Investigative FMV (Full Motion Video) thriller Immortality releases with an extra hit of relevance as the Warner Bros. Discovery merger sees films and series unceremoniously pulled from release schedules and platforms, and sealed away.

With their work unreleased and/or unavailable, the cast and crew of these productions risk being forgotten over time – which is exactly the fate of actress Marissa Marcel in Immortality. Equal parts innocent and seductress (at least in terms of her onscreen persona), the French born performer should have been one of the greatest stars of the 20th Century. But, for various reasons, none of her three movies were ever released. Then, in 1999, she disappeared.

Finding out what happened to Marcel is the driving force behind Immortality, an interactive mystery treat for cinephiles that is also the latest effort from Half Mermaid Productions, the indie studio founded by games industry veteran Sam Barlow. The game also feels like a marriage, and evolution, of Barlow’s previous work. The similarities between Immortality and Barlow’s multi-award-winning previous games Her Story (2015), and Telling Lies (2019) are obvious, as all three R-rated titles provide players with a database of live-action video clips from which to piece together the story.

Each of these non-linear narrative experiences has been more complex, expansive in scope, and ambitious than the last, and Immortality continues that trend. Before we explore that further, though, there’s one other thing to mention about Barlow’s CV. He was the lead designer and writer of Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Immortality, which has been written in conjunction with Allan Scott (Don’t Look Now, Queen’s Gambit), Amelia Gray (Mr. Robot, Maniac) and Barry Gifford (Wild at Heart, Lost Highway), marks Barlow’s return to unsettling horror. Keep that nugget at the back of your mind for now.

Immortality is arguably the most sophisticated use of FMV to create an interactive narrative to date. Heightening the compelling mystery factor is the fact that Barlow has utilised the “found footage” concept, blurring the line between game and player reality. Look out for “Is Immortality a true story?” in Google searches soon.

There are a lot of movies, ranging from The Blair Witch Project to Cloverfield, that have embraced the found footage style but, surprisingly, few games. Immortality leans into the model hard, with marketing material insisting that Barlow came into possession of Marcel’s lost trilogy and has created software for people to explore the actress’s surviving work as “an interactive film restoration project.”

This is where cinema fans will fall in love with Immortality, which credibly captures three distinct eras of filmmaking as players trawl through the footage of Marcel’s three movies: scandalous period tale Ambrosio (1968) shot in Italy to take advantage of the open-minded, provocative nature (and budget-friendliness) of European cinema; Minsky (1970), a quintessential New Hollywood crime mystery that acknowledges the gritty, sordid and alternate as it strives for authenticity; and sleek, subversive, but also kinda nonsense, revenge thriller Two of Everything (1999).

Everyone is likely to have their favourite project to poke around in from Immortality’s trilogy (mine was Ambrosio). This digging is done using the game’s video grid, which has Moviola-style editing functionality. Basically, players can play film clips – which includes movie scenes, audition tapes, rehearsals, behind the scenes content, and interviews – at default speed, or fast forward, rewind and slow the footage down in either direction.

At a grid level, Immortality’s user interface takes some getting used to, and doesn’t always seem to behave as it should. It doesn’t really matter, though. Most useful is Immortality’s greatest innovative and enjoyable feature: the match cut.

Instead of navigating by keywords, as per Her Story and Telling Lies, players use the match cut to jump between video clips. In the process they create their own non-linear story told in a solely visual language. How the mechanic works is that you switch to static Symbol mode, select an item on the screen, such as a prop knife, and then you’ll immediately transition to a scene that contains a matching, or similar, shape. That jump could take you across film projects, even decades. Immortality’s match-cut mechanic is as strong and satisfying in execution as it is a concept – sending you further and further down the game’s dark, dizzying rabbit hole.

Now, Immortality is a mystery at its core, and there’s a lot that I can’t talk about. To do so would spoil the game’s numerous surprises. Already mentioned, though, is that Immortality falls in the horror genre, and promotional material usually tacks on reference to the trilogy footage being haunted. With that established, I can say that as you’re piecing together the three movies and their making-of stories, you’ll inevitably encounter something strange. The first time it happens, it’s chilling.

Soon you’ll realise – usually telegraphed by audio and other cues – that there is more to certain clips. Just as there was more to the career of Marissa Marcel than anyone thought. That’s one of the greatest strengths of Immortality. It offers layer upon layer of mystery. Just as you think you’re getting a grip on something, a new piece of footage unearthed by match cut will haul slippery new questions into the spotlight. Just don’t expect an easy path to answers, especially later in the game, when you find yourself jumping to already discovered clips over and over, instead of the one key piece of film that will offer your craved explanation.

Immortality is officially a five- to ten-hour experience. With almost 140 clips uncovered, credits rolled on my playthrough around the eight-hour mark. And, for the record, after you solve what happened to Marcel, you are free to continue trawling through the footage.

Admittedly Immortality is a different kind of game that won’t be for everyone. It’s experimental in format, very definitely for adults only (it comes with a substantial Content Warning list), and thematically dense. A few days later I’m still trying to process what the game has to say about stories, artists and film as an artistic medium. This is in addition to its hidden narrative. I’m looking forward to the online theories and discussions.

Everyone’s experience of the game will also be different. If you start off Immortality with a string of table reads, that probably won’t be very compelling. However, discover that first personally irresistible bread crumb, and you’ll be hooked, sending you down the decades-overgrown trail for truth, with the immensely fun tool of match cutting at your disposal.

Immortality is out today for Xbox Series X|S and PC. You can also play it with Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, as well as on mobile devices if you’re a Netflix subscriber.


Immortality review

It’ll be too unusual and/or frustrating an experience for some, but Immortality is arguably the most sophisticated use of FMV to create an interactive narrative to date. Multi-layered, ambitious and polished, it’s must-play for cinephiles especially. And its match-cut gameplay mechanic is addictive genius.

 9
Immortality was reviewed on PC