IMMORTALITY

[dumpster]

Holy shit.

 

I get it now.

[footle]

6 minutes ago, dumpster said:

Holy shit.

 

Quite. And avoiding posting any spoilers you can.

Which is hilarious because all I want to do in this thread is discuss what I've found, but there's a lot of hidden achievements for a reason, and half of the game is in your head.

 

I'm finding the interaction, the setup, the approach much more accessible than I ever found Telling Lies or Her Story.

[sofasurfer]

8 minutes ago, dumpster said:

Holy shit.

 

I get it now. Keep playing and rewinding ...

Is that when you 

Spoiler

hear that ominous rumble and rewind. First time that happened I was actually slightly freaked out.

 

[Stanley]

13 minutes ago, footle said:

 

Quite. And avoiding posting any spoilers you can.

Which is hilarious because all I want to do in this thread is discuss what I've found, but there's a lot of hidden achievements for a reason, and half of the game is in your head.

 

I'm finding the interaction, the setup, the approach much more accessible than I ever found Telling Lies or Her Story.

It’s really dead hard to discuss isn’t it because it starts with one scene and even trying to discuss that is nigh on impossible. 

[thesnwmn]

22 minutes ago, dumpster said:

Holy shit.

 

I'd suggest spoiler-ing the second part....

 

Spoiler

I know it's minor and maybe petty. But this is a game of discovery I think. Not just exploring the mysteries but understanding how to discover them in the first place.

 

[elmo]

I think a spoiler thread is in order.

 

oddly enough I saw credits in under 3 hours. I’m assuming I need to play a LOT more

[thesnwmn]

About an hour invested so far.

 

I'm getting the concept of what I should do but I suspect I'm going to struggle to keep going at some point.

 

I think I'm going to want a bit more structure in the end. What I'd give for a checklist of things that show I'm progressing in some way. To understand how far I am through the experience. 

 

I hate that I think that. I adore the idea there isn't a score or a list of quests. But I want to actually enjoy that as much as I like the idea. My brain just isn't wired that way.

 

Also, I'd love a way to see the clips I've connected in some massive web. Like "you followed this link to get to this point in this clip". A massive map of clips would be stunning I think.

[dumpster]

Spoilered.  @sofasurfer quoted me, please can that post be altered too...

 

There's a market for this technology for teenagers.  A film where you....

 

Spoiler

Play it forwards and you get a regular movie, play it backwards and TITS.

 

[footle]

23 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

About an hour invested so far.

 

I'm getting the concept of what I should do but I suspect I'm going to struggle to keep going at some point.

 

I think I'm going to want a bit more structure in the end. What I'd give for a checklist of things that show I'm progressing in some way. To understand how far I am through the experience. 

 

I hate that I think that. I adore the idea there isn't a score or a list of quests. But I want to actually enjoy that as much as I like the idea. My brain just isn't wired that way.

 

Also, I'd love a way to see the clips I've connected in some massive web. Like "you followed this link to get to this point in this clip". A massive map of clips would be stunning I think.

l’ve a pages document with lots of text in it.

[footle]

25 minutes ago, elmo said:

I think a spoiler thread is in order.

perhaps a couple of weeks after the iOS release.

[NecroMorrius]

Spoiler

I've just been playing a tiny bit and found my first "weird thing" hidden in a scene. I noticed you can only access it by scrubbing backwards, and it does something clever with the audio. While it's "ahead" of you on the imaginary tape track, the rumble is in your right ear. It moves to the left when it's "behind" you and into the centre when you're on it. Very smart.

Absolutely no idea what's going on though.
 

Spoiler

The third time it happened I got the singing scene, which I found incredibly engrossing as it played out. Intimate, confusing, Lynchian. Is she miming? She's miming. She's crying. Why? She's walking away. The song is continuing. Beautiful song. I feel like I'm watching something I shouldn't be. It's a bit pretentious, but I'm totally going with it. Why do I feel like such a voyeur and why do these clips within clips feel so frightening? The hairs on the back of my neck are standing up.

 

This train of thought was then derailed by a pop up screaming BONK! YOU'VE UNLOCKED MICROSOFT POINTS BY PLAYING A PC GAME CLICK HERE TO CLAIM BEFORE THEY DISAPPEAR THESE POINTS WON'T CLAIM THEMSELVES! BONK!

These clips loop in a way I haven't quite figured out yet - they can be minutes long, but when you're scrubbing through they can seem seconds long until you let them play out. Time seems to compress and reels extend and contract with the needs of the recording. It's acutely unnerving. 

I desperately want an unfiltered cigarette, a flatcap and an old reel to reel editing station peripheral. Someone needs to mod the DJ Hero turntable into this!

[thesnwmn]

3 hours and credits rolled.

 

Not 100% sure what to think. I wasn't really engaged for the first 30-45 mins I don't think but it slowly sucked me in.

 

Going to need to think about that I think. There's both the story/mystery to unpick as well as the mechanics.

[Kryptonian]

Reached the credits but have no idea what the story was (if there was one?) or what I discovered etc 

[bradigor]

26 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

3 hours and credits rolled.

 

Not 100% sure what to think. I wasn't really engaged for the first 30-45 mins I don't think but it slowly sucked me in.

 

Going to need to think about that I think. There's both the story/mystery to unpick as well as the mechanics.

 

Welcome to Club de Sam Barlow. 

[thesnwmn]

1 minute ago, bradigor said:

 

Welcome to Club de Sam Barlow. 

 

I played but never finished Her Story. That failed to grab me at all. I respected the idea but just couldn't get interested enough. I think the purely pictorial interface in this rather than text search felt less like work.

[Escape]

It doesn't appeal to me because I don't think I'd be able to roleplay as detective without smelling the Wizard's feet. It feels crucial to immerse yourself in it that way, where it's not clicking to view another scene but a journey of captive interest that dispels its lack of mechanical agency from mind. Else it's a cliphopper that highlights the redundancy of your intelligence to inform directed progress.

 

As much as you can randomly click through Obra Dinn, that's much more my cup of tea because it's immediately faithful to your deductions. You could play through it without a mismatch in theory, and it has a wonderful knack of making you feel a bit thick for missing clues that were clearly and fairly signposted.

 

I felt disappointed playing through Heavy Rain following its hype, but much more so afterwards when I read up on its pathways and realised how little input I had. If only you could talk to these creatures save Jason.

 

[edit]

 

Having said all of that, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture's one of my favourite games, and it's not like you do a whole bunch in that. If it makes ya feel, it makes ya feel.

 

I think I'm really just replying to Edge's gushing “The possibilities seem endless”, which is something I'd have expected to read about GTA3 at launch, say. Or with less hyperbole now, something along the lines of The Plucky Squire. Not so much a reel-jumping “The Devil of Christmas”. But hey, if it's engrossing...

[CrichStand]

Put an hour into this and I’m losing the will to live. I may as well be watching old random clips of Bargain Hunt on YouTube or something. Fuck off boxset of Murder She Wrote with Director’s Commentary seems more appealing than jumping back into this shite. Just sat watching a clip that went on and on and on and on and on and on, nothing happening of interest at all, even the actors looked and sounded bored. I can see why the pad vibrates at the end of each clip........good way of waking you up. 😂

 

Also, for a “game” based heavily around video/audio why are the audio levels so fucked? The speech is about a quarter of the volume of every other Xbox game making it hard to hear but, the music that plays now and again is a normal volume which totally drowns out the speech. Why is music playing anyway, doesn’t even make any sense?!?!? Also, if some of the footage is supposed to be 60/70s, why does it look like it’s been shot on a cheap digital camcorder bought from Argos? Unlike the other games the whole setup just doesn’t seem to work at all, at least not so far anyway. An hour in and there’s no reason at all to carry on. Nothing even remotely interesting, or of merit has happened at all. If this was a film/series it would have been switched off after about 10mins and laughed at for years to come.
 

Factor in I enjoyed Telling Lies for what it was - it’s hammy acting and trashy story just about held up, unlike  Her Story which was the Emperor’s New Clotges and had shockingly bad acting and the “story” was a wafer thin load of old bollocks. This feels like a huge step backwards from Telling Lies so far. Maybe it gets better? A lot, lot, lot, lot better? Like 9 points out of 10 better in the next 30mins or so? Not sure I can be bothered to find out though.

[CrichStand]

And having said that I played the next clip, started to doze off through boredom, came round , rewound the footage to see what I’d missed and.......

 

Spoiler

some weird freaky borderline satanic shit appeared onscreen out of nowhere. Absolutely shit a brick with being so out of it. 🤣 Tried to view it again and other weird stuff then happened which gave me chills.

 Looks like there’s a David Lynch influence. If so this could get good after all! 

[NecroMorrius]

Mate, spoilers

[CrichStand]

@Moz Sorry man, didn’t think it was needed, but sorted it just in case.
 

Edit - So, having now played for 3-4hrs I think I can safely say that..........this is fucking rubbish. I can’t stress that enough - absolute fucking rubbish. Well that might be a tad harsh, the rewinding mechanic is initially ok. But yeah, pretty much everything else is absolute fucking rubbish. How anyone could score this 10/10 is laughable. They must have been on the Stella. 🤣 The content is a joke and it doesn’t even appear to work properly or hold together anyway.

 

I’ve watched 3-4hrs of basically........nothing. Cheers Gary Barlowe! 😂 There’s no story, there are no interesting characters (I don’t even know their names or anything about them.......after 3-4hrs), there’s no interesting dialogue. It’s just.......nothing. Unlike Her Story and Telling Lies you don’t seem to be piecing anything together at all, there’s no mystery to unravel, no intrigue. You’re literally just watching a load of random shite. The only mechanic that keeps you “playing”, is that now and again you hear a rumbling brass sound and..........

 

Spoiler

At these points you rewind and it causes an edgy Satan style character to appear, doing some really edgy stuff, like dissing Jesus or popping a tit out or getting bummed for fun. 🤣

This doesn’t work properly though, mainly because it quickly gets boring and repetitive but, also because I’ve watched 15 different clips and those 15 clips have all triggered the same sequence over and over and over again. It feels a bit like repeatedly watching the same 5min loop of Hollyoaks, only with worse acting and it being absolutely nowhere near as exciting as that sounds.

 

I don’t think the face stuff works either. Using words to search for clips in the other “games” made it feel like more of a game and way more interactive. Here, you’re just clicking on faces and random shit and the next video auto plays. So yeah, it just feels empty and like a whole load of........nothing. Like a lot of stuff these days it just seems to be promoting a load of Occult cobblers. Next time, Ken Barlowe should go full edgelord and drop some blasphemous anti-Islam stuff in. Yeeeeeeeah, thought not! 🤣 

[Stanley]

I’m surprised people are saying there is no mystery or that they don’t know what it’s about even. 
 

This is a spoiler regarding the dates the movies were directed.

Spoiler

1968, 1970 and 1999

I mean, think about that. 

[CrichStand]

1 hour ago, Stanley said:

I’m surprised people are saying there is no mystery or that they don’t know what it’s about even. 
 

This is a spoiler regarding the dates the movies were directed.

  Reveal hidden contents

1968, 1970 and 1999

I mean, think about that. 

But there isn’t any real mystery because (“story” spoiler).........

Spoiler

The game is called Immortality. The man and woman Adam/Eve Demon/Fallen Angel/Alien characters talk about being immortal early doors. There’s also the old cliched split personality (DID ) bullshit that’s in about every straight to video film or budget game ever, hinted at too. That seems to be about it. Case closed. Not that there’s even any reason to care about any of it anyway.

To get to that point you’re just watching a load of random unrelated bollocks. In Telling Lies you were revealing characters back stories, figuring out relationships, trying to piece together who was telling the truth and who was crossing who. Figuring out time lines and major plot points and how the character you play in the game fitted into the grand scheme of things. To do that you used keywords, as far as I can remember. It felt like you were investigating and using your intuition and skills of deduction to solve a mystery. There was an actual plot with twists and turns that kept you pushing forward. It was comparable to a ropey TV drama. Sounds naff put like that but it was entertaining. Plus you could play Solitaire! 😁

 

On this you’re just dropped into watching clips with no real context. Fucking random jolly orchestral music is playing for no reason that’s drowning out dialogue, or unintentionally playing over “scary” scenes. It’s just doesn’t seem well designed or well thought out at all. Certainly not to the extent of Telling Lies.

 

I’ve read a few reviews of this now and I can’t believe the amount of shite some of them are talking! They mention it’s a tour de force masterpiece of film AND game and make comparisons with Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. What. The. Actual. Fuck. Have folk gone through the looking glass or what??? 😂 It’s like comparing a Mr Tickle Mr Man book with 1984!!! Most of these reviews just seem to be full of waffle that says nothing about the game at all. Then in the last few sentences - no idea what was going on, didn’t pick up a decent plot, watched loads of seemingly unrelated scenes, I think some stuff happened maybe. A masterpiece. 10/10.
 

Watched the series Severance on AppleTV recently and it’s fucking amazing. This is like a primary school play in comparison. 4hrs of that and I knew every character and their backstories and cared about them and was totally gripped with each episode. 4hrs of this and I genuinely don’t know anyone’s name or care in the slightest. There is no plot. At all. It’s dreadful.

 

 

[Stanley]

You are further along than me I think @CrichStandbut yeah, that’s the title of the game and the thing that drew me in. That was my starting point. I still don’t know what happened to Marissa or how it all ties together. And although the clips are seemingly random there is a narrative thread to follow, or motives, and yes some are cliches, but I thought that was the point too, as part of exploring the games themes of youth, beauty, and cinema, manipulation, and so on. 
 

Btw one of the writers, Barry Gifford, actually wrote for Lynch so it’s no surprise the comparisons being made. 

[thesnwmn]

@CrichStand I think you have a point somewhere but you seem to have lost it in being so vehemently over the top. In the same way you comment on the reviewers who have gushed over it you are the opposite.

 

(I won't quite you because I think what you've written says far more than should be in this thread for people still coming to the game and will damage it).

[pledge]

I don’t envy being a writer in any medium. You get accused of either being too basic or when you do anything else it’s “art house/high school wank”.

[CrichStand]

@Stanley But I don’t get why you’d care for Marissa? There’s absolutely no reason to. There’s no intriguing back story or character development. There’s nothing to care about......and that’s after watching 4hrs of footage! I literally could not give a shit about anyone in the game. You’re basically told, there was an actress, she went out of the limelight for a bit, now watch loads of random and really boring hammy conversations from her films for no real reason. That’s it. That doesn’t amount to a plot!
 

It just doesn’t work right from the off for me. Then it throws in the “rewind” mechanic which distracts away from the content of the footage and any potentially interesting dialogue. You just end up going through the footage listening for rumbles, or looking for a flashing frame in the clip gallery over and over. Doing that reveals even more hammy bollocks that quickly becomes repetitive.
 

Favourite Lynch stuff is when he’s knocking off the structure of the Wizard of Oz. Think the dude that worked on this was involved with a couple of his films writing stuff but, not sure to what extent he contributed to the finished product. 
 

34 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

@CrichStand I think you have a point somewhere but you seem to have lost it in being so vehemently over the top. In the same way you comment on the reviewers who have gushed over it you are the opposite.

 

(I won't quite you because I think what you've written says far more than should be in this thread for people still coming to the game and will damage it).

So you’re saying that my opinion of a game will damage the game for other people? How? They’re free to post their opinion however they want to and discuss things from their point of view. Would be good to read why people think this is such a masterpiece and why they feel the “story” is so great etc. I’m struggling to see any of this stuff at all, so would be nice to get a different take on it backed up with evidence from the game itself, of why it’s worthy of a perfect score.
 

Also, how am I going over the top? I’ve sat for 4hrs playing a game based on the fact I liked Telling Lies and the numerous 10/10 a masterpiece of film and games reviews. After 4hrs of literally nothing happening, no plot, no character development, no interesting dialogue, no gameplay, nothing, I’ve come to the conclusion it’s rubbish. This is after what appears to be the main answer to the games premise being revealed. I now have almost no interest to push on with that as it’s a total non event. I’m just not finding any substance to the game at all. Usually, even when I don’t like stuff there’s always something that I “get” and can understand why people are into it. With this that isn’t the case, at least so far. I feel Telling Lies is waaaaaaay better.

[NecroMorrius]

You sound like the lady who walked out of my screening of Inland Empire shouting "FIVE STARS... FIVE STAAAARS!!!!" incredulously.

[bradigor]

This is the problem with scoring games films, books, music, etc. A 10/10 means everyone goes to try it and it is impossible to get everyone to feel the same. 

 

@CrichStandis well within their rights to not like the game and think everything about it is turgid nonsense. I can feel the opposite. 

 

It's the same as to how I think Hollow Knight is an ok game, but others lord it up at a GOAT. 

 

For whatever reasons Sam Barlow really speaks to me and his games do too. I wish I still had my old interview with him from Gamestyle as it was a fascinating chat at the time 

[elmo]

45 minutes ago, CrichStand said:

Would be good to read why people think this is such a masterpiece and why they feel the “story” is so great etc.

 

2 hours ago, CrichStand said:

I’ve read a few reviews of this now and I can’t believe the amount of shite some of them are talking!

[BitterToad]

Really cool to see it's a majority of people that aren't enjoying the game that are posting open spoilers in the thread. Might as well fuck it up for other people if it's not your cup of tea, eh?