Pentiment
Currently in development at Obsidian Entertainment, and due for release in Nov. 2022, Pentiment is being pitched as a narrative adventure game set in 16th century Bavaria. In the pitch and in the trailer, I saw no mention of the terms cRPG, "stats" or "tactical combat", but it seems that exploration, problem-solving and choice-based reactivity will feature prominently.
In Pentiment, the player assumes the role of artist, Andreas Maler, who somehow ends up investigating a series of crimes and intrigues over a period of a quarter century. Thus, Pentiment sets itself up as a detective story or murder mystery; a marathon-length whodunnit.
While the protagonist posseses predefined properties, it seems that we can shape his background through dialogue selections -- and perhaps aspects of his mental and physical abilities -- to an extent as well.
Hopefully, Pentiment will not rely on cutscenes to drive its narrative but instead allow the player to explore non-linearly and freely engage its content primarily by means of game mechanics, such as through point-and-click interaction and choice-based reactivity.
Pentiment employs a familiar medieval art style for its in-game visuals, but its smooth, stylized smartphone aesthetic clashed with my expectations. In my view, the aesthetics do not come across as authentic to the period as they perhaps could have.
Indeed, Pentiment's presentation is that of the typical indie game, but to be fair, that is in keeping with its categorization on Steam, upon which platform Pentiment is literally labelled as a casual game.
I didn't know casual game was a category or genre that gamers actively sought out for consumption. For the past 20 years, the term has commonly held negative connotations across genre.
For those who don't know, Obsidian developed cRPGs such as:
And some of their designers were of Black Isle vintage, which studio developed several of the greatest games in cRPG History; namely:
I used to play adventure games a lot. From the Secret of Monkey Island to Beneath a Steel Sky; they were quite enjoyable back in the late 80s and early 90s. But with the advent of Interplay's Fallout 1 (1997) and the line-up that followed its lead, I thought cRPGs had eclipsed adventure games since Fallout, Arcanum and Planescape: Torment were 100x more sophisticated by virtue of their stats, character building and reactivity, yet still maintained point-and-click mechanics, puzzles and problem-solving.
From Best cRPGs:
Do you know what else Fallout did? It rendered an entire classic genre redundant: the point-and-click adventure game. I used to play adventure games all the time: Secret of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky -- you name it, big fan. And those games have a special place in my heart. But after Fallout I never played an adventure game ever again, only cRPGs like Fallout.
Fallout was like the best adventure game you had played, multiplied by 100.
It makes me wonder how much "classic cRPG" is going to be in Pentiment, if cRPG connoisseurs are not its target demographic.
Is Pentiment a stepping stone for something more ambitious that Obsidian has in the pipeline, such as a spiritual successor to MicroProse's Darklands of 1992? If that is the case, and Pentiment is indeed a launchpad to securing future development of a genuine historical cRPG, then I wish Obsidian all the best.
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