Immortality

The proverbial difficult third album for Sam Barlow. After the unexpectedly success of Her Story, he pivoted to a new atmosphere and expanded upon the same gameplay ideas for Telling Lies - and while the surface level similarities between the games was pretty unmissable, that was fine, because it was a (slightly) better game, the emotions it aimed for were very different, and there weren't any other games around doing anything similar to anything like the same effect. Whenever an artist finds a niche like this, though, there will always be questions lingering over them and their work. How long can you keep doing roughly the same thing and getting the same results? And what happens when they branch out of the comfort zone they've made for themselves?

For the gameplay of Immortality, Barlow has again largely chosen refinement over revolution. The gameplay has changed - there's no more typing, with a new interface for playing movies and switching between them that's clearly designed to be more accessible for people playing on iOS and Android devices - but that accessibility is balanced with familiarity for those who've played his previous games. The size, though? That's where you'll find the change: Immortality is easily his biggest, longest, and most complex game, taking longer to finish than Her Story and Telling Lies combined, and it's also the one that makes the most demands of its player. The secrets of his previous games may have been buried, but the way you were supposed to find them was not - the tutorials were clear about how you were supposed to wade your way through the videos and unlock everything. Not this time. I suspect that you could probably make your way through every clip in this game without even realising the secret behind everything and figuring out what the game is really about - and as a result, the moment you first figure out how to see beyond the veil and accidentally launch into one of the deliciously sinister hidden scenes is glorious. (This is perhaps a bit of an accessibility issue for those touchscreen players, though. The huge clue you're given about how to tease out the mystery is the way your controller vibrates; while there are also some audio and visual cues, they're much less clear. I would strongly recommend playing this on a console, if you can.)

Yet while the process of unearthing the mystery under the mysteries is excellent, you'd be able to identify this as Barlow's most ambitious game yet even if you did miss it entirely. The only information you're given to start with is that you're trying to find out what happened to a film star named Marissa Marcel, who appeared in three films, all of which were never released. Those three films, all wildly different from one another, allow Barlow to turn Immortality into a love letter to cinema. Ambrosio is a sex-heavy religious European arthouse period drama, filmed in the late 1960s but set in the late 1700s; Minsky is a stylish and gritty early '70s cop drama set in the New York avant-garde art scene; Two of Everything is a late '90s psychological thriller. Each is filmed and styled in a way not only totally distinct from the others, but in a way that makes the game's influences clear: even I, effectively a total cinematic ingrate, could feel Ingmar Bergman, Luis Buñuel, Dario Argento, and David Lynch pouring out of this game. I've seen several others mention Federico Fellini too; God knows how many other references and tributes I missed because I don't know that much about films. (Case in point: Barlow's company Half Mermaid published a Letterboxd list of films that influenced this, and of the forty listed, I've literally only even heard of fifteen of them before, and can only remember watching four of those.) On paper I am a terrible target audience for this game, but the love and craft that shines through in these stylistic recreations is unmistakable. There's a huge amount of appeal here even without the secret buried underneath them.

But that secret is what will really linger in the memory, and as ever with Barlow's games, that secret is driven home expertly by its lead actresses. Manon Gage is an absolutely inspired bit of casting, her smile a potent weapon the game returns to again and again; she is capable of conjuring bubbly innocence, brooding sensuality, and latent menace with equal ease just through that smile, and the game simply wouldn't be what it is without her ability to lace her scenes with implications beyond their actual content through a simple glance at the camera. And yet even for that, she arguably gets upstaged; Charlotta Mohlin as The One is surely the most instantly and unmistakably iconic character I've ever come across in an FMV game. Timothy Lee Depriest is an impeccable villain alongside her too as The Other. And you could potentially play the whole game without even seeing either of them! These are performances that linger and resonate long after the game finishes. But then, that's just what Barlow's games do, isn't it? Those questions do still linger - even now I cannot help but wonder how much longer Barlow can continue to make FMV games before the returns start diminishing dramatically - but after three spectacular successes, each very distinct from the other underneath the hood, it might now be unfair to even ask them at all. The man's on a serious hot streak: just let him cook.

Barlow's games have always been interesting up to this point, but this is the first time where I can say that he has delivered a truely great narrative. Bear in mind that I dont say that this is a great game, because its more gamey and interactible elements are its weakest parts. The narrative and mystery though are very much worth preservering, delivering one of the most unique narratives I have seena and one that only really works in videogame format. Its hard to talk about it without spoiling, but its just like the scene halfway through Mulholland Drive but expanded to a few hours of playtime, as you go from puzzled to horrified as you pierce what happened to the characters in the game. Its gut punching, revolting, but also tragic, bittersweet, sorrowful, and it even has some scenes of comfort and pure joy.

The actors do a great job in their roles, and help to sell the immersion of the game. It was the first time I saw them on the screen, and I was throughly impressed.

Like I said, the weakest link here is the actual gameplay. Finding the mystery of the game is really up to chance as you click on interactible props and acts in each clip. There is no logic in what will lead you to a clip that reveals more about the story or not. Because of that there is a stage towards the end that it gets a bit frustrating chasing that last few clips down.

One of the best art experiences to have this year.

Few games have shaken my soul like Immortality did. It opened by asking me to unravel a seemingly straightforward mystery – what happened to Marrisa Marcel? – but by the time I reached the conclusion the threads of that mystery seemed more tightly knotted than when I began. Sam Barlow is once again up to his old tricks but this time around he’s raised the stakes. Her Story was a parlor trick; Immortality is legit sorcery.

The game presents itself as a collection of scenes from three unreleased films. While watching these short clips, you can pause at any time and click on objects and characters in the scene. This will take you to another clip that contains the same character or object. It also works with rough matches, at least for objects. Clicking a white pillow might take you to another scene with a blue pillow, for instance.

And that’s basically the game. Scouring film reels and hunting for clues. While it sounds uninspiring, the content of the films and the acting performances ensure it’s anything but. The male actors play their roles well enough, but it’s the women that end up stealing the show. The performances of Charlotta Mohlin in particular were often powerful enough to fill me with existential dread.

Included alongside the three films are rehearsals, outtakes, making-of featurettes, and talk show appearances. These provide context for the films, deepening your understanding of what was transpiring on set at any given time.

By the time I finished the game, I had a general idea of what was going on. But perusing the plot synopsis on Wikipedia revealed a bunch of plot threads that I hadn’t yet uncovered. I doubt I would’ve had the patience to find them all on my own – hunting for just the right object to click can grow tiresome – so I’m glad I was able to clue myself in with a plot summary.

Parting advice: It’s best to play with a controller, because haptic feedback is a crucial component. I’m sure I would’ve struggled more without it.

A unique, frighteningly mysterious and emotionally powerful game. The amount of story layers and little details in this masterfully crafted film footage is truly impressive.
I would criticize some of the narrative and game design decisions made by the developers, as well as complain about the poor technical performance (which came as an unpleasant surprise given that this is an FMV game). However, I highly recommend everyone to try Immortality - it's a one of a kind experience.

This is not what I meant when I said I wanted a Persona sequel *ba dum tss*

Sam Barlow hit upon hyperlink gold with Her Story, which offered players a unique way to non-linearly research a crime. Even though I thought the story and twist were weak, the act of discovering the story piece by piece was stimulating and contained so much promise. He followed up with Telling Lies, which gave a simple mainstream-ready story but told in a far worse manner. It’s really not worth playing.

So it’s happy news that he came back with his best work yet in Immortality. It’s a halfway point between his past two games. The story isn’t as obtuse and impossible to piece together as Her Story; more complex and mysterious than Telling Lies. As much as I want to nitpick the plot, and there a lot to nag about, that’s not as important as how certain moments in this game scared me better than anything in years. And I’m talking scared on a genuine, dread-filled, nightmare-inducing way, not from gore or cheap jump scares. Immortality’s horror elements get compared to David Lynch a lot; I would also throw The Shining into the mix. You like those? Go try this out.

I won’t spoil the plot but it’s hard to talk about a game so built around discovering information. Just know that it’s still a Sam Barlow game: you’ll often get lost, frustrated, and stuck on how to find the next clue. Also, most people who reached the credits recommend you stop playing afterwards and not torture yourself to find all clips. I absolutely agree.

This game has stayed with me day and night since the day I started it. I decided to get a notebook, write about everything I would find, connect points, try my best to get to the bottom. And so I did and it was the most rewarding experience I had on videogames period.

It never let me know it was guiding me somehow, I never got lost enough to feel frustrated and I felt like I was discovering some deep shit nobody knew about.

The game design is very subtle, like Her Story it lets you experience it the way you want with your own pacing, and as you travel through scenes and get familiarized with the movies and characters the story naturally starts to become palpable or so you thought because somehow you keep getting your expectations subverted until the end.

I do not recommend reading reviews or anything at all about this game as it can be easily spoiled.