Pentiment is a 2022 adventure role-playing game created by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. Players are asked to investigate the murders of important people, as other townspeople have been accused for different reasons. The game was released for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on November 15, 2022. Versions for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 were released on February 22, 2024. Critics gave the game positive reviews, and it won a Peabody Award in 2023.
Gameplay
Pentiment is a story-based adventure game where players take on roles in a 2D setting. The player controls Andreas Maler, a traveling painter apprentice from Nuremberg who becomes involved in a series of murder cases in Upper Bavaria. The story takes place in the fictional Alpine town of Tassing and the nearby Benedictine Kiersau Abbey during the 16th century, spanning 25 years.
Players investigate the murders of important people, with other townspeople accused for different reasons. After gathering physical evidence and talking to townspeople, the player must accuse someone based on who they believe committed the crime or who they think should be punished. At the same time, the game also shows other crimes, secrets, and details about the area's history. Throughout the game, players can explore Andreas's personal background through choices in conversations, including his past travels, language skills, and education, which can influence how the mysteries are solved.
Plot
In 1518, Andreas Maler is learning to become an artist who paints manuscripts at Kiersau Abbey near Tassing. Baron Lorenz Rothvogel, a friend of the Prince-Bishop of Freising and a long-time supporter of Kiersau, visits the abbey to check on a manuscript he had ordered. Dissatisfied with the work of the older artist, Brother Piero, the baron demands that Andreas finish the remaining illustrations. The next day, the baron is found with a stab wound. Worried that the murder might harm Kiersau’s reputation and cause the abbey to close, Abbot Gernot accuses Brother Piero of the crime and keeps him in custody until an official investigation can be held. Andreas believes Brother Piero is not guilty and starts his own search for the truth. He finds that several townspeople had reasons to kill the baron, and each received strange notes that tried to trick them into attacking him. Andreas shares his findings with the archdeacon, and one of the suspects is punished for the crime.
In 1525, Andreas returns to Tassing to find the town close to rebellion against the abbot’s high taxes, inspired by the Twelve Articles. The leader of the rebellion, Otto, is discovered dead, and the townspeople blame the abbot for the murder, threatening to attack the abbey. Andreas investigates again and finds that some townspeople received the same mysterious notes he had seen seven years earlier, all trying to trick them into killing Otto. He accuses one of the suspects, who runs to a mill and is killed when the townspeople set it on fire. The townspeople then burn down the abbey and its library. Andreas enters the flames to save the books and is thought to have died. Soldiers from the Duke of Bavaria arrive to stop the chaos, killing many townspeople in the process.
In 1543, the player controls Magdalene, a young printer and artist. The town council hires her father, Claus, to paint a mural showing Tassing’s history, but Claus is hurt by an unknown attacker and becomes unable to walk. Magdalene takes over his work and begins learning about the town’s difficult past. She also finds out that Andreas survived the fire and lived alone in the ruins of the abbey for twenty years. Together, they discover a Roman temple beneath the town’s church and learn that the town’s priest, Thomas, planned all the events. Thomas wanted to keep secret that the town’s patron saints were actually based on Mars and Diana, so he caused the murders and attacked Claus. He collapses the temple to hide it and dies in the process. Andreas and Magdalene escape, and Magdalene decides to finish the mural. Claus eventually dies from his injury, and Magdalene chooses to leave Tassing for Prague, while Andreas stays in the town to begin a new life.
Development and release
Game developer Josh Sawyer has a degree in history from Lawrence University. He studied the Holy Roman Empire and wanted to create a historical game for many years. In the 1990s, he suggested the idea for Pentiment to Feargus Urquhart while both worked at Black Isle Studios. He was inspired by the historical fiction of Darklands, a 1992 role-playing video game by MicroProse that combined the Middle Ages with supernatural themes. Urquhart thought the game would only appeal to people who love history, and the project did not happen. Years later, when Sawyer and Urquhart worked together again at Obsidian Entertainment, Sawyer revived the idea after the 2018 release of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. He changed the game’s focus to a narrative adventure with mystery elements and gameplay similar to Night in the Woods, Mutazione, and Oxenfree. Urquhart agreed to the idea, and a small team was formed because the game would attract a limited audience. Sawyer and art director Hannah Kennedy were the first two members of the team; later, the team grew to 13 people.
Sawyer chose to set the game in the 16th century, a time of major changes that included the start of the Reformation, the German Peasants' War, and the rise of Copernican heliocentrism. He used The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco as inspiration for the game’s physical setting, which is also based in a monastery. The character Andreas Maler was partly inspired by Albrecht Dürer, who was from Nuremberg. According to Kennedy, Dürer’s role in popularizing self-portraits connected to the game’s main theme of an artist’s self-discovery.
The game’s art style mixes late medieval manuscripts, early printed materials, and woodcuts from the transition between late medieval and early modern art. Sawyer said Kennedy’s artistic style and interest in the project were important for gaining early support. The team studied the Nuremberg Chronicle and illuminated medieval manuscripts at the Getty Museum and Huntington Library for ideas. Manuscript expert Christopher de Hamel, Lawrence University professor Edmund Kern, and Winston E. Black of St. Francis Xavier University served as historical advisors for the game.
The music for the game was composed and performed by Alkemie Early Music Ensemble. Game director Josh Sawyer said, "[Alkemie is] a music group that composes and records together. The music they created for the game is either strictly historical or inspired by history." Kristin Hayter (as Lingua Ignota) also wrote the song "Ein Traum" for the game.
Microsoft’s purchase of Obsidian in 2018 helped the game reach more players and added features like easier-to-read text, text-to-speech tools, and translations for non-English speakers in a game with a lot of text.
Obsidian Entertainment officially announced Pentiment in June 2022 at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase. The game was released for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on November 15, 2022. Versions for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 were released on February 22, 2024.
In 2025, Pentiment was affected by a security problem in the Unity engine. The game was removed from online stores from October 3 to October 7, 2025, to fix the issue.
Reception
Pentiment received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic.
IGN praised the time limits in the game, saying they made the experience more intense and encouraged players to replay the game: "you're never given enough time to pursue them all [leads]. This added some welcome tension and forced me to make a lot of interesting decisions." Destructoid highlighted that there was no single "best path" through the game, with each decision having both advantages and disadvantages. GamesRadar+ appreciated the setting, noting that it reflected the uncertainty of the time period: "the beginning of a new era is clear, and the challenges of adapting to it are evident, whether through monks carefully copying books or young people who read and question authority." While criticizing the confusing way choices were presented, PC Gamer enjoyed the town's characters and their roles in the story: "over 25 years of conversations, shared meals… That makes it harder when you must judge a family man for a crime he may not have committed."
The Guardian praised the game's writing, saying that "the dialogue includes interesting details about history, supported by a detailed list of terms." PCGamesN disliked the slow pacing, saying the story moved "as slowly as walking or the movement of large rocks." Polygon praised the art style, noting that the drawings "add a clear sense of style to what could otherwise be a dry historical story."