Game Review: IMMORTALITY (2022)
(This review contains a clear spoiler wall.)
From the first moments, IMMORTALITY feels like something that will linger with the player long after the credits roll. The vibrant red of Marissa Marcel’s hair, the hammy quips of the late night host, the smoke-stained swagger of the actors and production crew: we’re picking up pieces of a story with intricate, delicate layers, many of which will crumble before our eyes along the way.
Soon, players will have a half-finished sketch of a story, and those initial realizations and inklings that burn into existence from the early clips will reverberate through the whole of the project, giving a sense of the size and scope of what is to come.
Her Story Come True
IMMORTALITY puts the player in the role of a nameless viewer scrolling through an archive of video clips from three unreleased films, all starring the fictional Hollywood starlet, Marissa Marcel (Manon Gage), who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1999.
It’s important to describe the fictional films here, as players will become deeply familiar with each; the first is Ambrosio (1968), an adaptation of the 1796 gothic novel, The Monk, by Matthew Gregory Lewis which details the corruption and fall of a famed monk; Minsky (1970), a sexually-charged murder mystery in which a detective falls for the killer of a famed artist; and Two of Everything (1999), in which the body double of a pop star seeks to avenge the murder of her employer. All three films bear the cinematic hallmarks of their eras, and at times they feel very much like real productions. It is an unprecedented undertaking in gaming, as Sam Barlow and his team have effectively made three very complete short films to support the game’s plot. It’s a moonshot effort unlike anything I’ve seen in gaming, and I personally lament the film enthusiasts in my life who will never experience it because they have no interest in video games.
Putting the Past Together
The gameplay of IMMORTALITY consists of watching clips and clicking objects or people in them to reveal further pieces of film which contain the same object. Selecting a wine glass in Ambrosio may lead to another instance of a glass that appeared in Two of Everything and so on. Players can also fast-forward and rewind at incremental speeds, and the game provides a fair number of filters with which to organize your discovered segments. The gameplay may not sound exceptionally exciting in summary, but if you allow yourself to take interest in the narrative and invest your curiosity, the game becomes infinitely and intensely engaging as you follow people and things through the intertwined narrative. Much like a jigsaw puzzle whose final image isn’t known, you piece together the story of Marissa Marcel in sections, and these slowly bleed together until a more-or-less complete picture emerges.
Half Mermaid
Sam Barlow, IMMORTALITY’s creator, has been working on this narrative style for quite some time. His debut, Her Story, used the same principle with words, where the player viewed a number of police interrogations and searched words in the database to uncover new clips. I won’t make any forced declarations on whether or not this was ultimately better, but I will say the image-based exploration of IMMORTALITY is decidedly more accessible, as you can always watch an old clip and hope to see something new.
Life Imitates Art
I really sunk into the primary narrative of both Marissa Marcel’s story and the individual films. After a few hours of play, I had a notebook beside my desk and was actively scrawling out theories about how the plots of the individual movies potentially gave hints as to what ultimately happened to the actress. There is strong thematic similarity between the emerging frame story and the events of the three films, and attentive players will find plenty to grasp onto.
I also found myself invested in the secondary narratives, watching as Marissa’s relationship with her co-workers blossomed and wilted across the span of a particular film. In many ways, the stories before and after the clapper are more essential than what occurs when the camera is rolling.
There are also exemplary behind-the-scenes footage shot with handycams, and these tell of the personal relationships that developed (and devolved) between the actors. All of these things come together to make this feel very real, and Sam Barlow and his crew have created an insanely ambitious project that comes together masterfully.
There’s a distinct–and perhaps overwhelming–burden that the player’s access to the story is driven entirely by their own curiosity. You can uncover large parts of the mystery, formulate an almost-story, be wise enough to mock-up an outline of what happened to Marissa Marcel and those who knew her, but to really get the gory, glistening details you have to be long on motivation. I personally kept digging long after I had experienced the game’s ‘ending,’ which makes sense in the context of the story and yet seems almost arbitrary in that it can occur with key pieces of the narrative yet unfound.
I think you’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect now, so I’d encourage you to step away and play through it’s 5-15 hour length now and return to this review later. Here there be spoilers, and they are glorious.
IMMORTALITY could stop there and be a fine game. The story of Marissa Marcel and the three films she made, as well as the relationships she built and things she experienced is a worthwhile tale told with skill and craft, but the brilliance of the game is that her story is only a frame. Lest we forget, this is a dark mystery, and the player is supposed to find out what happened to the missing actress.
As you get deeper into Marissa Marcel’s story, you’ll start to notice anomalies in the film clips. Audio distortions, usually low ominous notes that play over particular segments will draw your attention, and should you rewind during these moments, you will catch glimpses of other stories, other characters. If you play with the rewind and fast-forward buttons in these moments, the hidden clips will lock into place and play at normal speed in place of the original footage.
These segments are why IMMORTALITY is, in fact, a horror game.
Half Mermaid
The first of these I came across displaced the characters of the movie Minsky, and a striking middle-aged woman with short, slicked-back hair looked directly at the camera as she drew on a cigarette. She smiles, tilts her head, and says something along the lines of ‘you managed to make pleasure from fire,’ referring to the cigarette.
As someone who had been doggedly chasing a mystery, watching film clips and making notes only moments before, I was floored. Who was this mysterious woman and why was she addressing me, the player, directly? What connection does she have to the film productions or Marissa Marcel? In this moment, I knew IMMORTALITY was something special, and what made it so went beyond the monumental efforts of its creation.
I watched the clip a few times and carried on exploring the films, quickly learning that both the blonde woman and another character–a sinewy, wild-eyed man with the same pale hair–were interspersed through dozens of other clips from all three story films. The unearthly couple began to comment on Marissa and the other characters, revealing history which would otherwise remain hidden. Sometimes their interludes were light, other times they were threatening or discomforting, but all were impactful.
In one instance where Marissa’s character is fighting off an attacker in Two of Everything, activating the secret clip replaces Marissa with the blonde-haired woman, who abruptly bludgeons the would-be rapist to death in violent fashion. Moments like this make you cheer, and showcase IMMORTALITY’s wondrous layers.
Half Mermaid
IMMORTALITY is among the finest examples the video game as an artform, though I don’t know if most gamers will have the elasticity of mind to appreciate it; there is something here that enraptures, that provokes, that reminds us why we love an empowered creator with a vision, and why we applaud that which is forever apart from us who lack their specific talents.
If you’re not patient or interested in the films, IMMORTALITY may grind a bit, or may not be for you. But if you are…
Verdict: 10/10
(this is the first perfect score I’ve ever given out.)
Strengths
Rich layers, many of which are wholly optional
Top-tier acting and writing
Twin Peaks vibes
Exceptional depictions of historical topics
Doesn’t shy away from darker elements
Weaknesses
A game built around browsing film clips may not be for everyone
Squeezing out every last detail can be challenging
Non-linear nature may leave some players missing crucial details well into the game
You may also like: Twin Peaks, Her Story, Telling Lies
IMMORTALITY is available on Steam, GOG, Xbox, Google Play, and the App Store.
