Pentiment Reviews
Check out Pentiment Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 26 reviews on CriticDB, Pentiment has a score of:
I can't say enough wonderful things about Pentiment. The narrative coaxes out a full spectrum of emotions, with its impeccable writing delivering the story with bold strokes, and the visual style is just a pleasure to watch.
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Pentiment is a fantastic adventure RPG that revels in a studious approach to history and immaculate recreations of the styles and traditions of 16th-century Bavaria. There's a super smart, funny, and engaging murder mystery to investigate here, but it's how that mystery is so fully rooted in the world that's been lovingly crafted around it that really elevates this experience. It's one of the best games of the past decade, hands down, and to have that experience running and performing perfectly on Switch is a joyous thing — it feels like it was made for Nintendo's console. This is about...
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A masterful tale of murder and history, Pentiment's strong narrative and choices make this beautifully illustrated game one of 2022's best releases.
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Pentiment offers a thematically striking and ultimately optimistic experience that is as engaging as it is unique.
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Pentiment is an enthralling murder mystery that uses the rich backdrop of 16th-century medieval Europe to masterful effect.
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Pentiment is a gorgeous text-heavy adventure that fits so well on Steam Deck, it feels like it was made for it.
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“The revelations we experience can be terrifying to us and to those who witness us experiencing them.”
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The best stories in video games manage to fuse narrative, art, and gameplay in a way that elevates all three. Pentiment, the latest from Obsidian Entertainment, is a perfect example of this, telling a deep, complex story about religion, truth, and history in the form of a book, which the player experiences as it’s being written. Despite a few sections with inconsistent pacing, it’s a must-play for fans of adventure games.
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Pentiment goes all in as a dialogue-heavy historical murder mystery that you won’t want to stop playing. You will question your actions throughout the game because your choices truly matter. No two endings will be the same, which makes you want to replay the game to delve deeper into the mystery. How will your story end?
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Pentiment tells a tale that enthralls at the level of the personal and social alike, exploring a history that doesn't merely recreate period objects and customs, but functions as an evolving process sculpted by individuals within circumstances beyond their control. A melting pot of ideas and characters adds nuance to tightly plotted murder investigations, as does an art and scripting style inspired by 16th century scribes. The pace may feel slow at times, but for all the focus on dialogue choices, Pentiment is anything but all talk.
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A brilliant narrative adventure that is filled with intelligence and heart.
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A Dark Ages mystery whose gameplay and dialogue are as unique as it’s daringly unconventional premise and visuals.
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Still, while Pentiment doesn’t make the best first impression, and the lack of music robs it of atmosphere and character, it’s well worth digging into if you’re a fan of well-written narrative adventures or games that require you to conduct investigations. You’ll soon come to love – or loathe – its cast of characters, and with plenty of fun puzzles to solve, minigames to engage in and meaningful choices to make, it’s rewarding in ways that other games in the same genre space rarely ever manage.
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The Italian word pentimento is defined as: an underlying image in a painting, one that only becomes visible when the top layer of paint turns transparent with age, showing evidence that it was revised by the artist. Pentiment smartly shares this definition through its replayability by placing a new story on top of the previous one, with the player painting a new history for Andreas and the town of Tasling each time. Some players may create chaos, others will try to keep the peace, but each will be able to tell the story of Pentiment in their own way. It...
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A game like Pentiment doesn’t come around often. Top developers like Obsidian Entertainment usually leave smaller productions like this on the editing floor. The vast majority of games with fantastic stories usually ask players to kill something, solve puzzles, or have some other gimmick to it so that they remain engaged. Pentiment dares instead to rely on its craftsmanship, authenticity, and choice-based dialogue, trusting that the murder mystery is enough of a draw to pull players in. And despite some minor quibbles, Pentiment succeeds in its pursuit, creating a fantastic generational period drama with a wonderfully original vision.
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Pentiment is a game that will stick with you for a long time after you play it. Its unique blend of thought-provoking discussion, historical accuracy, and challenging a player’s morals all work to push players to consider everything going on in the game and weigh the pros and cons of heavy decisions that must be made with limited information…It takes a very special work of art to make an observer feel as much as Pentiment does, and the game manages to do so consistently throughout its entire runtime.
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Pentiment is not going to be popular. I do think however that it will become a cult classic. I can’t think of another game from a 1st party publisher to tackle a subject like this. Nothing about it feels forced to try and earn the most money, instead, it is a labor of devotion to telling a brilliant story at a specific period and place in our past. Life may rarely go the way we want, but there is power in our choices and I’m glad that Xbox allowed this game to be made. It’s a unique, dazzling work of...
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While ostensibly a murder mystery game, Pentiment is more about listening to stories and deciding how to mold the world around you by prioritizing certain truths over others. Like the town of Tassing, Pentiment is a game with hidden depths that asks the player to scratch below the surface. It takes a quarter of a century to sift through the conflicting accounts to forge Tassing’s place in history.
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Obsidian has a fantastic history of ambitious RPG titles, but none feel as confident and refined as Pentiment. This is a game that truly understands the intoxicating nature of choice in video games, and rewards you with cynical torment befitting the world it portrays.
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Pentiment does what it does with a magnificent blend of dialogue, characters, and narrative. The winding path you’ll take has plenty of off ramps, and while all roads lead to Rome, the journey there feels unique to you. It’s so fascinating getting to your specific ending, you’ll probably even play it again to see what other decisions look like. Pentiment might not be for everyone, but for the genre, it’s a magnificent and compelling work of art.
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Pentiment's vivid art style, tight narrative, and choice-driven gameplay are a treat to experience. However, the restrictive save system and constant clicking to finish dialogue conversations can be detrimental to your enjoyment.
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Pentiment is a compelling narrative adventure that pushes you to make decisions, and then see how those consequences play out. But it also has a dedication to showing how the people, as much as the town and ongoing intrigue, have to live with everything that goes down. It’s a murder mystery, but it’s also a decades-spanning story about people trying to make a life in a little town called Tassing. It’s gorgeous, crafted, and will certainly fit the bill for anyone seeking some historical intrigue with a complex but earnest heart inside.
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“Pentiment impresses with its amazing dialogue, intriguing themes, and gorgeous visuals.”
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A brilliant murder mystery that understands class, community, and the march of history.
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Pentiment is a shining example of committing fully to an idea without worrying about where it fits in today's gaming market. The result? One of the best games of the year, narrative and otherwise.
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