Everyone with a Netflix account can play one of 2022’s best-rated games for free

there’s never been anything like Immortality before. From the unique mind of and study of Sam Barlow, Half Mermaid, this curious interactive experiment blurs the line between film and gaming in a way he’s never been able to before. In a way, it’s three movies stacked on top of each other, all separated and complete with behind-the-scenes footage and snippets of the movie-making process ending up on the editing room floor.

At the heart of this intricate web of intrigue is a chilling and compelling mystery. It’s all delicately constructed and expertly woven around a reflection on the nature of fame and a damning indictment of the broken dynamic between men in power and women of talent, and what it all means in the golden age. Hollywood and beyond.

It can be almost overwhelming when you start out; that’s how I imagine Peter Jackson felt when he set out to flip through thousands of hours of Beatles footage to put together the phenomenal Get Back. He is placed in a position of great privilege; thrown into an archive of actress Marissa Marcel’s clips, rushes, and non-public footage footage, and charged with making sense of it all. Somewhere, within all this footage, there is a whisper of what happened to him: an answer to why he disappeared, why none of his movies ever came out, and what was going on in his damned career.

There aren’t many games you can compare it to. Immortality seizes the unique format of interactive media and runs with it. Real-life footage (now a staple in Barlow’s games, which he handles deftly) can be stopped, frozen, and interrogated. Freeze a frame, zoom in and look at something specific, maybe the director’s whiteboard, and select it. Suddenly, you are transported through time and space to look through the lens of another camera, looking at that same blackboard in another era. Are they the same people here? Did someone intentionally move the item? Is it a coincidence that he has reappeared in Marcel’s life?

The whole game is assembled like a symphony: each clip, itself, is phenomenally well scripted and actress Manon Gage acts with finesse and craftsmanship, and you can tell there’s a lot of her in this character. Scaffolded and structured by an impossible script, Barlow handles every aspect of this multi-layered, multi-faceted, interactive project as if he were born to do so. As you become entangled and entangled in Immortality’s inescapable web, you can picture Barlow smirking in your mind, knowing you’re getting closer to the dark heart of the piece, and grow more and more constricted as you do so.

Immortality is an essential work for anyone curious about what games can do when looking for a non-standard format. Immortality is an unforgettable experience for anyone who loves the big screen. Immortality is a vital message for men who have never considered how the media exploits women. Our Immortality review called it impressive, haunting, detailed. It has won multiple awards, including BAFTAs, for innovation, for Gage’s performance, for narrative. The fact that you can play it at no additional cost as part of your Netflix subscription makes it as essential as Squid Game, Stranger Things, Nobody, Knives Out, BoJack Horseman, or The Crown.

A while back, I wrote about how (almost) no one is playing Netflix games. By the most recent count, that means more than 200 million people are not accessing or using the incredible library of amazing games available at their fingertips. By bringing attention to titles like Immortality, Into the Breach, Terra Nil, and other exemplary titles, I hope to make sure this add-on service sticks around for years and years.

Because, in addition to curating a very well organized list of titles, Netflix has big plans to dabble in games. Later this year, we have Oxenfree 2 coming to Netflix day and date. It already looks amazing, and as a sequel to one of the best story-driven adventure games of recent years, the stakes are high in this game. It will act as a lightning rod for what Netflix can do within its own studios for years to come.

For now though, I can’t encourage you to download and play Immortality enough. It’s three movies for the price of none, and it offers an introspective unlike any you’ve experienced before, whether you’re a seasoned gamer or not.

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