to stand on its own, Pentiment’s time period and visual style are what really elevate the entire experience to something next level. The game’s art style is based on illuminated manuscripts and woodblock art of the 16th century, evoking a kind of stylized surrealism that only helps add to the overall atmosphere.
Pentiment is absolutely gorgeous at every turn, and there are loads of little touches that help the game ooze personality, such as dialogue for characters’ writing in as if done by an ink quill. At the same time, different “classes” of characters have different fonts for their dialogue, such as the monks using a flowy cursive style while the town’s printer uses a more angular typeface style. This helps add a ton of personality to characters across the game, and there are plenty of other fun little touches, namely the mini-games.
Mini-games are all small one-off affairs that aren’t necessarily meant as a challenge, but more to reinforce the time period and daily life of peasants. These are mundane things like spooling wool or clapping bugs off of clothing, but help add just a little bit of personality to the experience.
Pentiment’s soundtrack is another decidedly low-key feature meant to reinforce the overall feeling of the setting. Any music found in-game is generally some kind of church hymn of period appropriate tune, with your time spent running around Tassing consisting of nature sounds and the noises of peasants working.
It almost goes without saying that Pentiment is an incredibly slow-burn of an experience, singularly focused on its core narrative and characters. The stories that come out of Tassing and its people are fascinating, and it’s easy to see how two or even three playthroughs might feel entirely different. It’s a game that’s absolutely not going to appeal to everyone, but that’s ultimately kind of the point. Pentiment is a game that absolutely revels in its time period and world and that alone makes it one of the most unique games of 2022, but layer in the remarkably good murder mystery, and you have something truly special.
