Podcasts
The Absorbing Mystery of ‘Immortality’ [Safe Room Podcast]
Before listening to this week’s discussion on Immortality, please check out last week’s conversation on Scanner Sombre, LIDAR.EXE, and Gamescom 2022!
At 30, I tend to think I have experienced a great deal of what games have to offer. Not to place a cap on the medium’s potential or to say there’s a drought of quality titles, yet I often find I more or less know what I’m getting myself into before sitting down to play a new title.
And that’s fine. I still enjoy all manner of games across all genres, but a game these days rarely makes me reexamine the potential of storytelling in games.
[Immortality Enters From Stage Left]
Then there’s Immortality, which challenged my perception of the possibilities of storytelling in games, doing so in the most precise and intriguing ways. Half Mermaid and creative director and writer Sam Barlow build upon the FMV frameworks by allowing the player to prioritize their course of detective work.
The player is tasked with uncovering the fate of rising starlet Marissa Marcel, an actress who made three never-released films and was never seen again. The player effectively is a detective, sifting through scenes from her recently discovered films and supplemental materials (interviews, behind-the-scenes, etc.).
What separates Immortality from other FMV mystery games is how it handles and rewards player agency. Using a match cut feature (the player selects an object in a frame of film and is taken to a corresponding scene where that object or character is present), the player decides what to prioritize in their investigation. This leads to the player stumbling down many a rabbit hole of potential clues to Marcel’s fate, but it’s a rabbit hole they choose rather than being thrown down by the developer.
And in this week’s episode, Neil and I further venture down the mysterious rabbit hole of Immortality with returning friend of the show and features editor of The Gamer, Andrew King.
We discuss the match cut system, Barlow’s approach to storytelling in games, and the performances that fuel this thrilling mystery. –Jay Krieger
Andrew’s Immortality Review and article detailing his issues he found with the match cut system.
Safe Room is a weekly horror video game discussion podcast with new episodes every Monday on
iTunes/Apple, Sticher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Linktree for additional streaming services.
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On the DL.
After spending June on explicitly queer texts like Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (listen) and William Castle’s Homicidal (listen), it’s only appropriate that Horror Queers celebrate the American holiday with a blockbuster film with a not-so-secret gay connection.
In Independence Day, an unlikely group of people come together when the human race faces extinction from a threatening alien race. After spaceships destroy every major city, pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith) must team up with secret tech genius David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), as well as the US President (Bill Pullman), to execute a daring plan to save the planet from annihilation.
Along for the ride are the two saviors’ romantic partners – WH Communications Director Constance (Margaret Colin) and stripper Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) – plus eccentric scientist Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner), who is at the center of the film’s most horrific set piece.
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Episode 393: Independence Day (1996)
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day…courtesy of gay German director Roland Emmerich.
As the summer blockbuster celebrates its 30th anniversary, we’re looking back on an alien disaster film that scared young Trace (thanks to that alien autopsy scene) and turned Will Smith into a star.
Plus: the death that upsets the most; bemoaning Vivica A. Fox’s career; pondering what could have been with the casting; why Smith’s bravado and the film’s patriotism doesn’t always work for Joe; and plenty of riffing on the atrocious sequel.
Cross out Independence Day!
Coming Up Next: We’re retreating to the country for some questionable therapy courtesy of Joe Dante’s 1981 classic, The Howling!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 503 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Forbidden Fruits, Saccharine, Evil Dead Burn, an audio commentary on the utterly ridiculous sequel Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985), and the conclusion of our Requel Tier coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.
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