FMV mystery Immortality delayed into August

The case of the missing movie star needs a little more time

The next Sam Barlow FMV adventure is taking a little bit of extra time. Immortality has been pushed back to a release date of August 30, 2022.

Developer Half Mermaid shared the news today, stating the launch has been pushed back from its July date. The extra month will be to ensure the experience is “as polished as possible.”

“We hope everyone anticipating the game will understand this necessary evil and continue to prepare to dig into the most complex mystery we have tried to answer yet: What happened to Marissa Marcel?”

Half Mermaid also shared some new screens of Immortality, showing off some of the different eras and the Moviola-style interface for sifting through the footage.

Here are some new screens to sustain you pic.twitter.com/IZod1rcoYH

— IMMORTALITY (new Sam Barlow game, out August 30th) (@HalfMermaid) July 13, 2022

On the case

Immortality is the latest game from Sam Barlow, the creator of Her Story and Telling Lies. Alongside the Half Mermaid team, Barlow’s explored FMV twice in the past. Both games task players with sifting through massive amounts of footage using a text-based interface.

In Immortality though, the system uses a match-cut tool to identify visual objects—a wig, a cross, someone’s face—and cut to other footage. It’s tech that’s really impressive, and really took me aback when I got the chance to try it out.

Plus, there’s the narrative through-line: the search for Marissa Marcel. The actress only starred in three movies and has since disappeared from the limelight. The question Immortality poses is why, and what could have happened? Did something go south, is there foul play involved, or is there some other force at play?

Considering that I haven’t stopped thinking about some of the footage I found in my demo, the delay does sting a bit. But I’ve really enjoyed Half Mermaid and Barlow’s FMV work so far, and an extra month’s work on this mystery is comparably small. I’ll just have to settle for red string and corkboard for a while longer.

Immortality is coming to PC and Xbox Series X|S on August 30, 2022.