Time for me to gush about a video game for a while. This is arguably the best game I ever played.
I got this game for cheap during the Steam Summer Sale, but honestly I think this game is worth full price. Alternately, you can play this for free through Gamepass. Just a warning: this book has sex. It’s tasteful (in context of the story being told), but it’s there.
SPOILER ALERT!
Marissa Marcel was a teenager when the Nazis shot her in France. She miraculously survived that attack, and after the war went to Hollywood, where she entered showbiz as the hot new thing. Young and beautiful, she was cast in the roll of the temptress in multiple films. Ultimately, her career was cut short when she accidentally shoots a co-star on stage. After filming a brief apology, she disappears off the face of the planet.
For twenty years Marissa can’t be found, but in 1999 she turns up again and gets one final role in Hollywood. People wonder why she hasn’t aged a day between the day the Nazi’s shot her and this final role. Over the course of filming the movie Marissa’s health declines, spontaneously bleeding and fainting. She has a stroke and dies on camera. In the end, none of the movies she starred in came out; her entire career was seemingly cursed.
The thing is, Marissa died in the 1940’s. After the Nazi’s shot her, an art-obsessed chthonic spirit found Marissa in her final moments, and was moved to pity. The spirit called ‘The One’ reanimated Marissa and parasitically controlled her, giving the young actress a second chance. The One loves humanity, and believes that humanity can be redeemed through art. By reviving Marissa, the One hoped to redeem mankind.
For all that the One loves mankind, the One doesn’t get mankind. As an immortal who’s lived countless lives, she’s estranged to humanity due to her endless life. She loves humanity broadly, but is a wee bit psycho when compared to actual humans. By using Marissa as a sock-puppet, the One’s clumsily tries to re-integrate with humanity, but fails because the One is a bit of a sociopath at it. (The One and the Other One are constantly saying that ‘artists suck.’ Well guess what, you two fit right in.)
The reason why Marissa never aged is because of this spirit’s trickery. The reason why Marissa ultimately dies is because the One realized that the only way to create truly great art is to suffer for your art. By immolating Marissa- and therefore self-immolating the One- both muse and artist realize the ultimate goal of reaching out to touch the heart of humankind. The videogame itself is the medium of redemption the One sought to create, inspiring empathy with the game-player.
‘Immortality’ is a game where the player is given footage of Marissa’s three movies, and tries to put together the pieces of what exactly happened to Marissa. The One is hidden between the seams of the footage; the player is only able to witness the One by breaking the fourth wall and rewinding the footage at specific moments. I really liked this mechanic because of that ‘breaking the fourth wall’ added a sense of mystery and mysticism to the gameplay.
‘Immortality’ as a game is a meditation on how art is a method for immortality for the artist… and also how immortality can suck and be lonely if you are actually, physically immortal. I really liked both protagonists. The acting and characterization in this game was just spectacular.
The One wants to enlighten humanity… but is nonetheless driven by jealousy and rage. When the One becomes the third wheel in a love triangle of artistic creation, she cuts the hypotenuse.
Meanwhile Marissa was taken advantage of in her early career by the predatory men of Hollywood… only to in her desperation re-empower herself, she choses to embrace her sexuality to gain power over the men who pester her. In the process, Marissa loses the innocence which drew the One to her in the first place. Watching the gradual emotional collapse of both protagonists is heartbreaking and devastating. As artist and muse, they just want to make art. They ultimately fail because of the faults in humanity.
In an attempt to scavenge anything from the ruined mess which they made of their lives, the One/Marissa self-immolate, sacrificing their health for the sake of their career. Only through this self-sacrifice do they reach out and touch the heart of humanity. The pair of them failed in creating art by making movies, but they succeeded in creating creating art by making a video game. In the end, the narrative of this being a video game and video games being art is intrinsic to the success of the story. The movies failed, but the video game succeeds.
This is a glorious, devastating, and ultimately unforgettable story. This is the best game I’ve played in years.
John Mendez- Book Reviews and More 