In 2015, Sam Barlow released Her Story, essentially an interactive movie that played like a modern day twist on the FMV games from the 80s and 90s. Barlow has continued in this style with his subsequent projects, with 2019's Telling Lies expanding on what he established with Her Story and the newly released Immortality taking his ideas to a new level.

Immortality collects hundreds of clips from three unfinished fictional indie films from the 60s, 70s, and 90s, all of which feature Hollywood starlet Marissa Marcel, who has since disappeared. The ultimate goal of Immortality is to figure out what happened to Marissa Marcel, and players accomplish this by watching her old clips for clues.

Like Her Story and Telling Lies before it, Immortality is more interactive movie than it is a video game, though it's more interactive than Barlow's previous titles. In Her Story, players progressed by figuring out keywords and searching for them to discover new clips, but that system is gone in Immortality. Instead, players use the game's Image Mode that pauses the footage and brings up a cursor. Players can click on almost anything they want in the scene, and then it match-cuts them to a completely different clip. So for example, if Immortality players click on a blue ashtray, they will be taken to another clip that features the same blue ashtray or at least something that looks similar to it.

immortality marissa marcel

Immortality's match-cut mechanic works well, and it's surprising how little restrictions are placed on the player. Virtually anything in a scene can be clicked on, and it will almost always lead Immortality players to a brand-new clip.

Immortality players will soon find themselves with dozens of clips to check out, separated by three distinct eras. Barlow and his team went to great lengths to replicate the visual style of each decade that the clips represent, and it's fun to piece together not only the plot of Marissa Marcel's three movies, but the behind-the-scenes drama as well. It's an interesting exercise in nonlinear storytelling, though only those that dedicate themselves to poring through the clips will ever truly understand what's going on.

Talking too much about Immortality's story will completely ruin the experience for anyone that plans on playing it, but it's pretty obvious early on that there's more to the story than the surface level mystery of Marissa Marcel's disappearance. Players will have to dig through hours of footage to get all the answers they want, though the nature of the game means that there will likely be many who move on without discovering the biggest revelations.

Immortality Three Films

Without spoiling anything, Immortality lets players manipulate its clips beyond simply clicking on objects, and it's through that manipulation that players will start to unravel the bigger mystery. This initial discovery is Immortality's best, most memorable moment, and so anyone with an Xbox Game Pass subscription handy should certainly go out of their way to play the game to experience it for themselves. The problem is that the game is a one-trick pony, and once players figure out the gimmick, it stops being an intriguing puzzle and becomes a chore.

After players figure out Immortality's gameplay gimmick, they will feel compelled to go back through the hundreds of clips and implement it in each one. This is necessary to figure out what's truly going on in Immortality, and it's boring work. There's a brilliant story buried in the game, but players have to seriously dig to get to it. And since some of the most important clips are extremely well-hidden, it's safe to say that many are going to reach Immortality's end credits with only the vaguest notion of what the story was even about. They may spend hours digging through these film clips and come away with little to show for it beyond being confused, frustrated, and maybe a little creeped out.

Immortality is more horror than Sam Barlow's previous games, with some truly disturbing and haunting scenes. The period-accurate cinematography in the films add to the eerie vibe, and the game's gimmick is used well to shock the player. A sense of dread permeates Immortality, from the very first clip of Marissa Marcel talking on a late night talk show to the time players reach the end credits. Nothing should be taken away from the atmosphere that Barlow and his team have managed to cultivate here, but other areas could have used more work.

immortality amy archer

Immortality's dialogue, for example, is ham-fisted, pretentious, and oftentimes bizarre. On one hand, it lends itself well to the vibe that the game is trying to accomplish. On the other hand, it can become distracting and take players out of the experience. The behind-the-scenes footage is meant to show the real people behind the roles, but the actors don't come across as genuine in these scenes, partly because they are saying things no one would actually say, and partly because of the performances. It's still clear that they are all playing a role, even when they are meant to be themselves, and that hurts the immersion. The talk show scenes are an exception to this; they are convincing enough that if shown to someone out of context, they would have no idea the clips weren't from a real late night talk show.

Ultimately, one's enjoyment of Immortality is going to depend entirely on two things: if they like art house films and if they have the patience to sift through over 200 clips of mostly-boring footage to get the story's full picture. The story itself is interesting enough that players will find themselves compelled to keep returning to the game to look for more clues, even if they're otherwise bored, but gameplay-wise, it doesn't have much to offer beyond its one genius trick. Immortality is something that everyone should at least try through Xbox Game Pass, but they should go in understanding that the game is going to demand a lot from them and not always offer much in return.

Immortality is out now for PC and Xbox Series X. Game Rant played the Xbox Series X version for this review.