Pentiment

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Pentiment is a Graphic Adventure released in 2022 of Xbox One and PC, and ported in 2024 to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. This game is set in Europe during the early 16th Century, at a time when Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses are the controversial hot topic of the moment, where the leaders of the church were seen as an authority, and where tradesmen and nobles alike sought to exchange craft for money as overseen by the church.

Players take the role of Andreas, a young artist working in the local abbey who finds himself befriended by one such noble visiting the abbey to check on progress of a commissioned work. However, soon after this chance meeting, the abbey becomes the site of an untimely murder, and one of Andreas’ fellow artists is blamed for the murder despite how all present can clearly see the man is innocent. With everyone seemingly more concerned about quickly and quietly resolving a scandal than actually seeking justice, Andreas takes it upon himself to solve the crime and absolve his wrongly-accused coworker.

While the murder mystery is central to the story of Pentiment, this game isn’t overly-concerned with getting to the whodunnit quickly. Pentiment takes its time setting up its characters, the setting, and ensuring that players are properly transported to the time period that the game takes place within, with characters discussing then-contemporary art, literature, politics, as well as down-to-Earth matters like disputes over rising rent or spreading town gossip. For many, this will be the game’s biggest flaw – it drastically slows down the game’s pacing, can come across as dry, and the focus on painting a historically-accurate picture may confuse players with customs and terminology that is unfamiliar to them.

To the game’s credit, it tries its best to cater to modern audience without sacrificing this verisimilitude. Whenever the game’s conversation (rendered as if being written, but more on this in a bit) touches on names, places, or terminology that modern players may be less familiar with, players can press the minus button on their controller to see a definition, a brief explanation, or even an image of what that character looks like in the game. Not only is this super-helpful for following what’s going on without sacrificing the realism the game is going for, but it acts as a sort of history lesson as you play.

It’s not just the story and setting that makes Pentiment a trip back in time. A large part of it is the presentation, with the entire world of the game depicted using an art style clearly inspired by the art of the period, which looks absolutely lovely, although it animates a bit stiffly.

However, even more than the art, the text and words of this world are truly what makes it come alive. When characters speak, their words don’t just appear on-screen, they are inscribed. Characters with different education levels or backgrounds may have different types of writing to emphasize this point. Sometimes words are written misspelled and then hastily corrected. And when characters are angry or shouting, their text is emphasized not just by boldening the letters, but by showing the ink spatters as if the person who wrote it was writing the words furiously to match the character’s speaking.

This is further enhanced by absolutely brilliant sound. While this game’s period-appropriate instrumental and choral soundtrack is somewhat sparse, it is more than made up for with lively environmental sound in every part of the game, and even more than that by the scritches and scratches of writing as the characters’ dialogue is written out. Earlier, when I mentioned the ink spatters during furious character outbursts, these are emphasized by the pen scratches getting louder and faster. This is a truly great example of what sound can do to bring players into the game’s atmosphere.

For the gameplay itself, you start with fairly straightforward Graphic Adventure gameplay as you move from location to location and mostly talk with people to discover more. However, this game does something clever by working in both character traits and “dating sim”-style mechanics where you may get different options depending on how much the character you’re speaking with likes or dislikes you.

The character traits are an even bigger component here. In the early parts of the game, you’ll naturally talk about Andreas’ background, and what they say will influence your options through the rest of the game. Give them experience as a merchant who traveled to Italy, and you’ll understand spoken Italian and be able to make shrewd deals that you wouldn’t if you’d chosen differently. Give your character a background in law and they can use that knowledge to help someone who has information you want, or perhaps threaten someone who isn’t cooperating. Give Andreas a background studying logic and they’ll be able to reason out where a secret entrance to a building must be based on how far the door is from the other side of the room.

While all of this game’s characters are fantastically well-written and well-rendered, this customizability makes Andreas particularly interesting, as your choices really let you put a stamp on him and make him your own, and it’s clear that the background you give him may mean that you have to go about solving this game’s mystery in a completely different way than you would if you made different choices in his background.

Again, this game isn’t without its faults. As I noted, the slow pacing and focus on worldbuilding may make this game a drag for some players (while absolutely thrilling others). Also, it can take some getting used to the way this game works out maps, and it can be easy to get lost. For that matter, the button layout is a tad odd and also takes some getting used to.

However, if one of my biggest complaints about a Graphic Adventure is the button layout taking getting used to, you can probably take that as a pretty strong indication that this is a strong entry in the genre. And indeed, Pentiment is absolutely brilliant. It has wonderful characters, a great plot, some truly excellent game mechanics giving the player a wealth of options, and a truly outstanding presentation that’s not only perfect for the game, but even propels the game to new heights. Unless you’re turned off by the historical setting or a game that takes its time to build its world, consider this a must-have for all Graphic Adventure fans.

tl;dr – Pentiment is a Graphic Adventure that follows a 16th century artist trying to solve a murder mystery. The characters and story are great, the dedication to creating an accurate depiction of the time period is phenomenal, the presentation and especially the sound design are incredible, and the game mechanics truly give you the sense that your character choices are giving you the freedom to investigate the crime in your own unique way. The game’s more relaxed pacing may not appeal to everyone, but overall this is a must-have for any fans of the Graphic Adventure genre.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Graphic Adventure / Visual Novel – The love and care that went into Pentiment is clear right from the onset, not only in how this game is so thoroughly researched with a mind toward authenticity, but also how players are given a wealth of choices to really make their version of the game’s protagonist Andreas their own. And the wonderful presentation definitely helps too. All of this makes Pentiment a superb Graphic Adventure.

Runner-Up: Game of the Year, Best Value, Best Sound Design, Best Graphical Style, Best Story, Best New Character – Andreas

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