Pentiment Review

Small town life is different. Believe you me, it’s been my whole life to this point. Being separated from where life is at its most viscerally relevant while also being uniquely aware of what is happening, why it is happening and what it means for us in our smaller hovel of civilization, it’s as disorienting as it is comforting. It is a relative simulation of that “contemplating how small your place in the universe really is” but on a massively scaled down level (and much less cosmic and astrological existentialism to boot). The difference being that the larger populous world and all its forces are tangible and can truly effect our moment to moment life, in ways that have the potential to leave lasting and historical impact for generations to come.

Pentiment has a far lower barrier of entry than any of Obsidian Entertainment’s previous works. Smaller in scope and scale, it closer evokes 90s point and click adventure titles and Telltale games with its central static locations and divergent dialogue choices as opposed to something comparatively gargantuan such as Fallout New Vegas. (That’s the only New Vegas mention you’ll get from me in this piece.) And as fate would have it, the two games not only share development studio, but director as well: Josh Sawyer. Unlike his much more well known, seemingly limitlessly variable title, Sawyer’s most recent work maintains some degree of that aforementioned variability while remaining a far more focused, driven title, and as a result a far more meaningful one as well.

Andreas Maler is an artist in training from Nuremberg, living with a local peasant family in a fictional 16th century Alpine Upper Bavarian town known as Tassing. He is working to complete a commission for a nobleman and longtime benefactor of Kiersau, the Christian Abbey which effectively governs Tassing on a local level. As the nobleman, Baron Lorenz Rothfogel comes to see how his commission is coming along, he is found stabbed to death the following day. Fearing that the murder could damage Kiersau's reputation and lead to its dissolution, the Abbot blames Brother Piero, Andreas’ mentor for the crime and imprisons him until the archdeacon can arrive to adjudicate on the matter. Andreas understandably sets out to investigate and uncover the true culprit to save his mentor from execution.

Pentiment is a game reflective of its setting, the modesty and relative disconnect from the greater Roman Empire is felt throughout the game. Always reminding us that there is something so much bigger out of our sight looming in the background which we only experience through traveling nobles, soldiers, and the like. Brought to life through its watercolor art style, the color palette of greenery and cobblestone create a tone of distant familiarity, an undercurrent of malice and strife beneath the quaint and harmonious surface. 

There is no combat to speak of, in fact the game could regressively be described as “walking around from house to house and talking with everyone you possibly can, exhausting dialogue at each turn until the story progresses.” But it’s so much more than that. True to Obsidian Entertainment’s RPG roots, Andreas’ backstory can be tailored to the players wishes, giving him a background of language, vocations, and talents to employ when dialogue options present themselves and opening up opportunities to information crucial in understanding not just more about the people of the Tassing and Kiersau but of their potential roles in the larger conspiracy.

There is so much to say about these characters but the sheer amount of them as well. Informed not just through dialogue but the specific type face used for each character, giving us insight into Andreas’ perception of each respective person, their vocation, their social class, and education level. Better yet the fonts will potentially change for each character as Andreas learns more about who they are, and how they are supposed to sound. How fast the text scrolls for each character, and how occasionally a word will be misspelled only to be scratched out and corrected as the full sentence is formed, a deceptively smart way to imply flow of conversation, stammering, or misspoken words. It’s a remarkably ingenious way to use the mechanics of purely textual dialogue, a staple in the art of video games for years, as a way to contextualize characterization and how we view them in a subtle and natural manner.

As the game takes place across 25 years, we are introduced to multiple generations worth of characters, husbands, wives, children, the child of THEIR children. But the sheer quality of not just the written dialogue but how each character is written and the quality of SO MANY of them to be genuinely staggering. In an almost “Twin Peaks” fashion I feel like I know these people, who they are, what they struggle with, their place in the world, their aspirations, fears, all in such a naturalistic and organic way. These are believably flawed people, the authenticity of humanity is remarkable. Out of respect for spoilers I will not use any specific examples here. I have so many screenshots saved on my system of the brilliant writing. Timeless quotes, meaningful interactions between major players. It is truly special and of the highest accord. As for it’s main narrative which feels more like a vessel to explore these people and their plights (which is perfectly normal and fine might I add) It hides it’s mystery extremely well and the fact that it didn’t go as I expected, or that I couldn’t even expect it to go a certain way to begin with while also having a logical endpoint is a credit to how tight its story is.

The commitment to the historical accuracy of the time period does so much to enhance the experience. Clearly well researched and thematically in line with the game’s overall messaging, I can see why such a commitment was made. But the game goes a step further to not only engross you in it’s world and conflict but by extension our real world history too. Rather than leave it up to the interested player to search on their own time, various times throughout dialogue you will encounter a word with a bold underline, press a button and the game gives you a succinctly detailed explanation of what/who/when they are referring to, going as far as to give general sentiment in the time to certain events, people, and what they represent. Tassing itself, although fictional, feels like a lived in place that very well could have existed and had its respective history.

Pentiment is about the intersection of art, history, and how best we can accurately convey all of its nuances to future generations. If it is even possible to do so to an acceptable degree with the morality of the lengths go to alter such history they disagree with becoming more and more malevolent. Using whatever, or whomever they need for their ultimate goal of rewriting history in their image. The pressures artists are under across generations is suffocating. Especially when dealing with lived history as we know it. History is far muddier than what we truly know and is as often lost or destroyed as much as it is found. We don’t do any good to future generations to deny them the pursuit of this intrinsically valuable knowledge.

I find modern western art, specifically American art, to often be trite, insincere, rounded down all of the sharp edges that make art it’s most impactful, truthful, meaningful, and valuable. Rarely do I ever feel compelled to experience, let alone actually write about American art because it feels so passionless and corporate. It took something truly special to change that. Truly special and talented people. Josh Sawyer, Hannah Kennedy, Matthew Loyola, Cathy Nichols, Soojin Paek and the entire Obsidian team (I’m so sorry if I wasn’t able to mention your name! I promise you’re more than just “the team” even though I couldn’t mention you all!) have given me the hope that has reignited my faith in my native land’s creations, if even just for a moment. I truly cannot thank the team enough for their incredible efforts and keenly look forward to their next outing. 

(Please, I do not mean to put pressure on all of you. All I could ever ask is that you create as long as you continue to love doing so.)