Welcome to 16th century Europe. You are Andreas Maler, an artist living among the inhabitants of the fictional town of Tassing, where everything is about to change after a murder. How will they change? That’s what you will decide in penitent, a narrative adventure game that combines sensual art, role-playing elements, and a low barrier to entry thanks to point-and-click gameplay. The individual elements that make up up penitent they all stick together so seamlessly and so easily that they combine into a rich tapestry of game design and storytelling. Sure, there are more stories and readings here than anything else, but it’s hard to put this mystery in and its fascinating cast of characters down.
Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, penitent (available on Windows and Xbox, standalone or through GamePass) is a great mix of historical fiction, point-and-click adventure, and role-playing decisions with branching narrative consequences. With 2D art style inspired by Medieval manuscripts, you’ll guide Andreas about Tassing as he unravels the details behind a gruesome and suspicious murder. Who you talk to, what you do with what you learn, and how you choose to play Andreas, it all comes together in unique and unexpected ways. I haven’t come to the final conclusion of this game yet, but the characters and story got me hooked, I’m sure I’ll play this game again once it’s done.
Don’t worry, I’ll give you the details of any leakers here so you can discover this interesting piece of historical fiction for yourself.–believe me, you will want to go into this blind. If you want to know a little bit about what you’re looking attting in, knowing that penitent maybe a bit dark – there is some discussion of murder, sexual assault and mental illness. But one of the most important things that this setting and these characters bring to mind is how authentic and relatable they feel.
And I’m saying it as a transgender woman living in 21st-century New York City for portraits of 16th-century fictional characters living in medieval European countryside. After a few hours living in Andreas’s shoes, penitent is shaping up to be one of my favorite games this year—if not my favorite, stop it altogether.
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Though I’ll let people with a higher education than me weigh in on how true history is penitent Well, as someone who took a fairly intensive medieval studies course in college and grew up being Protestant, that certainly sounds accurate. It also never feels like it’s just running down a checklist of historical terms. This is a story set in history; not a slick story with old words. Nor does it use historical cues to tell a completely fictional story with the illusion of realism—more on that point later.
Just as a narrative, penitent a lovely work of historical fiction. If you’re at all into medieval history, there’s a lot to appreciate here, be it artistic depictions of Scary Dansehistory and cultural significance of relics, history of Christianity and paganism in Europe, class dynamics among clergy, peasants and aristocrats, etc. It is filled with details and references Great references lie naturally in the story and together weave a setting where the characters fit nicely.
Unlike other games and media works that claim to base their novels on historical fact, especially games that claim they are borrowing from the period itself. penitent put in, humanity here feels much more real and true to history than in other games their fictional claims of this moment in history and in geospatial types this.
penitent not trying to portray a historical fantasy that could do the right thing, where people adopt a dark, miserable skepticism about the brutality of the world, which is filled with skin Christians white, upright and no one else. The diversity of people’s looks, sexuality, thoughts and beliefs is part of this story. They serve as a contrast to the rigid class structure and hierarchies that the world expects humans to fit neatly into.
That said, the game takes place in 16th century Europe. The story is set in a predominantly white town where people mostly pursue heterosexual lives according to Christian values. religion and there is a clear division of labor and life between men and women. But it has both a direct and indirect perception of the wider world and a broader reality of human diversity in appearance and behavior, especially under systems of strict delineation. about power and control. And that has the effect of making these characters feel real—not just predictions about the writer’s idea of some kind of ideal.
Since you spend a lot of time in the game reading, it helps to keep the article short and descriptive. The characters say memorable lines that you’ll often find yourself quoting or stopping to think. On more than one occasion, I stopped for a long time at a number of different statements, dialogues, and exchanges. Some lines are worth sitting around for a while, be it because it relates to the plot in an interesting way, or because a character says something that I relate to in my personal life.
However, perhaps my only real criticism has to do with the style of the dialogs themselves. While I appreciate that Obsidian took the time to add animating details to the dialogue text and ink fill, even at the fastest setting I found it to be a bit slow for speed. reading and starting to get tired of the “scribble” handwriting. sound” that accompanies it. Accessibility settings give you flexibility and comfort, including voice assistance to read any word on the screen, including dialogue, menus, and action prompts (characters without actors) voiceover). The only setting I want is to be able to disable the writing sound. That is: The only criticism I have about this game.
Choose your dialogue in penitent allows quite a bit of freedom when it comes to filling out Andreas’ plot. Who Andreas is, what peasant class he lives with, and his area of expertise are all up to you. You have the choice of how to deal with delicate situations, who you want to fast and dine with, and (when it comes to murder mysteries that you must unravel), you will pursue any investigation.
Pentiment is played with simple action and direction commands. On mouse and keyboard, it’s like a point-and-click game—and you can play it with just a mouse, just a keyboard, or a gamepad. While the majority of my playback takes place on the desktop, penance ceremony works great in portable format. I can’t speak to its verified status on the Steam Deck at the moment, but the review copy provided by Microsoft worked on my Deck without issue. I also enjoy playing it on a reversible tablet-style laptop (I had to go back to the keyboard to get rid of a particular menu instance once, so it’s not completely tablet safe ). Given the art style, if you can hold this game in your hand and off a fixed screen, I highly recommend it.
And the art style is no gimmick. All game menu elements are like a genuine manuscript; the pages flip as you enter a new area, you can swing back to the margins to recall a quick historical fact underlined in the dialogue, and there’s a beautiful balance between animation and stillness. revitalize environments and characters without ever feeling exaggerated or out of place. In particular, the characters convey a great sense of personality through elegant, simple animations and excellent dialogue.
I advise you should penitent Not only for history buffs but also for anyone who enjoys medieval fantasy or other works that aim to capture the spirit of medieval times. It’s impressive that a game is set in a time and place that many other works claim to be inspired by the lack of a lot of things. strange, stubborn commitments to drawing inaccurate depictions of people that other works try to be repetitive while claiming to be based on history or fact. penitent in a way, setting a record of the time and place that many pieces of the media claim to have achieved, but clearly fail to achieve.
If you’re looking for a clever murder mystery with interactive narrative decisions, beautiful 2D art, and a great treatment of historical fiction, then you should check it out for yourself. penitent.
