04 January, 2023 City Opinion
In the heading "Direct text" The authors express exclusively their own opinion, which may not coincide with the opinion of the editorial office (or may coincide). They are free to do it as they like and in any format convenient for themselves. Everything is possible here.
After reading the laudatory reviews Pentiment , which received a lot of “nine” and “dozen”, I overcame skepticism and decided to find out how the role detective was so impressed by critics and ordinary players. After all, the game now has more than 95% of positive reviews in Steam!
The main obstacle to the Russian -language audience Pentiment will be the lack of localization: alas, game Obsidian Available mainly in Western and Central European languages, as well as in Polish. But, armed with English and just in case, opening an online translator, you start the game … you are surprised … you are immersed with your head … And you cannot tear yourself away from it for 20 hours.
Welcome to Bavaria!
Imagine that you are waiting for a trip to a place impregnated with a centuries -old history. A journey that also promises benefit and promising acquaintance with a variety of people. Who may not speak a language you know, but almost always ready to tell you about yourself, sharing your thoughts about that about that, and make your life a little more interesting.
Around this position, a stranger in the small Bavarian town of Tassing, we find the protagonist Pentiment. The artist Andreas Mahler fulfills the order for the abbey nearby, understanding himself and meeting new people. The simplest and have far from obvious goals. Time goes on, work is arguing, and in general in a town, not devoid of internal conflicts, they are very friendly to Andreas. Suddenly, one day, Tassing’s peace violates an unexpected important guest that instantly attracts general attention.
It seems, wherever he goes, everywhere there is one or the one, whoever looks at him with a menacing look, or scolds, or even gets involved in a direct conflict. And in any case, the idea of something is unkind. Is it surprised that with such a negatively prominent person, something extremely bad will soon happen to a negative sense? It is from this most bad, mysterious murder with several suspects that the game will begin.
“To answer me?.."
Sherlock is involuntarily
The main character, wanting to save a friend, is drawn into an investigation, trying to establish who and why could kill the victim. And then prove the guilt of the suspect … and live with the consequences of their decisions.
Fortunately, we are not playing for a boob, unable to look around and notice the details. Andreas Mahler traveled around Europe, being a workaholic, a lover of books, a business expert, or just a connoisseur of good entertainment. Of course, not all at once: at the very beginning of Pentiment, we choose both the linguistic skills of the hero and the features of his character, revealing certain opportunities inaccessible to another passage.
We also determine what Maler has been trained, be it, for example, logic or rhetoric, the laws of the Holy Roman Empire, medicine or theology. All these skills will help us get to the bottom of the truth and find out what happened in Tassing actually.
At the very beginning of the game, we have to choose the past of our hero.
Our investigation will take place in the most traditional way: we wander around a relatively small world (town, mill on a hill, forest with an old Roman mine and abbey), collect evidence and communicate with local residents. Whether they saw something suspicious, whether they heard anything? Or maybe the interlocutor of Malera is the same killer?..
The hero has quite little time, but in fact, if desired, the player will be able to repeatedly slowly examine the town and https://sister-site.org/libra-spins/ surroundings at any time of the day, sometimes going to visit and beging for a meal. Because you never know what this suspicious type or his wife will tell! And in their free time, we can do both the monitoring of the suspects and communicating with witnesses. All this takes time, but it will be enough to decide on the decision, to find the most likely criminal and collect evidence of his guilt.
Simple words, serious consequences
But do not forget that Andreas Mahler is primarily a simple person, albeit smarter than most local residents. And yet he is only happy to get acquainted with the local beauties, discuss rumors, spend time with friends and at least somehow help someone. Unless, of course, the player wants that. Being friendly, you get closer to the characters of Pentiment. And in the course of the game, many of them will become like relatives, and their personal stories will surely make them sympathetic.
Sometimes when communicating, we will choose certain remarks, deciding in which direction the conversation will go. But sometimes our answers will affect the fact that it will be deposited by the interlocutor in memory-something like "he will remember it". It is not always obvious when exactly this happens and when it will come in handy, but sooner or later the character will be able to provide Andreas with a service or answer an interesting question – and if in the past your conversation has developed successfully, the NPC will do what the hero wants. This will happen infrequently, and every time in case of success we feel the joy: “Yes, not in vain, I then said this!.."
However, it would be more correct to note "wrote". Because there is no speech in Pentiment – there is only a text. A sea of text written in one font: the peasants have one, the noble people have another, and the priests have a third … Sometimes, when someone mentions a person or place important to history, we can find out more about it. And some words – those on which the emphasis is on – can be allocated, for example, in blue.
Playing in Pentiment, even without the expected Russian localization of the text, is not so difficult as it might seem to seem originally. Of course, you need to get used to the style (and sometimes madness) of the game – at first it can cause misunderstanding and even rejection. But over time, without even understanding all the nuances, you begin to enjoy and make meaningful decisions that will definitely lead to one or another consequences. Not always predictable, but always clear.
Perhaps winter is the best time of the year to play Pentiment. It seems that right now the best immersion in what is happening is possible. But, once learning the story of Andreas Malera and a small European town near the Abbey in English, I would like to evaluate variability by rechecing Pentiment already in Russian.
What will happen if I blame this, but that? What will happen in the city and abbey? Will I remain a faithful friend who now supported me on my way? And whether the end will be the same touching, in something tragic and definitely inspiring? I hope we will find out soon.
In the meantime, after the first passage of Pentiment, only a quiet delight remains.
- Role game of the year: Expeditions: Rome, Pentiment, Elden Ring
- Cold of the year: A Plague Tale: Requiem, Immortaly, Elden Ring
- The most anticipated games of 2023: Alan Wake 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Atomic Heart, Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy