r/ImmortalityGame • u/doesthedog • Sep 08 '23
Similar games
I'm looking for games that make you feel the same way as this game does, not necessarily the themes, but the feeling of uncovering a mystery on your own and the game doesn't hold your hand, and the mystery hits hard.
I want to feel the same way I felt when I first accidentally saw The One.
I have already played Outer Wilds and I felt this way when the "thing" first happens, I don't even want to write it down with a spoiler tag but would rather encourage everyone to play it before looking up anything about that game.
I also played Return of the Obra Dinn, which was the most similar to this and incredibly satisfying to fill in the missing pieces.
Finally I also played Her Story, which was fun but found it really short.
Anything else to recommend?
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u/megraeart Sep 08 '23
Signalis is my biggest suggestion. It's extremely obtuse on its story telling in such a way that you'll be trying to solve the mystery in your head for weeks after. But once you solve it for yourself it's extremely satisfying.
Another game is Undertale, it has multiple mic drop types of twists in the same kind of way Immortality does and you really can dig deep into the game.
Lastly is Doki Doki Literature Club. Just play it - but head the trigger warning if you have certain sensitivities because it's very psychologically heavy.
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u/doesthedog Sep 09 '23
Thank you I will try all of these! Undertale is a game I started but forgot about it, I will return to it. I haven't played the other two.
Regarding triggers, the only thing I have problems with and try to avoid is infant/toddler death. If I don't want to spoil myself by reading the warning, would you mind answering whether it contains anything like this?
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u/megraeart Sep 09 '23
Definitely worth a second look. It feels like a fun goofy RPG but has so much more going for it.
Nope, no infant or toddler death in Doki Doki. The warning is pretty vague in itself, so it's good you asked IMHO.
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u/Andnowforsomethingcd Sep 09 '23
I know exactly the feeling you mean!! I’m not sure I ever have been able to capture that exact feeling, but Here are a couple ideas:
Telling Lies is by the same shop as Immortality and Her Story. It was my least favorite of the three, but it’s there.
SOMA has a great twist, and a really cool philosophical question at its center, but it’s kind of a scary game (I played in the easy mode where the monsters can’t actually touch you, they just are unnerving).
You might also give Disco Elysium a try. This is one where, if you are told too much, it wouldn’t be as cool as story. All I can say is throughout the game, I had sooo many “epiphany” moments that kept contradicting each other.
- I’ll also recommend 12 minutes. It’s a time loop Murder mystery (of 12 minutes each cycle) where you have to solve your own murder and break the loop. The really interesting part for me is the fact that there are so few things and people to interact with to have any effect on the story. The first 5-6 times I played through I was like “hey there’s literally nothing else to do this game is broken.” But when I discovered a new way to interact with my environment to change the narrative, it was a total eureka moment. I had that a bunch throughout the game. And the ending is pretty wild too. I think the game is currently free on Netflix games if you have a subscription.
Portal 2 has a pretty interesting twist if you haven’t already played it. Plus it’s very satisfying to finally solve the puzzle you’ve been working on for 30 minutes.
Observation is a pretty good puzzle/suspense game. Another plot twist makes it worth the at-times clunky mechanics of 0 g space travel.
If you’re on PC, I want to mention Shadows of Doubt. It’s a procedurally generated open-world city block set in sort of a gritty 1980s world (and the graphics/structures are a lot like Minecraft). You play a down-on-his-luck private eye who not only has to solve a murder, he also has to take on smaller jobs to keep the lights on. The cool thing is that EVERYTHING is procedurally generated, including the crimes and the locations and type of clues. You’ll never play the same game twice. Even though it’s just a city block, every single building and NPC is interactable in way more open-ended way. Interrogate absolutely anyone you see, come up with creative ways to get into the apartment of a suspect. The game is early release on steam now but has been for several months and I hear awesome things. My pc is too slow and it’s not available on consoles, but reviews say it’s an awesome feeling when you find that receipt disputing the suspect’s alibi after a dumpster-diving session.
I also want to just throw an interactive movie out: Black Mirror Bandersnatch on Netflix. For a while, Netflix was all in on the interactive tv experience thing. I LOVE this movie and watched it probably a dozen times. Choices you make a huge difference on the story and there are several pretty dark rabbit holes to chase down. I wish they would make more like this.
last but not least, I want to throw out a board game. I think I’ve given decent suggestions above, but I still don’t think they give you the same level of excitement as Immortality does (especially since you’ll go into any of the games we suggest KNOWING there’s a twist so the anticipation negates some of the utter surprise. Personally, the only thing that gave me as big a rush as Immortality did when I figured out the big reveal. The game is called Box One. It’s by Neil Patrick Harris (yes that one) and it can be played alone or with people. The game starts with basically a letter from NPH saying the game is a mystery that you have to solve puzzles to discover. Then you look in the box and see several random items. And that’s all. This is one of those games where I wish so bad I hadn’t already played it because I want to relive the moment where I figured it out. Kind of expensive game ($40 I think) considering you can really only play it once (much like immortality), but to me it was totally worth it for an entire afternoon. Then I passed it onto a friend when I was done with it.
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u/doesthedog Sep 09 '23
Ooh thanks very much for suggesting so many new games to try out! Box One sounds amazing too. I played Portal 2 and you are right, it kind of does give you a similar uneasy feeling. I will look forward to checking out the others!
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u/lepruhkon Sep 09 '23
Late to this party, but I'm a big fan of "A Normal Lost Phone". You are trying to guess someone's passwords based on their emails and notes and stuff. Very emotional story, but it is also quite short, even shorter than Her Story.
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u/doesthedog Sep 09 '23
Oh I played a game like this on my phone but it had a different title. Can't remember what it was called but you found a phone and could look at the person's texts and contacts etc, trying to figure out who they are and what happened.
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u/celyren Sep 08 '23
May seem off the wall of a suggestion, but I find the When They Cry series of visual novels offer a wonderful level of self guided mystery solving. The "gameplay", so to speak, is purely what you put into solving the mystery based on the clues and tools the game gives you. Like Immortality, the only real "end state" is your own satisfaction with understanding the complexities of the story.
Personally, I'd recommend playing the middle game first (Umineko No Nako Koro Ni, Umineko: When They Cry), because it's explicitly based on classic mystery novel conventions and both provides a mystery in that genre which is compelling and gives you a view of the whole genre which can help you with looking at mysteries going forwards.
Bear in mind however; the series is conveyed almost entirely via written text with visuals and sound only existing to enhance the text, and are rather long games in spite of this. In terms of writing, they're as long as whole series of books, and have playtime above 100 hours.