Exmortis 2 Game

[Exequiel Mondragon]

In2004, Exmortis took your hand and lead you deep into the woods. In 2006, the sequel, Exmortis 2, showed you mankind's darkest hour... a fate you may have had a hand in. Finally, in 2009, you're given a chance to take your revenge, provided you can live long enough to see it out. From horror maestro Ben Leffler and 3RDsense comes Exmortis 3, a ghoulish point-and-click adventure meant to be played with the lights turned out and the sound turned up.

Taking place where the previous game left off, the story has you playing Mr Hannay once more, a man with a bone to pick with the Exmortis and their ancient lord, Vlaew. He's a little more well-equipped this time around, finding himself able to wield strange new powers such as telekinesis and teleportation and a few others you'll discover. But watch your step. The path ahead is littered with traps and other dangers that could bring your quest to an untimely end. The game autosaves for you fairly frequently, but making use of the multiple save slots available from the options menu is advised.

Along with the time-honoured tradition of finding items and trying to combine them with other items (optional steps: consult walkthrough, call shenanigans on solution, throw tantrum), Exmortis 3 also features a fair amount of puzzles to solve. Some of them feel natural, such as re-wiring an electrical panel, but some of them are a little odd, such as playing a memory game with a traffic light. You heard me. If you get stuck, you can consult the full walkthrough located under the options in the menu, but doing so will penalize your final score slightly.

This is perhaps an odd thing to say about a game that features a bloody demon in a cowboy hat as its poster boy, but Exmortis 3 is very pretty. Lighting plays a big part, and not just in terms of providing darkened corners for unpleasantness to lurk in. Skies paint the landscape in tones of burnt copper and rusted rose, heavy clouds hanging overhead. You really do feel like you're in a ruined world, and the fleeting shadows and flickering lights of the lonely corridors will have you glancing over your shoulder.

Analysis: So it's been almost three years since the sequel, and you may be wondering how the game has held up, especially after its creator was picked up by Australian company 3RDsense. While the most obvious change is the addition of a price tag and a sleek new interface, but what else? The good news is, not much. Depending on whether or not you thought the originals were shining gems, the good news is also the bad news.

Some of Exmortis 3's problems aren't exactly exclusive to the title, but are rather familiar issues with the point-and-click game genre as a whole. You have situations that need to be resolved by The One Thing in a different location, when there are three objects in the room with you that would serve the same function. You may have to backtrack to meticulously hunt through scenes to find items that blend in a little too well with their surroundings.

The other good news is that the trademark Exmortis gore and spookiness are back in full force, despite being somewhat more subdued than previous titles. Well, if you consider "subdued" as translating to "less things jump out at you while the soundtrack goes screeeeeeeeee!" A lot of work has been put into establishing atmosphere that builds up and has you tensing at every fleeting shadow, every unopened door, not only with visuals, but with sound as well. Distant footsteps. The hushed whisper of the wind. The stealthy creak of a floorboard overhead.

I needed a refresher course on the story myself, but found the over-long backstory available from the main menu more confusing than helpful and wound up replaying the originals instead. Most conversations offer you the option to skip through them, and a lot of the reading is optional, but shouldn't the story serve to enhance the gameplay rather than feel like it's been awkwardly spoon-fed to the player? The game absolutely shines when it lets up on the text-heavy scenes. A little less big ancient demons and prophecies, and a little more creepy little girls in dark hallways, please.

While there's no denying Exmortis 3 looks good, sounds good, and has had a lot of love put into it, is a pretty package enough bang for your buck? If you're expecting a lengthy epic in return for your cash, you may be disappointed. While still considerably lengthier than the first two installments, Exmortis 3 still may take only a few hours to play for veterans of the genre. A very polished few hours, to be sure, but whether or not you find it worth the cost depends on how much you value quality over quantity, and whether or not the limited replayability is a potential killer.

In the end, fans of the series will find a lot to like about this third installment, and little to be disappointed by. I encourage you to give the first two games a try if you've never played the series before, and then try the demo for this latest before you make your decision. Exmortis 3 is a worthy successor despite its flaws, and may just wind up making you think twice about dismissing the things that go bump in the night.

This walkthrough can be found elsewhere but I assure you it was posted there BY ME. I've removed the profanity from where I originally posted it and this walkthrough will be broken down by chapters and, in some cases, even more broken down for character limit's sake:

Ignore the staff on the right unless you're playing the demo version. If you're playing the demo version, you'll see a preview of the Full Version. If you're playing the Full Version, clicking on the right staff will merely say "The Future Is Undetermined"

Either Go out through that door to go down the stairs or, if time allows, click on Powers and use Teleportation to go to Market City (map will appear). Click on Market City then click on the white portal that forms) and click on the sign again to enter the market

A puzzle to solve. The goal to this puzzle is to use the levers around the edges to drag the O rings around until each of the 10 O rings is hovering over a LIT light. (This puzzle changes light locations each time, unfortunately) What I do is draw a quick sketch of 20 circles on a piece of paper, put an X over each light that DOESN'T light and leave the lights that DO light, alone. After you've figured out which lights light and which don't, you won't waste as much time. You can just concentrate on moving the O rings to the correct places.

You'll see a few signs: From left to right, we have a sign with an arrow above some stairs (to platform 2), a sign with an arrow and a 1 (to platform 1) and two symbols representing Mens and Womens restrooms

If you're my age, or thereabouts, you likely remember an electronic game called Simon. If not, it was a game where you had to mimic the color/sound pattern the game did. First the game does it, then you. Once you get it right on one step, it adds a step. It continues to do so until it reaches 10 steps. This puzzle is like that. Watch and listen to the lights and sounds, mimic them on the colored keypad and try and keep up until you've solved it completely. (What I sometimes do here, because it's just easier, is write down what each one is on a piece of paper. For example: R for Red, G for Green, Y for Yellow and B for Blue. The game gets up to 10 tones (steadily increasing speed) before being complete and one can lose track. If you do it my way, you end up with something like GYBBRYYRGG. Get it? Hope so. Unfortunately, this game does NOT use the same pattern every time you play. (Hence why I started doing it my way) You can enter these patterns as fast or as slow as you want. If you get the puzzle wrong 3 times, you fall to your death in a pit of spikes.

There are two vents on the left and right of the wall facing you and they're now belching forth some kind of gas into the room with you. You cough, gasp and black out. (There's no way to get past this. Just roll with it)

The pattern is this: The arrow-shaped symbol moves down and to the right one space as well as rotating once clockwise. The round symbol moves down and to the right one space and then starts again at the top and repeats. Therefore, to complete the puzzle, do the following:

Hover over the the arrow-shaped symbol on the floor until you see arrows going around it and the text at the bottom of the screen saying Click to Rotate. Click on it until its point is aimed upward. Then click on the center of it (when circling arrows are not present) and then click on the far right bottom square (4th over, 4th down) to place that tile there. Next, click on the tile with the round symbol on it and place it two squares above the other (4th over, 2nd down)

The purpose of this puzzle is to rotate the discs until you have connected all the lines in some way. You will notice there are one to several light areas on the edge(s) of the puzzle. Each of these will need a line connected to it as well. Each disc rotates clockwise a quarter of a turn every time you click on it. Some will need clicked upon multiple times. I don't believe this puzzle is always the same but I reserve the right to be incorrect here

In the center hangs a portrait or mirror with a once-human "Reader" in/on it who begins speaking to you. Follow along and ask/speak with him. You'll learn that Lord Vlaew "bestowed the power to alter reality as he sees fit" upon him

(Note: From a few places I've read, there's supposed to be a preacher's diary on the floor to click on as well. Having played the game twice [after learning to kill the reader and move further in the game], there has been no such diary. A glitch? Perhaps. Perhaps it will show up on a later playing-of-the-game for me)

If it isn't too late (one of my attempts was too late for this part because of taking too long looking for the diary), notice the moon shines through the window at the top center and shines on the floor

There are 4 plaques with options for either a solid circle or the outline of one. Your task, should you wish to accept it (and move on), is to guess which should be which to get through. Click on a plaque to change it.

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