Sam Barlow has so far produced a number of intriguing video games. He was the lead designer of some really intriguing projects, including Her Story and Telling Lies, and was the writer and lead designer of two different Silent Hill games. Immortality, a new interactive film that resembles these works, is available to gamers. Although Half Mermaid Productions has released this game on the PC, Xbox Series X/S, Android, and iOS platforms. We were able to play and evaluate it on the PC. And we are ready to review Immortality.
We first meet Marissa Marcel in Immortality. She was a famous actress who was getting ready to appear in three separate motion pictures. The issue is that Marissa Marcel vanished and none of these films were ever released. She was born in France, relocated to London to pursue a modeling career, and in the late 1960s played Matilda in the film Ambrosio. This movie, however, was never made public. The actress also starred in the 1970 film Minsky, although it was never completed. Following these two endeavors, Marissa Marcel vanished for 20 years.
In 1999, Marissa Marcel had another appearance in the film Two of Everything. With the two movies, she experienced tremendous success. Two of Everything and Minsky both have the same director. Our actress’s career came to an end when the director of the last picture went away while it was still being filmed. After that, Marissa Marcel entirely vanishes. The game of immortality enters the picture here. By watching all three of our actress’ unpublished films, we can learn what happened to her in this interactive film project. This introduces us to the game’s fundamental components.
There are numerous pictures of Marissa Marcel in the movie restoration software that we come across in Immortality. The majority of these pictures are from the films that we’ve already covered. In addition to these movies, other visuals include television interviews, rehearsal video, audition sequences, and much more. Similar to Her Story and Telling Lies, we must examine all of this footage and determine the mystery’s solution. We can speed up, slow down, rewind, and a new mechanism known as “segment matching” is introduced in order to unravel the riddle.
Through new mechanics, immortality is revealed
In our Immortality review, we also have to talk about the mechanics of the game. You can match specific sequences with other scenes that are already connected to them using Immortality’s cut-matching feature. Any visual component seen in any image may be used to implement this mechanic. For instance, you can utilize this new technology to access additional movie sequences starring a particular actor if you want to concentrate on that actor in a scene. You can concentrate on objects like vases or specific physical interactions in a scene in addition to the performers. This gives you the opportunity to discover the universe depicted in the game from an entirely new perspective.
From a distance, video games like Immortality may appear to be somewhat overpowering. After all, the game has numerous additional footage and three additional movies. The game’s new cut matching feature makes exploration more easier and more practical. Although the new mechanic gives you the freedom to design your own experience and solution, you can still try to solve the mystery by watching all the films in order if you so choose. There is no wrong way to play the game in this fashion because you design your own path and take charge of your own interactive movie.
There are several aspects of immortality that facilitate exploration. You can effortlessly switch between movie and visual clip modes, delete previously made clips, add clips to your favorites, sort and filter clips, and more. You can spend up to 10 hours playing with all of these components and attempting to uncover the riddle. This time can be cut in half, of course, depending on how quickly you play the game, but players who prefer to explore and move slowly will easily spend 10 hours playing this game.
Additionally, immortality is able to surpass all of this. This interactive film gives an experience that makes you feel as though you are actually in the 1960s. Very effectively illustrated are the challenges of playing video games during this time, as well as other circumstances. This game’s development effort, acting, gameplay, and many other aspects raised the bar for FMV-style experiences. This shouldn’t be all that surprising considering how influential the developer’s earlier FMV-related works were. Her Story and Telling Lies both provided distinctive experiences, but this game goes beyond.
It’s tough to criticize this game
We are nearing the end of our Immortality review. However, there are still some more things to mention. The experience of immortality is perfect in every way. The mechanics at your disposal feel magical and are more than enough for a title of this class, despite the gameplay not being the richest. In addition to the gameplay, the story and construction quality have the ability to astound you. As I mentioned earlier, the story of the game is on how to survive as a woman in the 1960s–1990s performing scene. The most accurate depiction of these eras’ challenges is used. There are also times when various forms of visuals appear, which can be extremely upsetting to some people.
The outstanding production value of each film made throughout each era stands out in addition to the extraordinary quality and authenticity of the plot. Every movie you watch in the game feels really genuine and particular to its era. In these films and countless other videos, the acting is outstanding. This piece also contains a creepy, eerie element that I won’t disclose here so as not to spoil any of the surprises. I can state that the game gives jaw-dropping moments virtually constantly when you explore each layer separately, run into new themes, etc.
Immortality is an FMV project with a level of quality and care that has never been seen before. This video game is an unforgettable experience thanks to its captivating and entertaining gameplay mechanics, the detail in the clips/movies/scenes, the caliber of the actors, the voice acting, the music you’ll never forget, the horror elements, curses, and other unsettling elements, among many other factors. The style of the control method in this game is a minor drawback, but if you can endure it for a couple of hours, you won’t notice it.
And what is the result of this Immortality review?
It’s time to conclude our Immortality review. I wholeheartedly endorse Immortality if you like the FMV subgenre, if you’ve played any of this producer’s other titles, or if you’re a fresh player about to enter the subgenre. From a distance, this game could appear to be just another FMV experience, but I believe it to be one of the strongest contenders for the top game of 2022. This is a piece of work that necessitates not just 1000 words, but 2000 or even 3000. However, expanding upon my evaluation would need me to discuss the game’s surprises, so I advise you to check it out for yourself without any prior knowledge.
