Pension Review

Obsidian Entertainment has shown that she is a prolific and varied developer. Not only does it bring us games like Fallout: New Vegas or The Outer Worlds, but it knows how to tell stories. It is curious that they bring us to the narrative adventure game penance, one of the few Xbox-branded exclusives coming out this year.

penance It is a game very focused on the story, which is even very reminiscent of Card Shark from Devolver Digital, only there are no card tricks. Rather it is a detective adventure, where the entire narrative of the game is based on our choices. It shows that the creators, with Josh Sawyer at the helm, perfectly understand the Middle Ages.

a troubled time

It is the 16th century, and we embody the character of Andreas Maller, an artist who has been hired by the church to work on a picture book for the monastery in the town of Tassing. Basically, it is located in the time of Martin Luther, where ideas outside of religion begin to create questions from citizens. While the church focuses on squeezing taxes from the common people, it doesn’t realize that a very big conspiracy is looming for such a small town.

penance takes us through a spiral of deaths involving the city’s nobility, which is why Andreas is soon forced to investigate these murders. The title makes an effort to highlight the city of Tassing, the time, its inhabitants, beliefs and art as a form of expression.

Something interesting is that at the beginning of the game, as the story progresses, we will define the origin, knowledge and background of Andreas. This leads to how we can resolve certain situations that arise. For example, knowledge of medicine reveals clues about anatomy, knowledge of Theology opens conversations with religious people, etc.

Knowing how to define Andreas is the key to succeeding in key conversations. In addition, this contributes to replayability, since we can see different points of view of the same situation. But not only that, it also allows if one door closes, another opens in the form of characters who are willing to share what they know, compared to others who are not.

building a character

Once we have defined the personality of Andreas, we must travel throughout the town in search of what to do, carrying out missions for the inhabitants of the town. This allows you to learn more about the city and then gain valuable information to solve the murders. Speaking with the NPCs, you have to know how to choose your responses well, which are determined by a karma system. These can be good, bad and intermediate answers.

Each decision can affect future events, which implies the way in which the inhabitants of Tassing will see us. They can make enemies with us, remember that we helped them, or that we were indifferent and cause deaths. The possibilities are many, and they even change their behavior based on what has happened in the town.

To keep a record of events and information, Andreas has a Glossary in which terms of the time are noted, each character along with their relatives and historical data. This serves to review important data to solve the cases and so that we do not lose the thread among so much information that we receive.

penance It has a time management component very similar to Persona 5. It is that Andreas can only do a few things during a day and you have to decide where to spend your time, since we can’t do everything. When we choose an activity, time advances as does the investigation, while events unfold.

Obsidian in its purest form

The study’s ability to create credible stories and universes is not in doubt in Pentiment. In the same glossary, we will spend a lot of time reviewing facts and interesting information about the game’s lore and the time it takes place. It is a game quite rich in information from the middle ages.

Another super interesting detail is the dialogue system. In addition to being the most important part, since the characters do not have a voice (nor is it necessary), it is the way in which it was carried out. For example, the typography changes depending on the education of the interlocutor, that is, it reflects his inner being.

An ordinary person has a less elaborate font, unlike one who has an important position in the city. A scribe will have a gothic typeface difficult to read at first, while Andreas’ own words will be very clear. We can disable this in the options menu, but doing so will take away some of the immersion of the game.

However, the game is not without its drawbacks. It has a slow start to begin with and is slow to get off the ground. Object usage and puzzle solving isn’t the focus, so we don’t expect complex puzzles to solve. Another point is that although we have collected information, Andreas acts almost on his behalf without us as players getting involved, something that takes weight away from the narrative.

an interactive manuscript

Pentiment reminded me a lot of Card Shark because of its artistic style that takes direct references from The Nuremberg Chronicles. However, he has a very marked particular charm. It looks like a book from the days before the invention of the printing press, which is in its early years in the game. In the dialogues, the texts reflect the mood of the character while writing, it is a very immersive game. However, each section of the city is independent of another, so we will constantly see loading times when going from one to another.

The sound work is outstanding, although there are few musical themes. As I already said, the characters do not have voices, except for the accessibility option to put voices to the texts, but they sound very generic, really.

Verdict

Though penance It is not a game of great proportions, its quality is not without high quality values. His story will take us through a maelstrom of murders through the years, and that means immersing yourself in the plot. Playable, it depends more on the decisions we make than on the interactions with objects and puzzles, but it’s still interesting.

Note: This review was done on the Xbox Series X version.