$19.99Pentiment Murder in the margins
A hand-drawn murder mystery in 16th century Bavaria. Play Andreas Maler, an illustrator pulled into murders, scandal and conspiracy in a small town and its abbey, and make choices that shape lives across twenty five years.
Is Pentiment worth it?
Pentiment is worth it if…
- you love well-written stories and would happily trade action for dialogue
- you like mysteries where the answer is never handed to you
- you enjoy history and games set in a thoroughly researched past
- you want a slow, thoughtful game to unwind with, at your own pace
- you care about how a game looks as much as how it plays
Screenshots
A world drawn like an illuminated manuscript
Tassing and Kiersau Abbey look like the master artists of the era saw their own world: the art takes its cues from illuminated manuscripts and the earliest printed books, and it moves. Characters are sketched in ink and colour, backgrounds shift like pages in a storybook, and even the lettering on screen changes with who is speaking. The sound stays just as careful: quills scratching on paper, footsteps, rain. It is a quiet, crafted look that no other game quite has, and it turns a small Bavarian town into a place worth lingering in.
Choices that outlive the act
The story runs across twenty five years, in three acts separated by gaps of years. People age. Toddlers grow into adults. Your choices decide who will speak to you, who will help you, and how lives turn out in later acts. Before you start, you pick Andreas's academic and social background, which shapes how he talks and what people expect of him. With multiple endings, a second run plays out differently from the first.
Detective work with the clock against you
When a murder happens, it falls to you to investigate: walk the town, question suspects, follow leads and decide who to accuse. The catch is time. You cannot question everyone or chase every clue before the days run out, so you name a culprit on imperfect information, and the evidence rarely points cleanly at one person. That is the point: your accusation comes down to judgement as much as deduction, and living with it is part of the story. If you want every point of view, a second playthrough fills in the clues you missed.
What should you know before playing?
Is it slow to get into?
Yes, at first. The opening hour takes its time introducing the town, the abbey and their people before the story finds its rhythm, and it keeps getting better from there. If you settle into the pace, the payoff is worth it. If you want something fast right away, this is not that game.
Do you actually solve the murders?
You investigate them and name a culprit, but the game never hands you one tidy answer. Evidence can point several ways, and you may never be certain you accused the right person. If you need a clean solution, that can frustrate; if you like mysteries that feel like real, messy history, it is a strength.
Can you play it more than once?
Yes, and it is built for it. Because time runs out on each investigation, one playthrough cannot cover every clue or suspect, and different backgrounds and choices change how people treat Andreas. A second run shows you sides of the story, and of the town, that the first one kept hidden.
Does it work as a relaxing game?
Largely, yes. There are no timers ticking on screen or punishing failure states, and the sound of quills, rain and footsteps makes wandering Tassing genuinely soothing. The story itself turns dark and heavy in places, so it is calm to play rather than light-hearted throughout.
