Exmortis

About Exmortis

Exmortis is a Flash horror adventure made by Ben Leffler of LefflerWebDesign and released on Newgrounds in August 2004. It became one of the best-known horror games of the Flash era, with millions of plays on Newgrounds alone, and it led to Exmortis 2 in 2006 and Exmortis 3 in 2009. Newgrounds now runs its Flash games through an emulator, so it still plays in the browser for free.

The story starts with you waking up in the woods at night with no memory of how you got there. It is cold, the nightmares of blood and screams have not faded, and the only shelter is a house in a clearing. You explore it through still, first-person scenes, clicking on what you see, reading its books and studying strange symbols.

The fear is slow and atmospheric: dark, grainy rooms and a story told through what you find, about the house's owners, ancient and very powerful beings, and why you were brought there. The maker had to fit it into Newgrounds' 5 MB limit of the time, and the result is short and dense.

It suits players who want to see where browser horror began, and anyone who likes point-and-click mysteries with an occult story. Newgrounds rates it Mature.

How to play Exmortis

1. Open Exmortis on Newgrounds and press play; the game runs in the browser.
2. Click around each scene to look closer and to move between rooms.
3. Read every book and note you find; the story is told through them.
4. Study the symbols you come across and interact with everything in the house.
5. Find the way into the cellar to go on with the story.

Tips

• In version 1.1 the cellar door opens only after you have seen the first four symbol close-ups, read all three books and interacted with Gwen, as the maker explains on the game's page.
• Play with sound on and the lights off; much of the fear is in the sound.
• If you get stuck, go back over every room: small details are clickable.

Questions