Sam Barlow and Half Mermaid talk film, form, and stardom in Immortality

destructoid.com:

Whatever happened to Marissa Marcel? That’s the question at the core of Immortality, the latest from Sam Barlow’s Half Mermaid. It’s the third mystery from Barlow and co. told in full-motion video, or FMV, but it’s much more than a retread. In some ways, Immortality‘s match-cut deduction feels like it was inevitable.

I recently had a chance to both chat with the crew at Half Mermaid and play a short snippet of Immortality. And what’s striking about Immortality at first is how simply it starts. Much like Her Story and Telling Lies, Barlow’s latest is told through a user interface; rather than a computer text interface though, it’s essentially a recreation of an old Moviola machine.

Reels of film get layered across, as the game allows you to dive deep into the archives of three unreleased films that missing move star Marcel starred in. Barlow’s previous games pulled a similar idea: hand you a database of information, and then set you free to chase whatever catches your interest. Solve the mystery, learn more, or simply get side-tracked.

The segments play out across the ages, showing all the archived footage and takes from Marcel’s movies, along with plenty of behind-the-scenes moments and other bits of film. One major focus is the way movies have evolved over the years. The studio system that created Hollywood stars like Rita Hayworth was a focal point of research for Barlow and the team.

“When we think about films and stars, we think about people who will live forever through their work,” Barlow says about the name Immortality. “And in some cases somebody’s almost, their essence as a star almost, outlives the movies themselves.”

He jokes that whenever he picks a subject for a game, he does so as an “excuse” to do