IMMORTALITY
Marissa Marcel was a film star. She made three movies. But none of the movies were ever released. And Marissa Marcel disappeared. An interactive trilogy from Sam Barlow, creator of Her Story.
IMMORTALITY is a hidden object, choose your own adventure and realistic game
developed by Sam Barlow and Half Mermaid
and published by Half Mermaid.
Released on August 30th 2022 is available on Windows and MacOS
in 15 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Spanish - Latin America, Arabic, Polish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese and Turkish.
It has received 1,553 reviews of which 1,305 were positive and 248 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.0 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 9.75€ on Steam and has a 50% discount.
The Steam community has classified IMMORTALITY into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at IMMORTALITY through various videos and screenshots.
Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Requires a 64-bit processor
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce Nvidia GTX/AMD Radeon series or similar
- Storage: 30 GB available space
- Additional Notes: Headphones and Controller Recommended
MacOS
- OS: macOS Monterey
- Processor: 2 GHz Intel i5 or better
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Discrete GPU
- Storage: 30 GB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
In an era where video games are described as cinematic, or (derogatorily) as "movie games," its rare to find a title that actually explores the connection between cinema and interactive media. IMMORTALITY is fully committed to that exploration in every respect. In brief, the conceit of the game is that you are a film archivist trying to piece together the mystery of a highly talented and charismatic actress (Marissa Marcel) who starred in three obscure and unreleased films (AMBROSIO 1968, MINSKY 1972, and TWO OF EVERYTHING 1999) before vanishing into thin air. The gameplay is extremely simple: it involves you navigating a grid of film scenes, selecting what you want to watch, and viewing the scene. Scene lengths vary from a few seconds to a few minutes. At any point in the scene, you can pause to select characters/actors, objects, or events in the scene. For example, if you select close-up of an actor's eye, you will be taken to another scene (featuring a close up of an actor's eye). The same with candles, wine glasses, flowers, mirrors, and so forth. Besides this symbolic connection, nothing necessarily links the act of scene hoping together (that is, it is semi-randomized what scene you will get next). This means you are always jumping between scenes, outtakes, rehearsals, behind-the-scenes content, etc, between the three films. You have to put together the plot of the three films together through this piecemeal process, while also deducing the broader story of the game and the central mystery around Marissa Marcel. You begin the game with a small number of scenes and gradually fill out the grid. You get certain achievements along the way (clicked on this kind of object 5 times, etc) but otherwise there is really nothing in the game that indicates you are making progress. Gradually, as you play, you will encounter prompts (extra-filmic sound effects and vibration on the controller) that require you to scrub the film backwards and forwards to unlock "hidden scenes" which tie into the central story of the game. By the time I completed the game (about 14 hours) I had unlocked most, but not all, of the scenes. There are still some central elements of the mystery I have not yet seen. In terms of the reality of your role (as archivist/detective), the mechanism for jumping from scene to scene doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense. But as a way of making each person's gameplay experience unique, and of telling each of the three films stories non-linearly, its a fairly elegant solution. You are never quite sure how much agency you have in effecting the gameplay, which may be frustrating to some. One of the things that I liked best about IMMORTALITY is also, depending on your taste and patience, one of its greatest weaknesses: commitment to the art of film-making. AMBROSIO (1968), MINSKY (1972), and TWO OF EVERYTHING (1999) are essentially fully realized and completed films. Each is fully committed to depicting the genre conventions, cinematographic elements, and cultural milieu that it depicts. This sort of meta/recursive element (a film game about the magic of films) might be extremely annoying to people who are not invested in movies as an art form. AMBROSIO is a middlebrow period religious drama/thriller presided over by a lecherous British director who repeatedly guides the film into schlock and sexploitation. MINSKY is grimy 70s New York countercultural neo-noir produced with the help of Warhol. TWO OF EVERYTHING is a meta/postmodern psychological thriller with more than a passing resemblance to EYES WIDE SHUT. Each of the films (and their behind the scenes, rehearsal, and promotional material) capture the film-making styles, technologies, and performance styles of their genres and era magnificently. It is hard to exaggerate what a magnificent accomplishment this is. It makes contemporary Hollywood directors who trade in nostalgia-bait (Ti West) look like a total chumps. If the Oscars were not so hostile to video games as a competitor for entertainment, this game would be lauded as a major breakthrough. Its certainly much smarter and better than other contemporary jerk-off attempts to make "films about film" (The Artist, ARGO, Birdman). There are certain contrivances, to aid the gameplay, that slightly break the immersive sense that you are *really viewing* *real films* from their era. The camera is often stationary longer than would be tolerable for a proper cut. Characters hold objects up to camera to hint that it is intractable. Small things like that. But really, these are minor complaints. I think the game slightly overstays its welcome. Progress is at times frustrating -- to unlock secrets that move the story forward, you have to unlock a certain number of scenes -- which means you are often clicking objects and things quite randomly, and seeing scenes you've seen before again and again, until you make a breakthrough or find a new scene. Again, this comes from the commitment at the heart of the game (and which makes it a genuinely remarkable achievement): they actually filmed three complete films, and they really want you to see how much love and how much work went into it. I can't fault this, others might be eager for the experience to be over long before it actually is. On a final note, the performances are magnificent. The actors, especially Manon Gage (who plays Marissa Marcel) are incredible talents. As people with relatively few credits (per IMDB) it would have been impressive to pull off the performances in one of these films convincingly. Gage and the rest of the cast are able not only to pull off the three films (including the particularities of genre, direction, and performing style relative to their fictional era of production) perfectly, but they bust their chops to portray not only the characters in the films, but their *real* actor counter-personas included in all of the extra-filmic material. IMMORTALITY a genuinely staggering artistic achievement.
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PROS: This game is lovely. A real love letter to cinema, beautiful to watch, and a perfect continuation of Sam Barlow's games. The actors are without exception incredible. They are giving everything here, and clearly having a great time. The amount of care and details in this game is staggering. The point of the game is sometimes the narrative, sometimes the hidden mysteries, and sometimes simply the beauty of a short video. CONS: The gameplay is not very optimized. At the beginning, it is difficult to understand what we are supposed to be doing, and as the game progresses, there is not enough control over what we do to reach the clips we need. Also, there is no stats, or monitoring involved, so we have no idea how many clips there are total, how many are still to be found, etc... Which is basically the goal of the game. Doesn't stop the game from being great, but it is frustrating. WARNING: Nudity, sex and violence
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Sam Barlow does it again. And by that I mean he presents a very unique, memorable experience that has many excellent aspects to it but is frustratingly held back by a few utterly horrible aspects. The cardinal sin of this game is that the gameplay starts and ends with you randomly clicking on items and characters in hopes that you get a new scene, along with scrubbing some clips in reverse, forward, reverse again. For the first several hours, it's actually really easy to get new scenes, and this isn't a big deal. But after a certain point, it gets MUCH harder. You have to start going back through footage you've already seen a dozen times and blindly clicking every object you didn't think to click earlier. I can actually forgive the bizarre UI because it does add something of a nice touch to the immersion, but the core "gameplay" becomes severely frustrating the longer you stick with it. Immortality is really all about its story-beneath-the-story, so I would love it if the game actually let me see the damn thing without forcing me to throw shit at the wall and hope it sticks. And yet, for those first several hours...I was really enjoying this! I firmly believe this is Sam Barlow's best game overall. The acting and cinematography are great. The secret clips make the game way more creepy and intriguing as soon as you hit your first one. The game had me sticking to my screen for hours, clicking and scrubbing like a madman just to keep finding more clips! Honestly I'll keep buying and playing Barlow's games because they're always challenging in several ways (some good, some bad). But the important thing is that no one else is making games like these, and that's great for games as art. My recommended method of playing this interactive movie is to find as many clips as you can, find as many secret clips as you can (the game helps you find at least a few of them quite well), see the ending (which is possible only if you find enough secrets), and then go on YouTube to watch all the other secret clips you missed. That way, you get the meat and potatoes of the experience and also minimize the frustration that comes with the endgame. 6/10, but it would have been a 7 were it not for the awful repetition in the last couple of hours.
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I literally cannot explain to you why this game is as amazing as it is, you just have to trust me on this one because I promise its worth it.
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this plays like an interactive David Lynch film The game clearly has multiple influences ( Black Narcissus , Basic Instinct ...), but none stand out more than Mulholland Drive (which happens to be my favorite David Lynch film), especially visible in its focus on the voyeurs behind the camera and all their power over those in front. Like Mulholland , you can never quite "solve" it from the way it floats around between scenes. The game doesn't reveal enough of itself for you to put into words definitively what it means, to the point where it feels a little silly to even try. You can feel it, though. Because the game is... a game, it hands the controls to you, directly involving you in piecing together these stories you didn't write. This personal involvement makes it all the more impactful when you discover the hidden reversed scenes, totally dissolving the boundary between yourself and the game upon the sudden jump from 24 fps to 60 (or higher). This dissolution, however, doesn't pull you into the game, but instead brings the game out to you, making it jarringly-lifelike as The One walks into frame and interacts with the films' characters or, with the room all to herself, delivers a straight-from-the-heart philosophical monologue. Whatever she's doing, whoever she's addressing, it's clear she's always speaking directly to you , the player. She doesn't just look at the camera's lens, she looks through it , at you... Using this format, the game even has the fucking audacity to look you straight in the eye and call you a pervert, it's great. 2oE 85B — I don't think a game has ever made me cry before.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 23 November 2024 03:02 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 22 December 2024 15:53 |
| Steam price | 23 December 2024 12:37 |
| Steam reviews | 22 December 2024 09:49 |
Online players
25
Developer
Sam Barlow,
Half Mermaid
Publisher
Half Mermaid
Release
30 Aug 2022
Platforms