Pentiment Review - Page 2

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Eschalon: Book II

Release Date:2022-11-15
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On the more gamey side of things, this also results in a system where people remember their interactions with you, so when you have to pass a persuasion check with them, all your previous actions are taken into account along with your character's skills.

And the great thing about this is that you never know if and when you'll need to persuade any particular character, or what this check will be concerning, making it pretty much impossible to metagame your interactions, at least during your first playthrough. And this, in conjunction with the game's frequent autosave system, leads to organic playthroughs where chances are, you won't succeed at everything you do. And this makes Pentiment very much a game.

Another issue that may be preventing some from giving Pentiment a fair shot is its historical nature. It's very easy to look at a historical title and assume it wouldn't be very fun on account of its critical lack of ale-guzzling dwarves or fireball-flinging robe-wearing geriatrics.

A big exception to this in the realm of RPGs is Warhorse Studios' Kingdom Come: Deliverance which takes place in medieval Bohemia circa the 15th century. And it just so happens that the events of Pentiment transpire in roughly the same area about a hundred years in the future. So, in a way, what with these two games both being based on real history, Pentiment can be seen as a sort of continuation of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

You'll get to see the changes in the way people lived, experience the increasing influence of the Renaissance period, and stumble upon frequent references to the events depicted or mentioned in Warhorse's open-world masterpiece. And that alone may very well be worth the price of admission.

The Devil in the Details

The game itself is presented as this medieval illuminated manuscript. Illuminated in this context refers to all the fancy borders and drawings on the margins, and not the act of shining a torch on a page.

As such, Pentiment's visuals are drawn in the rather odd but instantly recognizable style of those old manuscripts, with the game's action positioned as an illustration on a page. And if that alone wasn't enough, at any moment, you can press a button and pull the camera back to see more of a page with all the silly drawings of lopsided cats our ancestors loved so much.

The game then takes this approach a step further and whenever you encounter an older character, they're drawn to look faded and less detailed than their younger counterparts. And whenever you get into a discussion about some book, like the Aeneid, your characters will step from their own pages and into the pages of the book in question and spend some time there.

Being positioned as a book, Pentiment is separated into three acts. The first act deals with a murder of a nobleman and the ripples it sends through the community. The second takes place seven years later and revolves around the growing rift between Tassing and the abbey. And finally, the third advances the clock a whopping eighteen years and delves into the history of Tassing. The later acts are punctuated with elaborate murders as well, but there they serve more of a supporting role to the bigger story.

The third act also lets you play as a new character, which works more than it doesn't. So even though this change happens a touch too abruptly and could probably have been executed better, it also has some really clever moments where you'll be examining the same objects you did as Andreas, but you'll get a completely different perspective on them. And that balances out some shaky developments and a rather forced resolution of the whole murder plot.

In general, the game's first act is the most expansive and full of options. In fact, at first, it may feel overwhelming with all the characters it keeps introducing and all the places you can visit and investigate. But then, the following acts feel significantly more linear.

But in a way, this also makes thematic sense, because, during the game's early stages, you're basically a stranger in Tassing. You're not familiar with the streets or the people living there. But once you get to know all these people and involve yourself in their lives, Tassing starts to feel smaller, cramped even.