IMMORTALITY

[Jolly]

Finally got round to starting this today and I've lost about four hours. Totally blown away by it, frankly. 

[Popo]

Finished it. I’m glad I persevered, but unfortunately I don’t think it engaged me beyond the very exciting twists, which probably means I didn’t like the game. I didn’t really feel like I was being a detective; even though I think managed to piece together what was happening, for the most part. I’m willing to concede that the game is smarter than me, though, and I admire it for its ambition and complexity if nothing else. 
 

Now to go to the spoilers thread and find out if I really did figure it out. 

[Kevvy Metal]

Finally got to the credits. 
Absoutely leagues ahead of Telling Lies. 

Very, very good, and a drastically better execusion to the similar ideas of the prior game. 

Great stuff! 

[Grobbelboy]

For whoever else was still waiting for this to appear on iOS/Netflix games (like me): it’s finally available. 
 

You need to go to the games section in the Netflix app and find it, which will direct you to the AppStore. It’s for Netflix subscribers only so it won’t turn up when you search for it directly in the store. 
 

[edit] direct link

[Rex Grossman]

Started playing this on iOS. Did save and quit but now I’ve gone back to it ‘continue’ takes me back to the first clip with no other clips showing. Ugh.

[ZOK]

12gb download! I guess it’s to be expected but wow, that is chunky for a phone game.

 

I’ve played about an hour, is it just random what you click on? Seems to be channeling Black Narcissus and a ton of Samuel Fuller.

[Alex W.]

Anyone else find the iOS version’s video freezes up a bunch when rewinding? Especially if there’s an important clip in that section?

 

Otherwise, wow. I actually would really want to see all of these moves.  
 

Edit - Not once in the game did I get any BGM either! Bugs ahoy.

[Alex W.]

I’m absolutely obsessed with this. The abstraction of the maze against the information is such a wild and occasionally frustrating choice but it works so well. And I’ve said it before but it is amazing what happens when people who can actually write become game designers. It feels like there’s this class of storytelling almost every other game narrative has been graded on a very generous curve.

[Alex W.]

…and that’s a wrap.
 

Holy shit.

[Alex W.]

I’ve not read all the hot takes here but I can’t help thinking of

 

Spoiler

that guy who didn’t realise you could run in RE4.

 

This is the Elden Ring of hypertext mazes. The fact it manages to dole out these plot points in three movies and two meta-stories in a dramatically effective manner in a fucking match-cut linked video database is a game design magic trick that makes VR look trivial.

 

Absolutely in awe of this. My faith in the possibilities of game design has been reinvigorated. It’s late in the day but this is my uncontested GOTY.

[Thor]

4 hours ago, Alex W. said:

makes VR look trivial.

I absolutely love this game, it's my GOTY too, but that's a really odd, not to mention hyperbolic, non-sequiter. 

[Alex W.]

Spoiler

“A first person 3D game but in a volume” seems quite straightforward compared to “most of the paths on this story graph will be a sequence of foreshadowing, complication, and a reveal which recontextualises past information in an interesting and thematically informative way”.

 

It staggers me the way that a new novel or drama or album sometimes staggers me; not technologically but purely creatively. You could have done this, technologically, decades ago but nobody thought to. And that feeling is so, so rare in videogames as a medium.

 

Edit - This isn’t a dig on VR! It’s just that I can at least conceptualise the process there. How you do this and make it good, as a story, is beyond me.

[footle]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

I absolutely love this game, it's my GOTY too, but that's a really odd, not to mention hyperbolic, non-sequiter. 

 

yeah, God of War Raganok was the narrative tour de force of the year 😉
 

(joking)

 

(The game awards jury need replaced with people who actually recognise narrative)

[Alex W.]

Oh shit I just remembered something I saw in a clip and somehow in the rush of making sense of the story I lost track of it.

 

Spoiler

There is a third!