From time to time a game gets announced that catches you off guard. A game that is so different from the rest that you just want to try it for yourself to see what’s it all about. Pentiment, Obsidian’s newest title is one of those, and after spending some time with it at Gamescom, I’m even more intrigued.
From the minds of Obsidian
Now, before we jump deeper into the game, it’s important to know who’s behind it. Pentiment is a game from the mind of Obsidian’s game director Josh Sawyer and art director Hannah Kennedy. They work with a small team of thirteen to deliver this mesmerizing story. You might also know Obsidian from The Outer Worlds, Grounded, and a couple more big-scale games. Pentiment is quite the opposite and without the acquisition of Obsidian Entertainment by the Xbox Studios, this game wouldn’t have been possible at all. Creating a narrative-driven game that you might even call a medieval murder mystery has been in the back of Sawyer’s mind for quite some years. Once Obsidian merged with the Xbox Studios he finally got the green light to start working on his dream project. After spending some time with it, I’m glad he did! This is going to be a very unique game for sure.
Welcome in the 16th century
Pentiment is set in the 16th century as its art style might already give away. The art style is what made me want to play the game in the first place and I must admit it’s all even more impressive in person. Obsidian made sure to stay as true to the era as possible, evoking artwork of the late medieval period. Think of illuminated manuscripts combined with woodcut prints, these form the beating heart of the style. It’s a rather unique appearance since the storybook sequences during the story will constantly combine the two techniques as one, blending different styles together with some modern contour to ensure the player always knows where the character are. The art style took some serious research and Obsidian really wanted it to be as accurate as possible, with the help of a couple of historians, they ensured Pentiment looks and feels like a moving piece of medieval art. It even goes as far as fonts. Since it’s a narrative game, you’ll read a lot of text, if you want to stay true to the era, you can go for the accurate font, but if that’s too hard to read, you can switch it to a more standard font too. I’ve only spend a couple of minutes with the Gamescom demo but the style is unlike anything I played before.
Let’s solve a mystery
So what about the actual gameplay? Well, Pentiment plays like a murder mystery that will eventually spread over 25 years. You play as Andreas Maler, a man trying to become a master in the town of Bavaria. His normal life gets disturbed when a monk and good friend of Andreas is accused of murder. Adreas doesn’t believe this and starts investigating in his village. The demo I played would open three different paths to learn more about what’s really going on. Pentiment isn’t an action-packed game where you’ll use a lot of tools to get the job done. Instead, you’ll need to talk to a lot of persons, pay attention to what they are saying and find clues in the narrative. By responding in certain ways, you’ll unlock new paths leading to better clues. What’s fun here, is the fact that you’ll have to give Andreas some characteristics before you start playing. You’ll need to set his interest and school career so you can refer to does skills in dialogues or just lie your way through them. The real impact of these choices or the different branches of the story aren’t clear just yet but the demo gave me a great taste of what’s to come.
The demo had me running all over town, trying very hard to spot the right clues and advance in the story. It’s all pretty straightforward but you’ll need to pay close attention so you don’t miss out on crucial details. Besides the main story, I also tested a card game mini-game where we played some rounds of what I would call a medieval poker light. The cards are facing upwards so you see the cards of your opponents too. By making a bet and hoping your card will be the highest in the end or will match the random card in the middle, you can earn some medieval bucks. It’s not that easy and I can’t wait to spend some more time with it, I’m sure it offers rather addictive gameplay.
Early conclusion:
Pentiment is a very unique game that I can’t wait to try out for real. Since it’s coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one, I would advise everyone with a subscription to try it out once it hits the digital stores. I can’t wait to see where the story is going!
