While 2021 was a year of uncontrolled chaos in game releases, 2022 continued the trend with a more refined brand of irreverence for schedules, featuring a slew of top contenders for Game of the Year. In a year that saw itself bookended by Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok, there was no shortage of quality releases to debate the merits of among invested parties. In spite of these major launches, however, Screen Rant's 2022 Game of the Year is a much smaller title that resulted in a bigger surprise - Pentiment, the art history RPG from Obsidian Entertainment.
Pentiment is a game that operates mostly like a point-and-click adventure, following the exploits of protagonist Andreas Maler as he navigates the conspiracy-filled village of Tassing in Bavaria. Pentiment begins with great aspirations in its hero that gradually become tempered by the reality of his surroundings, culminating in a smaller project's attempted completion that reflects the grand dreams of youth and the more specific concerns that age inevitably brings with it.
Pentiment Is A New High For Narrative Games
Pentiment's strongest selling point is its narrative, which is laden with seemingly minor choices that have long-lasting consequences for Andreas and Tassing. Scattered throughout these options are innocuous ones that end up just that - utterly irrelevant - that nevertheless feel just as important in the moment because of how free-flowing Andreas' journey is. Every character feels like they could be the missing piece of a particular puzzle, and it's up to the player to determine whether or not they actually fit into their ever-changing perception of the village.
Of course, Pentiment is also a triumph because of its art, which reflects the time period its set in and creates layers of beauty within its gameplay. Andreas' own journey is illustrated in the style of 16th century European texts, complete with changing fonts based on his understanding of a given character and picturesque backgrounds. Frequent historical references are highlighted and can be pursued, zooming out of Andreas' adventure to reveal the player is reading a text that Andreas himself might have illustrated, replete with definitions of the relevant story beat and gorgeous pictures taking up the spaces in the book.
Screen Rant's 2022 Game of the Year isn't just because of the impact of its launch. Pentiment has also laid the foundation for future video game innovations that are, simply put, deliriously exciting to consider. The success of this incredibly niche passion project is a proof of concept for the merit in isolating something - whether it be a time period, art style, or even font - and drilling down into it to see just how far a video game's interactive medium can take it. The door has been opened for an endless parade of creative projects set in increasingly obscure settings or attempting to refine the most minute element of the user experience, and Pentiment exists as a starting point that invites these ideas to be chased.
That said, there were other extremely prominent choices for Screen Rant's Game of the Year 2022, ones that editors debated for hours and deserve some mention here. Elden Ring was revolutionary in open world game design, crafting a world teeming with both possibility and death in as compelling a manner as is possible. God of War Ragnarok was an incredible story made all the more intriguing by a blend of current-gen visual dazzle and a refined combat system that finally lived up to Kratos' billing as a deity of battle.
Over twelve months dominated by quality releases, it's especially relevant that a game like Pentiment is Screen Rant's Game of the Year 2022. Above all else, it's a beautiful piece of art, something that deserves to be experienced by everyone to see if it's a work that inspires them. 2022 is a year where developers like Obsidian dared to dream bigger, and it's a year where the lesson should be that we should all do the same.
Pentiment is available now on Xbox Game Pass.
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Pentiment
- Platform:
- Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
- Released:
- 2022-11-15
- Developer:
- Obsidian Entertainment
- Publisher:
- Xbox Game Studios
- Genre:
- Adventure, RPG
- ESRB:
- M
- How Long To Beat:
- 14hours
