Pentiment review: Role-playing murder mystery shakes up the Renaissance

at obsidian entertainment Pentimento, history is always built on itself. When the itinerant Andreas Marat visited the town of Tassing in Bavaria, it was already dealing with class divisions, liturgical disagreements, and community drama. All of these were influenced by everything from personal conflicts to centuries of the Reformation to the political character of the 16th-century Holy Roman Empire. And the murder case that begins.

The game spans 25 years, with Andreas and the townspeople developing their respective histories over time. Of course, these are partially driven by player actions. But the game always reveals that its narrative roots are much deeper than that. Pentimento It’s about history and moments as power.

You spend your Andreas days exploring the town, talking to its inhabitants, and trying to understand the murder mystery the artist was drawn to. , you may be invited to longer activities in the form of small, simple mini-games. Then time advances and so does the plot.

PentimentoThe art style of is inspired by late Renaissance illuminated manuscripts and early printed books. Some of this translates smoothly into gameplay. For example, clicking on an unfamiliar word will shrink the entire page to reveal a decorative edge (and the definition of the word in question). The margins are chock-full of the bizarre and wonderful animals these manuscripts are famous for containing, bringing an immediate sense of style to what might otherwise be a dry history. Pentimento It delivers such liveliness throughout.

Still, not all of the game’s bookish skins work well. For example, how every line of dialogue is accompanied by the sound of scratching a sharp needle. Other parts of the manuscript concept just didn’t work for me. For example, when a character speaks and their lines are written out, errors are often made that are then erased and replaced. These never fully blend into the aesthetic, instead stopping the momentum of the conversation.

A more consistently successful push for games that evoke living history is the town itself and the people who live there. There is a constant hustle and bustle of noise. Small tasks performed while talking to locals feel tactile and sensory. The days are separated, usually with his half board, so he can eat with different families around town. These familiar moments underlie Andreas’ story, despite its setting in the past. By doing so, Pentimento It excels at making the setting feel alive instead of being covered in the dust of time.

Image: Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios

Nailing the feel and vitality of this place is essential to underpinning its character. PentimentoThe town’s dozens of residents each have their own concerns, relationships, and secrets, and understanding and helping them is key to unraveling the town’s mysteries. But their struggles and dreams are not simple. They deal with poverty, political oppression, unfair hierarchies, and do not always agree on solutions to problems. On top of this Pentimento While not falling into the trap of confusing their political and personal demands with modern demands, despite that archaic trap, Pentimentois nuanced at its core, and those issues are a complex reflection of today’s issues.

The game uses that complexity to explore how much the direction of a community can be influenced by one person.It’s not Andreas or the players who really push Pentimento‘s main story, but intricately intertwined with interpersonal and cultural interactions. In fact, for most of the game’s runtime (10 hours of playtime, maybe 15 hours when you stop petting all the cats), there’s a real feeling that Andreas can detect, but the full extent of the knock-on’s ongoing impact is completely unpredictable. can not understand. It works like a flow underneath the story, leaving you wanting more while feeling incomprehensible.

Image: Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios

There is always more than time allows. After the first murder, Andreas was given only a few days to track down the culprit and found more clues than he could reasonably track down. I don’t think he’ll be happy with whoever he points the finger at. Even more so when time passes and the people you inevitably upset hold all too reasonable resentments.

Instead, the dominoes fall, being pushed by both Andreas and the others. I’m here. Fallout: New Vegas, In other words, there are no easy choices, and no ‘best’ options leading to ‘good’ endings.

But Pentimento is set in the past and shows that history is never static and how it affects places, communities and individuals. , Pentimentois unforgettable for its living characters and swirling mystery.

Pentimento will release on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on November 15th. This game was reviewed on PC using a pre-release download code provided by Xbox Game Studios. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.