izigame.me

This is a FMV game where you piece together three movies to learn the story of an actress who starred in them. If you like auteur movies like Lynch or Polanski and appreciate this kind of gameplay, read no more reviews and buy this game — it's probably the best in the genre.
Some bullet points:
- AVOID SPOILERS. This review puts major spoilers under tags. However, you may want to only read the bullet points and proceed fully unspoiled. I mean it.
- The three movies are surprisingly compelling thrillers. Unlike most — actually, all — FMV games I've played, they're anything but cheesy. They don't spoof genre tropes and aren't parodies. While not without flaws, you could watch them as actual movies. That alone makes the game worth your time.
- The story avoids many annoying tropes like actors acting out their traumas and stuff. People in this game are believable and feel grounded.
- I strongly suggest you stop playing after the credits roll. You'll be tempted to keep playing and collect every piece; however, this will not necessarily improve the experience and may even detract from it. The game leaves you with a partial picture for a reason. Let it.
- It's much less of a detective game than Her Story. The mystery lies in exploring the themes and oddities. You will not be searching for a killer, but instead diving into a psyche.
- This game doesn't have jump scares or other cheap tropes, but it can get very frightening.
Fear does not come from a distorted face or a loud noise; it comes from a seemingly established pattern breaking. I strongly appreciate the creators of the game understanding that. It worked very well for me — at one point I was absoltely terrified.
THE SPOILER-LIGHT DISCUSSION OF THE THEMES
IMMORTALITY deals with the theme of mistaken and misplaced identity. It permeates the game on all levels — as expected of a story centered around an actress. Each of the three movies deals in it in some way: in Ambrosio, Marissa's character dresses up as a man to sneak into a male monastery, and later becomes something else entirely — more than a human being on levels both symbolic and actual.
In a neo-noir Minsky, the titular character is an artist who "molds" his models into shapes and lines, abusing them to make them less than human; after his death, one of the models does the same to a detective solving Minsky's murder, making him question his identity as a cop (and perhaps as a straight man — queer themes are very prevalent in that movie).
Finally, Two of Everything follows the story of a famous singer who, exhausted by showbiz, relies more and more on her body double, gradually replacing herself with her "copy." The movie has a strong Mulholland Drive vibe (and even a Silencio-l!).
The game itself explores this subject too. The main gameplay is clicking objects to see another scene with the same object — and the game is often cheeky with this (e.g. a T-pose may link to a cross). But it's also sometimes smart: e.g., clicking the face of Marissa's (not her character's!) actual stunt double may still lead you to Marissa, dissolving who she is.
SPOILER-HEAVY PART
The theme of losing your identity is, of course, elevated to a new level when you find out that there are creatures who appear when a piece is played backwards — sometimes as shadows, sometimes fully replacing Marissa and other characters. This aspect of the game is where the Lynchian creepiness is moved to (instead of the movies themselves). It worked incredibly well for me. The feeling that anyone can be someone else — a couple of odd, again very Lynchian actors — somehow was much more terrifying than any screamer. This couple is all-powerful. They can invade any space. They live on the other side of the film where you're not suppose to look. Yet they're always there, even when you're not looking.
The subject of lost identity becomes more terrifying this way, too. Marissa dissolves into her characters, her characters lose themselves — but on top of all that, she is also an entirely different person. No one really truly exists — perhaps not even you, the player?
Moreover, the creatures can dissociate into a number of different people/creatures themselves, once again reinforcing the theme.
The explanation I like is that the two creatures are muses. I like the idea that muses are these semi-angelic semi-vampiric beings that live to inspire art, but don't necessarily enjoy it, often devour creators, and their IMMORTALITY is the IMMORTALITY of art (perpetuated by you, the player, as you experience this game). It wraps the themes up nicely, even if I prefer my back-of-the-film beings inscrutable.
The story plays with the video game format as well. We learn that the muses have staged many stories over the course of human history — but only after one of them kills the other (embodied by Carl) and the killed one is later reincarnated as Amy who watches the footage, they understand that they can transfer between people via the silver screen... which the main one does by the end of the game, being transferred into you, the player. Or so she claims.
THE DOWNSIDES
I'm not sure the scene connections work as intended. There are multiple scenes that focus on a single object (like a cat or a flower), and never once did I catch such a scene by clicking said object, it was always via a clapstick. It's as though some other scenes are "weighted" as more important and appear much more often. As a result, never once did I feel clever for finding a rare scene by clicking an unexpected object; it always felt like I stumbled upon them by chance.
And yes — do not play this game after you get to the credits. The emotional spike is gone, searching for all pieces becomes very tedious, and many of the hidden bits seem like overexplanation. That almost ruined them for me — or at least detracted from the experience. I dislike how direct the game is with the muses explaining how they live, what their agenda is. I particularly dislike how very straightforward and human their disagreement is. The verbosity of their bits detracted from the creepiness and curiosity. I never wanted to know so much about them, even less about their disappointingly understandable thoughts! The game is smart for forcibly ending before you uncover everything, leaving you with a partial picture; let it. It works better.
Overall though, it's an extremely compelling game. It offers deep, mature themes, the stories and subjects are very interesting, and it has The Moment (maybe even several moments) when you'll feel A LOT of emotions. Strongly recommend.