Immortality

[Atticus]

I've never played any of Sam Barlow's previous games (Her Story and Telling Lies) but being a bit of a film fan I was drawn to this straight away. As is the case with so many things the experience is one of discovery so it's hard to go into any great detail.

The game throws you straight in at the deep end, telling you the basics of how to operate a moviola editing machine which you'll use to look through huge amounts of footage. This footage consists of scenes from three films by an actress called Marissa Marcell ... along with rehearsals, table-reads, behind the scenes stuff and talk-show appearances. All footage has content you can pause and focus on which will lead/link to another piece of footage. It all feels random, dozens of puzzle pieces going in but not fitting anywhere. But slowly one or two things may join up, in the game or in your mind, and you keep looking and exploring, wanting to know more and more because, why are you even looking over this footage in the first place?

There are themes of the darker side of the film industry and hints of, well, you'll have to play it for yourself. It's got the feel of a great mystery and it's held together by some top-notch acting and production values. The period feel of the earlier films is done so well, especially Minsky.

If it wasn't so well made I'd have taken a quick look and got bored after 20 minutes. But it's really well made and slowly but surely gets its hooks in, pricking your curiosity to look closer and deeper, watch more interesting titbits (pun intended), join more and more dots and get to the bottom of just what the hell went on.

This is currently on Game Pass.

[fuse]

Have been eagerly awaiting this, based on a number of factors - the Edge 10 certainly helped, and then there was a spoiler-free review from Consolevania that's pushed it right over the edge. I liked Her Story, and Telling Lies too, but perhaps to a lesser degree, whereas this is meant to be one where they've absolutely nailed it. I've got it downloaded on the Steam Deck now and can't wait to find the time to get stuck in.

[QualityChimp]

Doubt I'll ever play the game, but it's fun to say the title in a dramatic way.

[fuse]

Put a few hours into this yesterday and a few more today.

It is one of those cursedly impossible games to talk about, as you really *really* need to experience things for yourself and there's every opportunity for player B to branch off in a totally different way to anything player A might have seen. It has surprised and shocked me, though, and is produced in a quite frankly incredible manner.

[Family Fry]

Finished this last night with around 50% of the footage from the three films, it totally deserves all the praise it’s getting. It is one of my those games though to describe the gameplay would really just ruin those moments as they are suppose to be found naturally as you play, I’ve seen SO many people talk about that first experience.
Since I’ve finished it I swear there’s even more depth to find with the story and cast, things that are coming out still via the clips.
I’m glad I got to play it unspoilt.

[fuse]

Also got the credits on this earlier today and have still been hooked on it, desperately trying to find all that I can. I'm not sure how much of each I'm up to (does it say somewhere?) but I know I've still got plenty of achievement gaps.

My biggest issue with it right now is that it can prove quite tricky trying to find where / how to progress! It doesn't feel quite right to call it difficult, but as the actual game aspects of it are fairly abstract, you can end up going in circles and finding nothing new for some time.

[nonny]

This is so good. I only started it properly yesterday but I was then up till 1am continuing to play when I should call it a night.

Like many say already, to explain too much would ruin it so just jump in. The acting is absolutely top notch which is what seals the deal really... if it wasn't on point the impact would be reduced.

Play it.

[fuse]

Great Noclip documentary on the making of this, which unsurprisingly is less on the technical side of things but much more on its inspirations, the actors, costume and set design, and so on.

It has warnings to the same effect, but just to confirm that yes there are spoilers in this. You should play the game first. Play the game.