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!

[SpagMasterSwift]

Gave this a go yesterday knowing nothing about it and to say it’s right up my street would be an understatement. I’ve reached a point with it now that I think I’ve got a decent handle on the plots and love the way my favourite keeps switching as I piece more together. No idea where the other stuff is going or how far it’ll go, but right now I’m just loving the experience.

[jon_cybernet]

On 19/09/2022 at 21:16, Jamie John said:

 

That's interesting. I saw the bit where one of the characters mentioned that Ambrosio was based on a novel and I wondered whether or not it was a true novel. I probably read parts of The Monk years ago when I did the Gothic at uni.

Not only is it a real novel, but I was surprised to see it had already been adapted into a film starring Vincent Cassell as Ambrosio in fairly recent times (2011): 

 

 

[SpagMasterSwift]

I've seen a fair amount of stuff now, and I'm forming my own opinion of what it means and even have an idea of what it wants me to do - but I feel like its making me see everything possible before letting me reach the end (and I expect I'll need to rewatch some earlier stuff to achieve that). It's still a delight when you hit on a new vein (or chain) that you can explore.

 

Spoiler

I just got to the chair auditions (as seen in the games option screen) and watched a few of those for example. I expect that everybody is going to hit on sections at different times and gain insight in completely different ways, which is pretty awesome. It feels weirdly like Returnal in that you aren't entirely sure if there is a guiding force working behind the scenes or if its all just randomly generated. For some their run will be "easy" while others will be playing over and over until they hit upon whats needed to "succeed"...

 

It's like playing a movie and the making of and the directors cut and the editor and the props dept and the costume dept and the location scout and the subtext all on speed. I'm enjoying the links between the films that I'm starting to see now too. It's a great ride.

 

OK, I thought I knew where this was going but it's just thrown some new weird shit at me...

 

Spoiler

Just as I thought I'd worked out who was who (and who was who) I've got completely knew people appearing in scenes. This game is mental.