She is a forgotten actress who leads a rather intense lifestyle: Marissa Marcel (played by Manon Gage) and of course you have to fully immerse yourself in the life of this fallen star, because there is some mystery surrounding Marcel. This Netflix game was made by the man behind Her Story and it shows. How it’s made, how you play it and its quality: it breathes Sam Barlow. A fantastic journey that will keep you entertained for many hours and, above all, many thoughts.
Immortality
In this game you use filmmaker techniques: you have to put pieces together and piece together certain themes to understand what happened to Marcel. And you do this, among other things, using objects, which all contain information that is ‘released’ when you tap on them. And as always, not all information is relevant, so your curiosity is not always rewarded.
At the beginning of this game you are probably a bit confused, because you have to see what exactly is expected of you, but when you notice that you can put on your detective jacket, then you have to go for it, and you will also. You run for Marcel: even if you don’t play for a while, your thoughts are still on all kinds of tidbits of information that you would like to put together. What happened and will you ever solve it?
Curiosity not always rewarded
This is a long game, because sometimes you really have to watch things several times to progress and that can sometimes be annoying. But this game is so artistically designed that I was willing to give it a try, but that could also be because I have a great love for the medium of film and like to spend hours in it. At the same time, a love for films is also very annoying in this game, and you especially notice that towards the end.
I will spare you the spoilers, and it is certainly not a deal breaker: you might find it an interesting kind of twist: I’m curious. In any case, it feels like you’re walking into a trap, even though you did it all yourself. So expect a little psychological lesson. One that is told with beautiful pictures, but sometimes also with a kind of grinding and that is not for everyone.
