Destructoid’s Indie Gems – Edition 5: Uncover the cost to stardom, one scene at a time

Whatever happened to Marissa Marcel? That’s what you’re trying so desperately to figure out. There’s something tugging at you to keep pressing on through the footage. Perhaps it’s morbid curiosity, that strange desire to peel back the curtain and see the darkness behind that enchanting model-turned-lead-actress. Three unreleased films, each starring the same ageless woman… something’s not adding up.

Careful of what lies behind the curtain

From the mind of Sam Barlow (Her Story and Telling Lies), the mysterious and completely captivating realm of IMMORTALITY is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. There is nothing quite like this game. It’s a hypnotizing adventure that’s simple on paper, yet super effective thanks to its unravelling mystery and fantastic acting. Fulfilling the role of a film technician meets detective, you must sift through dozens of seemingly random film clips and piece them together to figure out what happened to the lead star. Gameplay consists of standard controls such as play and stop, fast-forward or rewind, and clicking on a subject to move onto a new scene. It’s much like watching a DVD, but the entire game feels like easter eggs hidden in the extras menu.

Enticing and addictive—there’s something warning you to leave yet you cannot stop looking

You may feel a strange uneasiness while playing this game. Even the main menu feels wrong. It’s as if the film reels are cursed, and that discovering the thing that happened to Marcel might make it happen to you, too. As you’re an unnamed protagonist, IMMORTALITY plays as though your life is on the line or that Marissa Marcel really was an actress who mysteriously disappeared. The one-liner plot is surprisingly more than enough to keep its hooks into you, where the story is carried by the impressive acting that only pulls you in further into its enigma. The use of full-motion video was a brilliant choice as it strengthens the overall believability of the game, thus creating greater immersion. You actually feel like an investigator trying to uncover a dark mystery.

Knowing you’re watching real people act during a movie shoot that appears unrelated to the overarching plot crafts a strange and uncanny setting. While it’s not marketed as a horror game, there are a lot of moments that may unsettle you. It’s rare that I get creeped out by a video game, but IMMORTALITY sure managed to get a reaction out of me multiple times. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the truth is hidden in the black and white, and it’s a hard truth to accept. The revelation in this interactive movie will likely surprise and shock you with its unpredictability.

Do you dare to jump into the rabbit hole that is this FMV masterpiece?

Using basic gameplay that anyone can quickly master, there’s enough variety in IMMORTALITY as you’re not only enjoying the three movies that start to make sense the more clips you find and piece together, but there’s the overarching plotline that something outside of these movies is the real reason for Marcel’s disappearance. The uneasiness is accompanied by a sense of dread, like something is looking back at you as you’re watching the film. Marcel is larger than life at times and in ways beyond our grasp, as if she’s looking back at the viewer, even though you’re watching clips from a movie that was never released and a rising star that has long been forgotten.

The actors are brilliant as they tackle the role of their movie characters and their “real” selves. Mixing behind the scenes with movie clips can feel surreal at times, but it’s Manon Gage playing as Marissa Marcel that truly steals the show (which is very fitting as it’s the entire point of IMMORTALITY).

Every movie has a distinct look and feel to it, and all are shot in different years. Ambrosio filmed 1968, Minsky in 1970, and the last titled Two of Everything in 1999. The story spans across 31 years, told through the movie scenes. Yet Marcel is ageless. She’s preserved in time, like revisiting Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The plot of each movie intertwines with the mystery, feeling like chapters in Marcel’s autobiography rather than watching fiction unfold on screen. Like a detective working on a case, the mystery is a tightly wound ball with threads leading to places you’d never expect.

So, are you interested in figuring out what happened to Marissa Marcel? IMMORTALITY is available on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Netflix (mobile only).