TheLeon Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 I completely missed the announcement of this one, so it was a welcome surprise to see it on Game Pass this afternoon. I've played about 90 minutes so far, and it feels like a much more ambitious take on the Her Story/Telling Lies formula. Reviews are extremely positive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 Game Information Game Title: Immortality Platforms: Xbox Series X/S (Aug 30, 2022) PC (Aug 30, 2022) Trailer: IMMORTALITY Release Trailer IMMORTALITY Reveal Trailer - Coming Summer 2022 Developer: Sam Barlow Publisher: Half Mermaid Productions Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 91 average - 100% recommended Critic Reviews 3DNews - Russian - 10 / 10 Quote A stunning creation that elevates not just the genre but also the whole industry of story-driven games. If Immortality becomes a cult classic nobody will be surprised. AnaitGames - Spanish - 10 / 10 Quote Sam Barlow continues to explore the ways in which the image can be made interactive with his first explicitly cinematic video game. Checkpoint Gaming - 10 / 10 Quote Immortality is Sam Barlow's magnum opus and the best FMV game ever made. Manon Gage is a riotous force of an actor, accompanied by just as capable a cast, all capable of blowing up. Deep and rewarding investigation mechanics mean you too are rewarded by more of these very performances. Forty years ago at the genre's start, ideas this broad, sweeping and memorable were inconceivable. Now they've arrived, serving as the mastering of technology, writing and acting, all wrapped up in a momentous and moving package. Immortality is a game-changer, utterly needing to forever be immortalised in gaming and art history. Digitally Downloaded - 5 / 5 Quote When I began this review, I wondered if Immortality would live up to the hype I had created in my mind. Luckily, it did. The characters, the narrative, and the completely unique experience that it odders… this game is special. Visual. Intuitive. Genius. Half Mermaid (and Barlow in particular) has upped its own ante, and I legitimately have no idea what the studio could do next. This studio is one of the rare true artists in our little industry. God is a Geek - 10 / 10 Quote Immortality is a phenomenal piece of work, filled with great acting and direction, centred around the story of one woman's life in front of the lens in all its fragile yet powerful glory. Pure Xbox - 10 / 10 Quote Immortality is easily Sam Barlow's best game to date and, when you consider the delights he's served up previously, well, you get an idea of just how good this one really is. It's a dazzling display from any angle you to choose to admire it; top-notch acting, brilliant writing, a core mechanic that's complex but carried off with style and grace, intuitive controls that draw you into your role...just remember to avoid spoilers, dive into the mystery of Marissa Marcel completely unsullied, and you're in for one of the most exquisite gaming experiences of this year, or any other, by quite some distance. Rely On Horror - 10 / 10 Quote The new cinematic horror narrative experience from Sam Barlow is finally upon us. How does it measure up to past work or the genre/industry? WellPlayed - 10 / 10 Quote A true achievement in game design and interactive fiction, Immortality is a gorgeous and haunting magic trick that sets a new standard for the medium. WhatIfGaming - 10 / 10 Quote If you are a fan of games with thoroughly deep stories, a brilliant cast of characters, and a video game that will undoubtedly spawn a wide array of essays on YouTube, look no further than Immortality. This is a game that, in the beginning, may frustrate and annoy you with the non-linear direction of storytelling. Still, by the end, you will awaken to an experimental medium that truly elevated your thinking. Windows Central - 5 / 5 Quote Immortality is unlike any other game. It's wildly ambitious, gorgeously shot, well acted, and incredibly unique. You might think you understand the straightforward gameplay, which requires you to match clips together to uncover the story of actress Marissa Marcel, but you have no idea what you're getting into and what you'll be at the end. XboxEra - 10 / 10 Quote This is one of the, if not the best gaming experiences of my lifetime. video games are good - 10 / 10 Quote Even with Barlow's previous games in mind, I've never played anything like IMMORTALITY and might never again. It's a 10-15 hour experience that speaks to people who love stories, and to those who love creating and consuming art. It's a love letter to the oral tradition, to cave drawings, plays, films, dance, music, and games. It blends so many mediums, it contains so many different forms of art, and it examines it all through these displaced films — and through its characters, it reveals in the end that at the root of humanity are stories and storytellers. And we can't wait to see what else these storytellers do because it sure does feel good to just feel human in this chaotic time. It's for that reason, and a million others that could add to our pages and pages of notes we took during our playthrough, that VGG is giving IMMORTALITY the highest honor we can bestow. Geeks & Com - French - 9.5 / 10 Quote Immortality is an experience in itself. The game is hugely ambitious, but manages to deliver on every level. You will be on the tip of your toes for many hours trying to discover the fate of Marissa Marcel. Immortality is a total success. I guarantee you will be surprised by what you discover throughout the story reels. PC Gamer - 95 / 100 Quote Immortality is Sam Barlow's best, most thought-provoking game yet, and a barnstorming debut for Half Mermaid. Press Start - 9.5 / 10 Quote Immortality ambitiously succeeds at evolving the formats introduced in Her Story and Telling Lies to offer some of Sam Barlow's best work yet and one of gaming's most well-justified open-world experiences. Bolstered by some fantastic performances and a compelling mystery to uncover, it's engrossing and engaging from beginning to end. While it might assume some prior knowledge in telling it's underlying story, Immortality is an experience that's not to be missed and one that I'll never stop thinking about. It is truly fantastic and well worth your time. COGconnected - 94 / 100 Quote I think it’s no exaggeration to say that Immortality is often brilliant. The acting, writing, editing and videography are meticulously intentional and if the path through the woods isn’t always clear, the trees are unfailingly interesting to study. While it isn’t perfect, I’m glad that games like Immortality exist. There are so many games that are sequels, copycats, reboots, remakes and retreads that you forget what originality actually looks like. All of Barlow’s games have been excellent but Immortality is probably the richest and most thought-provoking of the three. Destructoid - 9 / 10 Quote A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage. Digital Trends - 4.5 / 5 Quote Immortality is an astonishing work of interactive fiction that's every bit as unsettling and unforgettable as the films that inspired it. Everyeye.it - Italian - 9 / 10 Quote Quote not yet available GamesRadar+ - 4.5 / 5 Quote 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. IGN Italy - Italian - 9 / 10 Quote The most ambitious and intense Sam Barlow's game is a brilliant interactive mockumentary about movies and our relationship with the sense of narration. Paste Magazine - 9 / 10 Quote You look through the film, and while a lot of it seems unimportant, you slowly begin to see a world larger and deeper than Marcel herself. Without spoiling anything, all I will say is that once the narrative emerges, it's one that you can't pull yourself away from. Given the complete control the player is given, it's a feat of execution Half Mermaid deserves all the credit for. Prima Games - 9 / 10 Quote Immortality stands alongside Her Story and Telling Lies as a must-play experience that will leave you with a lot to chew on. EGM - 4 / 5 Quote Immortality finds creator Sam Barlow building on the found-footage FMV framework of Her Story and Telling Lies in ambitious and surprising new ways. That boldness pays off in the frame-shifting narrative, which encompasses three meticulously crafted feature films, their creation, and the sinister truth of what happened to the woman who starred in them. But the "match cut" system you use to navigate between clips and discover new ones means the actual process of piecing together the story is messier and less satisfying than in his previous work. GameMAG - Russian - 8 / 10 Quote Immortality is an unusual adventure game with strong David Lynch vibes, and a non-linear narrative style that leaves you clueless in the face of deep and mysterious thriller drama. GameSpot - 8 / 10 Quote 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. IGN - 8 / 10 Quote Immortality is a thoroughly mesmerizing mystery and one of the most surprising video game stories of 2022. GameSpew - 7 / 10 Quote What you’ll end up taking away from Immortality is going to be unique to your experience. The conclusions you draw will be the subject of conversations with friends for days, even weeks, to come. It surprises just as often as it confounds, and that in itself makes this a rather extraordinary experience. It’s also perhaps one of the purest examples of video games as art we’ve seen to date: a piece of art about artists. Does that make for an enjoyable experience? Not always. At times it’s drawn-out, boring, a chore, even, as you obsess over every bit of footage available to you. But are we glad we’ve played it? Absolutely. Eurogamer - Recommended Quote 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. Kotaku - Unscored Quote I want art to be a place where I can find love, beauty, or truth. Without these things, Marissa Marcel was better off lost. Polygon - Polygon Recommends Quote 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. Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Unscored Quote 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. The A.V. Club - Unscored Quote Immortality gets under your skin; flickers subliminally in your head. It becomes a part of you, whether you want it to, or not. The Escapist - Unscored Quote Video Review - Quote not available Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best3444 Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 This doesn't interest me at all. I did watch 2 video reviews and they absolutely loved it. So for those interested, this is an easy recommendation. Also it's on gamepass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLeon Posted August 31, 2022 Author Share Posted August 31, 2022 Playing some more this morning (although playing should maybe be in quotes) and I’m completely hooked. It feels more mechanically slight than those other games, since you’re mostly clicking on stuff at random and hoping it brings you a new clip. But there are some extra layers there that are exciting to uncover. Mostly, it feels less like playing a game and more like watching a weird TV miniseries unfold. When I’m done with it, I’m going to have to find some making-of material, because conceptually it seems pretty daunting. From what I can tell, they basically wrote three full movies and filmed them, but not straight through. Sometimes you’re seeing the “real” movie being made, some of the scenes are rehearsals, some are table reads. But you’re also getting behind the scenes, auditions, talk show appearances. And a lot of these clips are long. There are times I forget that I’m supposed to be solving a mystery and I’m just engrossed in these movies. The lead actress has some real Anya Taylor-Joy energy that is enchanting. Definitely not for everyone, but if this concept sounds interesting at all, check it out. There is also a mobile version coming at some point that will be available via Netflix. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLeon Posted September 5, 2022 Author Share Posted September 5, 2022 Thought I was pretty much done, then I found accidentally something that has scrubbing back through everything. This thing fucking rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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