Demonstrates not only the developer’s breadth of talent but also the possibilities of choice-based gaming.
The adventure game Pentiment has only been out for a month, but already the gaming community has been having some interesting conversations about it. The highly original RPG from Obsidian Entertainment follows the fortunes of a small town in Bavaria in the 16th century and the people who live there. Over the course of 25 years, several mysteries must be solved. Pentiment has stood out thanks to its distinctive format, premise, and design, but it has also produced some unexpected outcomes.
Many titles prefer other fantastical (and more fictitious) settings, so historical games are rarely released. If a game does have a historical premise, like the popular Assassin’s Creed series, it usually has a lot of fabricated elements or even science fiction elements to make it more appealing to a modern audience. Pentiment has demonstrated that its niche design can be played by a wide audience and that choice-based games can achieve mind-blowing heights with its inventive blend of mystery-solving and decision-making.
Pentiment’s Choice-Based Gameplay
Pentiment’s Choice-Based Gameplay Pentiment is not the first game to emphasize decision-making in gameplay; other thoughtful, well-crafted RPGs have also included narrative choices for players to make. Many of Telltale’s series and Supermassive Games’ interactive games, as well as similar games with distinct painterly aesthetics like INTERIOR/NIGHT’s As Dusk Falls, have proven to be popular over the years. Pentiment takes this to a whole new level, using decisions to shape their stories, drive the action, and build tension.
Pentiment’s gameplay can be influenced in a variety of ways by players, such as by determining Andreas’s background and skills or by accepting or rejecting romantic hints from NPCs. A portion of these choices are earth-shattering and obviously sizably affect the story, such as picking what character to blame for homicide, while others can appear to be misleading ordinary like picking who to impart a dinner too. The variety of choices that players are required to make and the unexpected effects they have are part of Pentiment’s genius.
How Pentiment Sets the Standard for Future Games
How Pentiment Sets the Standard for Future Games Nothing about Pentiment, including its decision-based gameplay, is easy to understand. Some everyday choices can have the most unexpected outcomes, and even the smallest decisions cleverly end storylines.
Pentiment builds its story with skill alongside the many mysteries and murders that Andreas and his friends are trying to solve. The story is rich because of the intricate relationships and histories in the Tassing community and Kiersau Abbey, which are nearby. The choices play into this, as players are frequently given decisions with just a part of the data before more is uncovered later on.
As an alternative to the much more thoughtful approach that Pentiment takes, some similar games can use their decision-based gameplay to force players into instinctive, pressured choices to increase tension. The choice-based gameplay in Pentiment feels natural, original, and fun. Pentiment is more about the journey and the process than the destination because the game never canonically fully reveals the true mystery that connects the various plotlines and events.
Pentiment helps set the stage for how complex and sophisticated decision-based gaming could be and how players could be a part of a real-life story instead of just a passenger in a predetermined one.
Pentiment is available on Xbox Game Pass as well as PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.