Obsidian Entertainment is celebrating a significant milestone this week. The beloved RPG Pentiment has completed its third year and the developers are reflecting on the positive changes the game has brought the industry. The studio opened up about it on their social media and invited the crowd to join the character of artist Andreas Maler and enjoy the very nicely drawn 16th-century Europe. All the players who communicated with the game, characters, and art were thanked by the studio.
Let’s dwell on the question: what is Pentiment? In case you missed it, this is definitely not your typical RPG. There are no swords for you to wave nor dragons whose fire you could inhale. Instead, you get to play as Andreas Maler, a budding artist who is not only learning the art of painting but is also stuck in a Bavarian mountain village during the Renaissance. Story-driven gameplay that unravels the mystery, and your choices will be determining the course of the plot development, the painting-like style of the game echoes the medieval manuscript, and the dialogues, well, it has even been mentioned to be one of the best written by Obsidian ever. And that is a huge compliment for the same team that developed the illustrious Fallout: New Vegas.
Definitely, Obsidian’s tweet about the anniversary sparked instant and directed a flood of responses from the gamers’ community. Love for the game and sharing of personal experiences through the replies from gamers came in abundance thus showing that the game has made a large impact.
Nate Griner was one of the users who called it “My personal vote for one of the best of all time among Xbox/Obsidian releases. I will always be on the side of the game. Marvelous world-building and writing.” This is a strong claim, but if we look at the replies… he is not alone. Another user vyacheslav simply stated that the game “Left very good memories,” which perfectly reflects the general sentiment.
jarrod is next, who got it for PS5 and was instantly enchanted. He even bought books from game director Josh Sawyer’s reading list, which is like a soft echo of how reading and absorbing information were involved in this whole experience. Which game, after all, would so convincingly urge you to go and read history books? Not so many actually. He also desperately wanted the vinyl soundtrack, which was more of a sign that he had really embraced the aura and music.
Then we have Michal Šrajer, who is popularly known for his Pentiment being a Christmas game because of the vacant time slot of the Flask, and he is so considerate. He might even replay it this Christmas. A murder mystery set in the sixteenth-century village as a holiday tradition? Seriously, that’s just lovely.
And thus we heard the argument, “Wait what was I saying? Oh right, the passion is real.” User Abdulaziz made even bolder assertion, “Hoping for a sequel the game was very unique and great.” Many think the same way. In the world of massive live-service titles and open-world games, it is hard not to notice that players were simply overwhelmed by the close-niche and personal storyline presented to them which they considered as a fashion.
Naturally, any thread about Obsidian will have among the comments the shouts referring to a Fallout: New Vegas remake as unavoidable. User elman👀 was just there dropping a link and stating basically, “Just remake fallout new Vegas.” Classic. Another user, Rcop5592, is still hoping for the remaster of Alpha Protocol. Obsidian’s fan base definitely knows what they want, man.
It is rather funny, though, that in the midst of all the accolades one commenter, Jameson, threw out the query, “Why haven’t I ever heard of this?” A very good question indeed! Pentiment was a little muffled release, it was a passion project and it gradually found its audience quietly rather than through the usual large-scale marketing blitz. It is one of those pretty pebbles that one finds and then shares with his friends.
Optic 🦇 made a very valid point when he described the matter as “the best thing that ever came out of the Bethesda acquisition.” It is indeed a bold statement considering the controversies around the acquisition, but it also shows that Pentiment was an extremely fresh and unclouded artistic entity which would not have been born otherwise.
Thus after three years it appears that the adventure of Pentiment is still going on. Players have not yet driven the characters and the world out of their minds. It certainly speaks volumes about the power of good writing combined with a unique artistic vision. If you have not played it yet, the anniversary is a great excuse to get to know the Bavarian Alps by becoming a detective of the murder in an unprecedented way. It is on Game Pass, now it’s on PlayStation too…you really have no excuse.
