Board 8 > Immortality Review Zone (91 OC / 90 MC)

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/HalfMermaid/status/1564571786779541504

From the team behind Her Story and Telling Lies comes a new interactive FMV game. This is currently averaging 91 on Opencritic and 90 on Metacritic, higher than I expect games of this genre to reach. It's on Xbox, PC and Mobile (and Game Pass). I'm pretty hyped for this!

https://opencritic.com/game/13590/immortality

Windows Central - 5/5
Immortality is unlike any other game. It's wildly ambitious, gorgeously shot, well acted, and incredibly unique. You might think you understand the straightforward gameplay, which requires you to match clips together to uncover the story of actress Marissa Marcel, but you have no idea what you're getting into and what you'll be at the end.

Press Start - 10/10
Immortality ambitiously succeeds at evolving the formats introduced in Her Story and Telling Lies to offer some of Sam Barlow's best work yet and one of gaming's most well-justified open-world experiences. Bolstered by some fantastic performances and a compelling mystery to uncover, it's engrossing and engaging from beginning to end. While it might assume some prior knowledge in telling it's underlying story, Immortality is an experience that's not to be missed and one that I'll never stop thinking about. It is truly fantastic and well worth your time.

PC Gamer - 95/100
Immortality may draw comparisons to films by Alfred Hitchcock or David Lynch, or even past Barlow-penned titles like Telling Lies and Her Story. That is maybe unavoidable. But as a game, it goes much further beyond anything it might be compared to. Immortality is Sam Barlows best, most thought-provoking game so far, and a barnstorming debut for Half Mermaid.

COGconnected - 94/100
I think its no exaggeration to say that Immortality is often brilliant. The acting, writing, editing and videography are meticulously intentional and if the path through the woods isnt always clear, the trees are unfailingly interesting to study. While it isnt perfect, Im glad that games like Immortality exist. There are so many games that are sequels, copycats, reboots, remakes and retreads that you forget what originality actually looks like. All of Barlows games have been excellent but Immortality is probably the richest and most thought-provoking of the three.

Gamesradar+ - 4.5/5
Sam Barlow has somehow done it again, raising the bar for the FMV / interactive movie genre once more. Immortality is yet another masterpiece of storytelling.

Destructoid - 9/10
Immortality is another great entry to the collection of FMV puzzle-boxes that Barlow and co. have been producing for years now. I dont quite know that Ive played anything like it. From big revelations to little moments that just build on the life and times of Marissa Marcel, these scenes are going to stick with me for a while, living on. Immortalized.

IGN - 8/10
Despite some shallow search tools, Immortality is a thoroughly mesmerizing mystery and one of the most surprising video game stories of 2022.

Gamespot - 8/10
The latest game from Sam Barlow and Half Mermaid builds on what you've come to expect while also subverting its own genre in clever ways.

Eurogamer - Recommended
Sam Barlow's epic mystery of self-reference and cinema is an elaborate, ingenious enigma - one that would be even better if it didn't want to be solved.

Polygon - Unscored
In exploiting this fan-like thirst for knowledge as authority and authenticity even if it occasionally undercuts the storytelling the game also creates an easy choice for the curious outsider: Either play, or dont. Immortality embodies the most enticing hallmarks of the if you know, you know meme theres no quick recap for a politely interested stranger that can adequately sum up the question What happened to Marissa Marcel? The only way to fully appreciate the scope of this project, flaws and all, is to throw all expectations of story and structure out the window, and realize that the simplistic divide between film and games is holding us back from doing so much more with either medium.

Kotaku - Unscored
I want art to be a place where I can find love, beauty, or truth. Without these things, Marissa Marcel was better off lost.

how long is this game

Love to see it, been hyped since its announcement.

Chaeix posted...

how long is this game

I've heard 8 to 15 hours.

I've been playing it about an hour. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing exactly but it's pretty interesting.

Im intrigued by this

Anyone else playing it? Curious what people think.

I won't be getting around to it for a bit, but feel free to use this as a discussion topic (just mark spoilers!).

It's up to 92 now on OC, the second highest rated game of the year!

I may have to dust off my old PC for this. No Xbox and the mobile version isnt out yet so no other way!

It's really like nothing else I've experienced. I had difficulty putting it down last night.

Kinda regret playing this so quickly because I really want to know what people think about...everything

I also finished it. Very interesting experience, though I didn't really understand a bunch of things until I read a plot analysis. Extremely unique game, much better than Her Story IMO, and quite good.

It says 'Interactive Movie Trilogy' so are these games related to each other? I've only finished Her Story but haven't played Telling Lies yet.

The game features three fictional movies starring the same fictional actress that you go through.

Ah ok.

The overall vibe I get from it, now that I have had time to think, is...

(I'm not sure I need to spoiler tag this first section since it's more about the overall experience than any specific plot points but I'd rather be safe)

The closest comparison I can think of is Ringu/The Ring. It captures this sense of searching through disorganized, potentially cursed media for a semblance of meaning.

And now an actual narrative spoiler:
Which is why I think the 'ending' works no matter when you arrive there, as it's less a reward for 'solving the mystery' as it is a horrific reveal - simply by consuming this story, you have given her power

Sadly, my game crashed (blue screened my computer) when I got the ending, though that bug's apparently been crashed now, and I didn't get the impact. But yes, it's very cool.

I'm not sure I agree with your comparison to The Ring, though it makes sense, but I can definitely see that. There's another few games I would compare it to instead, though it's a spoiler for those games too, haha.

Major spoilers:
I totally did not realize how to get the monologues to work until I was reading about it today. I found the scenes that are total replacements, but I didn't realize the occasional weird overlays could be accessed by going frame by frame instead of normal rewinding. So, now I need to go through practically every scene again...

Oh, oof. I got almost all of those, though I missed a couple.

Keep in mind that some of them are hidden within others, so you need to pay attention when going through the surreal world too. Playing with a controller also helps, since it rumbles when you can go there.