Game 13 of 2023 - Immortality (2022)

Immortality

Developer: Sam Barlow
Publisher: Half Mermaid
Platform: PC
Genre: Interactive Film

Difficulty: Easy
Date Started: May 2 2023
Date Ended: May 4 2023
Hours: ~8

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 9/10

Immortality is awesome. I almost gave up about 10 minutes in because I was just confused, I guess, but holy crap am I glad I stuck with it. 

Immortality is a sort of supernatural mystery thriller told in a non-linear manner. It involves three films starring Marissa Marcel, a promising young actress that made three movies that were never released and then disappeared.

Here, have some screenshots:

That's what they called me in college... ladies.

Carl: Kind of a dick.

I'm not sure what else to say about it. The gameplay is pretty basic, you just click on stuff in the scenes that you watch that take you to related scenes. You can watch clips in reverse, which you have to do in some cases to see hidden clips and advance the story.

The actors do a great job, particularly Manon Gage (Marissa) and Charlotta Mohlin (The One).

Heads up, a good bit of nudity, foul language, and drug use. Immortality is nice enough to give you a content warning in the beginning.

Go play Immortality.

Game 12 of 2023 - Death's Door (2021)

Death's Door

Developer: Acid Nerve
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Platform: PC
Genre: Action RPG

Difficulty: Difficult
Date Started: Apr 15 2023
Date Ended: May 1 2023
Hours: ~16

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 9/10

I almost quit this game about 10 minutes in. Let me tell you, I'm glad I saw it through, difficulty and all.

When looking into Death's Door, I kept seeing reviews that compared it to various Soulslike games. This put me off at first, since I am terrible at those games. I think I gave Elden Ring an hour, tops, and clicked the refund button after drowning my sorrows in a bottle of Assyrtiko.

What put me off at first was the lack of a map. I have absolutely no sense of direction. Here's the thing, though: once you learn how to play the game, it's actually quite accessible. I gave it some time and explored the world a bit, and eventually I kind of appreciated the lack of a map. You have to kind of wander and read the signposts, taking in the small details and encountering some of the enemies you'll face (and learning how to beat them).

This giant house is one of the first enemies in the game.

Don't get me wrong, Death's Door is pretty hard, but it has a much gentler difficulty curve than the standard Soulslike games. It's fairly forgiving in that when you die, you keep all the souls you collect and just get sent back to the nearest door you walked through. You fight two giant bosses in the first 10 minutes or so; trust me, Death's Door is not fucking around.

You're... going to see this a lot.

Yeah, the enemies can be tough, but as I learned their patterns (and died a lot) I slowly learned how to counter and anticipate the enemies moves to become an absolute killing machine.

Yeah, that's what you get! Plenty to go around!

The nameless crow protagonist, the Reaper, encounters a wide variety of interesting characters, both friend and foe. There's Pothead, an unfortunate soul whose aunt tried to make him immortal by turning his head into a pot. He, of course, asks you to waste her.

"Look, I just met you, but you need to kill my aunt. Kill her good."

Mercy is for the weak. Put her in a body bag!

Death's Door has a charming, humorous, tone that helps the difficulty go down easier, like sugar with the pill. The bosses you face are fearsome to be sure, but you can't help but love them.

Honestly felt kinda bad killing this guy, but I'm a Reaper and a Reaper's gotta reap.

Death's Door is rendered in a simple, cartoony style, but is aesthetically arresting. This, combined with the clever level design and puzzles, provided a great incentive to wander the world and discover its secrets.

A nice room in which to take a breather before reaping the fuck out of little gremlins or whatever.

Gorgeous.

tl;dr: Death's Door is great and you should play it.