Immortality Review: A Step Forward in the Interactive Movie Genre (PC)

Sam Barlow returns to innovative form with Immortality, an interactive movie quite unlike anything else in the genre. The intriguing mystery of investigating what happened to missing film star Marissa Marcel is just the beginning, rewarding players for digging deeper, and offering just as many satisfying questions as it does answers.

Immortality Review A Step Forward in the Interactive Movie Genre (PC) coverImmortality follows the interactive movie formula established in Sam Barlow’s first breakout indie hit, Her Story, as well as you’d expect – but whereas the developer’s next project, Telling Lies, felt like a small, experimental sidestep in the genre, one key gameplay evolution in Immortality makes it a welcome step forward in the way interactive stories can be told.

Basically, if you have even a passing interest in these types of story-rich games, I highly encourage you to stop reading this review and play Immortality as soon as you can. The few surprises it has are a big reason why it’s so successful – and while I’m not going to include huge spoilers below, some topics are unavoidable when it comes to reviewing the game.

Immortality is out now for Xbox Series X|S, PC, Mac, and Mobile via Netflix for your regional pricing, and is currently available on Xbox Game Pass.

Story – What happened to Marissa Marcel?

If mystery is what attracts you to the interactive movie genre, you’ll be happy to know that Immortality doesn’t disappoint in its central intrigue. Most impressive of all, the answers (and sometimes non-answers) are perhaps even better than the questions themselves. The question that starts your journey through the game’s twisty narrative is a deceptively simple one: what happened to Marissa Marcel? 

All we know at the beginning is that Marissa Marcel was a young actress once poised to become a huge Hollywood star in the late 60s. However, her first movie, Ambrosia, was never released, and her next movie, Minsky, never finished shooting. Marissa stopped acting after Minsky, then reappeared 27 years later to star in a new movie, Two of Everything. After the death of its director, her third movie was also canned. Marissa disappeared again, and has never been heard of since. It’s our job to go through the footage of each tonally different film, including behind-the-scenes and talkshow clips, to try and figure out what happened to Marissa.

Meet Marissa Marcel, your new favourite mystery.

Meet Marissa Marcel, your new favourite mystery.

This is where Immortality‘s story expertly melds with its gameplay. Everybody starts with the same clip, and from that clip, you can click on any relevant image you like to take you to another piece of random footage containing a similar image. These aren’t limited to just one film. So, over the course of your experience, you’ll be watching snippets of each of Marissa’s movies out of order. Like Her Story and Telling Lies, this jumbled storytelling method means that you control the narrative. Each individual gets to see the story play out in an entirely unique way.

I ‘solved’ what happened to Marissa within the first few hours of playing. However, it’s entirely possible you could find out what happened to her within the first few minutes. Or, perhaps it will be the final clip you discover. This bespoke narrative, and the quality of the writing and acting, has always been the selling point when it comes to playing Sam Barlow’s games. What Immortality offers that his previous interactive movie’s don’t, however, is an entirely new mystery to investigate once you’ve seemingly answered the initial Marissa Marcel question. It’s this hidden story, and the way you discover it (more on this in the gameplay section below!), that truly makes Immortality a must-play. It’s by no means a revolutionary plot, but its inclusion alters the entire tone and feel of every clip previously unearthed, and all the rest yet to be discovered. I’ve watched the same clip a dozen times now – and each time I do, I feel I’m getting a little closer to understanding what’s truly going on in Marissa Marcel’s world. These mini-revelations have me coming back to see what I might have missed, even though I’ve discovered every clip on offer.

Marissa and Carl in 'Minsky'.

Marissa and Carl in ‘Minsky’.

This isn’t even touching on the various themes and metaphors connecting each movie and their productions – from the human cost of making art and art’s inherent conflict with authority – the superb acting from Manon Gage as Marissa and Miles Szanto as Robert Jones in particular, and the authenticity of each time period’s film quality.

However, one of my only issues with Immortality is the amount of clips it contains. Amongst its 202 scenes, there are around 15 of major significance. An exciting discovery when one is unearthed, but the very nature of the game’s story means there might be a clip that could change your understanding of it amongst any one of the 202 scenes. This encourages even those who aren’t completionists to hunt down every clip in the game – but personally, it became a little monotonous by the end of my search. I understannd wanting to include as much footage of the wonderful actors as possible, but it does come at a cost to pacing. This is something I feel hasn’t been improved from Telling Lies, which felt similarly bloated.

Better sharpen those investigative skills.

Better sharpen those investigative skills.

I also think Immortality could have gone further with its hidden plot. The game dips its toe into experimenting with certain ideas and images, but the ‘ending’ felt more like the beginning, and I was left a little shocked when the credits rolled. So much so that I was certain it was a fake-out – there had to be more, right? But no, nothing quite like that ending scene ever happened again. My search for clues to how we got to it came close to matching its revelations, but never reached that level of shock and quality again. I suppose it’s a testament to the storytelling that one of my only problems with Immortality is that I wanted more of what made it so great. Sam Barlow, fellow writers Barry Gifford, Amelia Gray, and Allan Scott, and the whole team at Half Mermaid Productions have crafted something special here.

Gameplay – A step forward for the genre

You might be asking yourself how a game with only one central mechanic of clicking on similar images to find more clips can be a step forward in the interactive movie genre, and I’m here to tell you that… I’m not going to fully answer that question. Sorry, but I did tell you there would be no spoilers – because to spoil the surprise implementation of the real plot in Immortality would do the game a huge disservice. What I can tell you is just how cool it is when you discover the game’s hidden layer. When I first realised what was going on, my heart skipped a beat and I thought I was imagining things. I was here to solve an intriguing mystery of a disappearance… what the hell was this?

The Ambrosio cast at a table read.

The Ambrosio cast at a table read.

However, both pre and post the oh-that’s-what-this-game-is-about revelations, you are essentially doing the same thing for around 8-12 hours. As mentioned above, every player starts with the same clip, then discovers the story on their own terms by clicking any image in the scene that takes their fancy to ‘match cut’ to a new clip. You can fast-forward, rewind, favourite, and toggle an option to display only clips from each of the three movies, or include auditions, rehearsals, and interviews and well – and that’s pretty much it. Those who’ve experienced Her Story or Telling Lies know that this description doesn’t really sum up the feel of this type of gameplay. It’s simple, sure, but it works. It truly feels like you’re in complete control of the narrative.

I would suggest, however, that you don’t play Immortality like I did. Whereas there were limits to how many clips you can see when you search for a word in Sam Barlow’s previous games, there are no limits to how many clips you can discover by clicking on images. They’ll also stay on the main hub of your film compilation when you discover each one. I started by selecting Marissa Marcel’s face, wanting to collect as many scenes in order first before I started actually watching them. As Marissa appears in the majority of clips, I was clicking on her for a long old while before I actually started the game in earnest. Then I tried to match cut to every mug in the game… and then plants… then seats…

Using 'match cut' to search for more clips of Arthur Fischer.

Using ‘match cut’ to search for more clips of Arthur Fischer.

My method didn’t ruin the discovery of the hidden story, however, and that’s ultimately what makes Immortality an evolution of the genre – and a damn good game. So there’s no ‘wrong’ way to play it in the end… but I sure came close.

Graphics & Audio – Vintage photography

Immortality is beautiful. Ambrosia absolutely looks like a 60s moral tale from a Hitchcockian-inspired director; Minsky a low-budget arthouse affair from the 70s, and Two of Everything a cheesy late-90s offering with a dark undertone. It’s immediately obvious which film you’ve stumbled into from the quality of the film’s grain and the ridiculous fashions of each decade. The gradual degradation of a certain spoiler-filled clip and the way it melds with the story it’s presenting is a personal favourite moment of mine.

Yep, that certainly looks like an advert from the 60s.

Yep, that certainly looks like an advert from the 60s.

Another standout element in a game filled with standout elements is Nainita Desai’s original score. Its jazzy, instrumental tones compliment the investigative nature of the gameplay perfectly. Find yourself going down a particularly deep rabbit hole of images? The soundtrack will match your pace, giving a sense of urgency and purpose to your search. Most tracks also have a few alternate versions that play when you discover key scenes, altering the feeling of a clip into something much more intense and ominous.

Two of Everything even has an original song of the same name, performed by Tori Beaumont to pop-tastic delights. Like everything else in Immortality, there’s more to the song than it initially seems, offering clues to what’s really going on in Marissa Marcel’s world, if you dig deep enough.

Immortality was reviewed on PC via Steam with a review code provided by Half Mermaid Productions.

Summary
Immortality is a story of art and authority and the humans responsible for all the best and worst aspects of moviemaking, and it's also a step forward in the way stories can be told through the interactive movie genre. A hidden mystery under the initial intrigue of trying to find out what happened to missing actress Marissa Marcel, and the way it's discovered, is the gem at the heart of this beautifully shot, acted, and scored production.
Good
  • Intriguing core mysteries
  • Expertly implemented hidden content
  • Beautifully shot to standards of each decade
  • Great soundtrack
  • Brilliant performances, particularly from Manon Gage and Miles Szanto
  • A step forward in the interactive movie genre
Bad
  • Could have went further with certain ideas and images
  • Many clips feel unnessesary
9
Amazing

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