Video Game Review: Pentiment

Release Year: 2022
Reading Year: SU2024
Developer/Publisher: Obsidian/Xbox Studios
Time to Beat: 23 Hours

Thoughts: The only context I had for Pentiment when I was gifted this game was, “it’s a lot of reading, but it’s worth it.” I was told it was beautiful and that the unique fonts for each character (and their scratchy, crunchy sound effects) would wow me. However, neither particularly hit me in the way I was hoping. I spent the first hour or so just… walking around. Having conversations that bored me and disconnected from the whorish artisan I had begun playing as. And then, everything changed.

The conceit of Pentiment is that you are a traveling artist who gains a residency at a church and, while you are minding your business, one of the members of the church is murdered. As the only outsider, you are tasked with solving the murder. What unfolds is a period drama intertwined with political tensions between the nobility, the church, peasants, and townsfolks. Informing these tensions are the fact your village is sat upon Roman and Pagan ruins. All of which are reflected in the smallest details, such as the fonts and character traits you can choose. Set in the early 1500s, there are few time periods so rife with change – during the Renaissance and right before the Enlightenment. It is also during the earliest stages of colonialism and the Spanish inquisition.

While that context and time period are interesting in and of themselves, it is the deep internal uncertainty that ravages the main character that drew me into the narrative. The way the developers use the trappings of the time to visualize Andreas’ (the main character) internal struggle, while also giving no “right” answer is deeply troubling in the best way. There is a sense of powerlessness that holds you as you fight against time to do the right thing for the community. The first time Andreas is drawn literally into a book to have a conversation with another character, I was wowed. Or his internal self, seeing it decay and implode over time. Even having a moment to take in the breath-taking paintings was well-worth playing this game. These flourishes were so helpful in realizing what art meant to people in this time period. How you can be one bad winter away from starvation, yet the mural must be completed. How much control these artifacts have over who the townspeople and peasants become.

While I was playing I never knew how long the game would last, or where it would end. I will say I found the journey much more satisfying than the ending, though both are a treatise in dealing with uncertainty and a lack of control. I personally think the game dragged on a little longer than it should, but the final act is well worth the play through.