This one I’m actually pretty close to the curve on! It only came out in December of last year, and while it’s sort of already run its course, I’m sure there’s still plenty of people working their with through it. I’ll talk about what I like so far — I just finished the first chapter — without mentioning specific scenes. Spoilers, though (hehehe…).
- Pentiment is, to quote Justin McElroy, “books-level boring.” For whatever reason though, in the last couple of years I’ve stopped enjoying games that try to be everything, and started enjoying them much more when they try to be one thing. If a game has an expansive open world, Gordian skill tree, hours of recorded dialogue, minigames (I’m looking at you, Gwent) — then uh-uh. I just don’t have the time to lose myself in a game world. I struggle enough to lose myself in this one. On the other hand, if a game leans into some really tight mechanics, that’s perfect. If a game has hardly any mechanics and lots of top-notch writing, I can get into that as well. Pentiment is in the latter camp.
- Another thing I’m glad we’ve sort of moved past in games: the idea that players need a strawman to paint their own identity onto. Andreas Maler, the main character in Pentiment, but also Aloy and Kratos and Isaac Clarke (old game but still). Games are just so much more enjoyable when I can center my experience around an actual character. I mean, where did the strawman thing even come from? I’ve only read one book in the second person (If on a winter’s night a traveler), and it was more interesting than good.
- Its art style is gorgeous. I’m not an illuminator, but it feels very well-researched, too.
- I played Citizen Sleeper last year because I had heard it was kind. Lots of games — lots of fiction — delight in making you suffer. That’s because good art is supposed to make you feel something, and the easiest thing to make a person feel is suffering. Much harder to let someone face suffering but choose hope. (Remember my Anna Laura Art print?) In a video game, where a sheet of glass literally separates you from the experience of the secondary world, writers have their work cut out for them. Pentiment is another one where, though it’s much tougher than Citizen Sleeper, I’ve never felt that anything in the game was meant to punish me for playing it. Mistakes are framed as moments, which ultimately get lost in bigger and bigger pictures.
- The babies of Pentiment are the cutest ever writ upon the page.
I’m having an extremely good time, but I also realized it might take a while to finish. I’ll try and update when I’m done, but I wanted to share my early thoughts!