Immortality

Immortality is a thoroughly mesmerizing mystery and one of the most surprising video game stories of 2022.

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.

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.

Immortality is Sam Barlow's best, most thought-provoking game yet, and a barnstorming debut for Half Mermaid.

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 don’t. Immortality embodies the most enticing hallmarks of the “if you know, you know” meme — there’s 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.

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.

This fascinating game provides an interactive film trilogy, complete with behind-the-scenes footage, to help solve the mystery of missing movie star Marissa Marcel.

Some writers have described “Immortality” as being about burnout or auteurism (the final few scenes can be read as evidence for that theory). But that’s not quite right, akin to saying Star Wars is about space. Artistry does not grant privileged access to decency or good nature. That is what the game is, not what it is about. It’s text, not subtext. For so long as “Immortality” uses that as a starting point to probe further, it is a high water mark for gaming in 2022. When the characters are allowed to be people — not vampires nor aliens nor angels but people who are tired, embarrassed, horny, funny, naive, voyeuristic, creepy and more — each frame’s richness is its own reward.

Immortality is an ambitious and considered look at art, storytelling, film, religion, and many other things, but it doesn't quite catch all the metaphorical apples it throws in the air.

I’m not sure I’ll ever stop wondering about the snakes, the apples, and every other prop laced with subtext. I think that’s what Immortality set out to do; transform how many of us think about, and approach, all forms of media – as well as the people who play a part in shaping it, and shaping our lives in the process.