Immortality

What to Know

Critics Recommend

Average Score

Total Reviews: 19

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Immortality is not without flaws, but they are negligible. This is a game that raises the bar for the FMV / interactive movie genre, another mesmerizing piece of storytelling from Sam Barlow.

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Critics Recommend

Critic Reviews: 19

Critics Consensus

# Reviews: 19

Immortality is not without flaws, but they are negligible. This is a game that raises the bar for the FMV / interactive movie genre, another mesmerizing piece of storytelling from Sam Barlow.

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Awards & Recognition

Critic Reviews for Immortality

Critic Reviews

Score Distribution

19

Reviews

Average Score

100

Ranges

8/10

Tristan Ogilvie (IGN)

Despite some shallow search tools, Immortality is a thoroughly mesmerizing mystery and one of the most surprising video game stories of 2022.

August 30, 2022 |

Full Review

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.

August 30, 2022 |

Full Review

4.5/5 stars

Sam Loveridge (GamesRadar+)

9/10

Eric Van Allen (Destructoid)

A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won’t cause massive damage.

August 30, 2022 |

Full Review

Tristan Ogilvie (IGN)

8/10 - (Read Review)

Despite some shallow search tools, Immortality is a thoroughly mesmerizing mystery and one of the most surprising video game stories of 2022.

Sam Loveridge (GamesRadar+)

4.5/5 stars - (Read Review)

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.

Eric Van Allen (Destructoid)

9/10 - (Read Review)

A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won’t cause massive damage.

**Read all 19 critic reviews on the desktop version of VSG.

Read the Reviews (19 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
AnaitGames	Víctor Manuel Martínez García	10 / 10	08-30-2022	Sam Barlow continues to explore the ways in which the image can be made interactive with his first explicitly cinematic video game.	Read review
COGconnected	Mark Steighner	94 / 100	08-30-2022	Quote not yet available	Read review
Destructoid	Eric Van Allen	9 / 10	08-30-2022	A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won’t cause massive damage.	Read review
Digital Trends	Giovanni Colantonio	4.5 / 5 stars	08-30-2022	Immortality is an astonishing work of interactive fiction that’s every bit as unsettling and unforgettable as the films that inspired it.	Read review
Digitally Downloaded	Lindsay M.	5 / 5 stars	08-30-2022	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.	Read review
EGM	Josh Harmon	8 / 10	08-30-2022	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.	Read review
Eurogamer	Chris Tapsell	Recommended	08-30-2022	Sam Barlow’s epic mystery of self-reference and cinema is an elaborate, ingenious enigma	Read review
GameSpew	Kim Snaith	7 / 10	08-30-2022	Quote not yet available	Read review
GameSpot	Mark Delaney	8 / 10	08-30-2022	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.	Read review
GamesRadar+	Sam Loveridge	4.5 / 5 stars	08-30-2022	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.	Read review
God is a Geek	Chris White	10 / 10	08-30-2022	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.	Read review
IGN	Tristan Ogilvie	8 / 10	08-30-2022	Despite some shallow search tools, Immortality is a thoroughly mesmerizing mystery and one of the most surprising video game stories of 2022.	Read review
IGN Italy	Davide Mancini	9 / 10	08-30-2022	The most ambitious and intense Sam Barlow’s game is a brilliant interactive mockumentary about movies and our relationship with the sense o narration. Thanks to a sleek and precise game mechanic and a clever management of a very thin fourth wall, Immortality plays with both cinema and video game languages, using them both to deliver a deep story with different layers. If you like FMV adventures and Sam Barlow’s games, it’s definitely a groundbreaking game.	Read review
Paste Magazine	Kate Sanchez	9 / 10	08-30-2022	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.	Read review
PC Gamer	Kaile Hultner	95 / 100	08-30-2022	Immortality is Sam Barlow’s best, most thought-provoking game yet, and a barnstorming debut for Half Mermaid.	Read review
Polygon	Alexis Ong	Recommended	08-30-2022	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.	Read review
Press Start	James Mitchell	9.5 / 10	08-30-2022	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.	Read review
Rely On Horror	Steve Summers	10 / 10	08-30-2022	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?	Read review
Rock, Paper, Shotgun	Alice Bell	Not Recommended	08-30-2022	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.	Read review

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About Immortality

Game Description / Storyline:

Marissa Marcel was a film star. She made three movies. But none of the movies was ever released. And Marissa Marcel disappeared. The new game from Sam Barlow, creator of Her Story.

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