Obsidian’s medieval mystery is a trove of novel influences

Developer Obsidian Entertainment

Publisher Microsoft Game Studios

Format PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series

Origin US

Release November

Pentiment’s painted landscapes and scribed dialogue evoke medieval tomes blessed by fine calligraphy and marginalia. Its premise, however, brings to mind a book from more recent history. Guiding journeyman artist Andreas Maler to investigate the murder of a nobleman in his local abbey, we feel like we’ve stepped into the sandals of William Of Baskerville in The Name Of The Rose. And sure enough, Pentiment’s director Josh Sawyer later confirms, that’s very much by intent. “My initial pitch of this was ‘Night In The Woods meets The Name Of The Rose’,” he tells us. “I have two tattoos from there. It’s my favourite novel and I love Umberto Eco.”

For Obsidian, a studio better known for creating world-spanning RPGs, a detective game inspired by a literary novel feels uncharacteristic. Yet it was thanks to the growing scope of the studio under Microsoft that Sawyer felt able to dabble in more niche ideas. The director of Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars Of Eternity had always assumed he’d make a full-size historical RPG someday, but saw an alternative path open up thanks to Microsoft’s commitment to Game Pass. “I thought making a game like this focusing on Game Pass would be a really good experiment,” he says, “to see whether working with a small team in a big company for a huge publisher is viable. And it seems like it is.”