Now, three years after the release of Exmortis 2, we finally have Exmortis 3.  Does it deserve your time and money?

Hit the jump for the details.

For those who’ve never had the joy of playing the Exmortis series, let me give you a quick low-down on the previous entries.  The next two paragraphs contain spoilers, so if you have interest in playing these games, I’d suggest going to do so right now.  The first game has you set in a cabin in the middle of the woods.  You point and click your way through the cabin, discovering what you believe to be the remains of your friends.  Along the way, you discover the diary of a man who slowly went insane in the cabin.  As all good horror clichés go, you discover that you are actually the one who went insane and began slaughtering the people you’ve found around the cabin.  The end of the game has you being possessed by the ancient demon Vlaew and bringing about the end of the world .

Exmortis 2 begins not too long after the world has gone to hell (literally).  Your character, Mr. Hannay, is tasked by a strange man with finding a way to defeat the armies of darkness (aka the Exmortis).  You die about two-thirds of the way through the game, only to return to the land of the living with new powers to defeat the demonic hordes of the Exmortis.  Near the end of the game you enter into a quasi-FPS experience and fight someone you presume is the ruler of the Exmortis.  However, you were used and the demon lord Vlaew reveals himself to be the person who gave you your task.  He kills you and evil, once again, rules over the land.

The story in both games may not have been the best stories to grace video games, but there was a great deal of depth provided for a free flash-based game.  Journal entries provided a great deal of back-story and the art style told its own story.  For being a free point and click game, it was brilliant.

Now we have Exmortis 3 and immediately you will notice a huge difference.  First, the game is no longer free -- an asking price of $20 has been attached to the game.  There is, however, a “free version” of the game, but that boils down to a mere demo for a much larger game.

The game picks up almost immediately after the end of Exmortis 2.  Mr. Hannay has returned to life, once again, and this time he’s much more powerful than before.  At its core, the game is a tale of revenge.  Hannay seeks his killer throughout the game, leading him through a world that is much larger than that of any previous Exmortis game.

One of the most prominent things throughout the Exmortis series has been a sense of creepiness.  In the original Exmortis, there was a heavy feeling that the game was a point and click version of “The Evil Dead”.  Exmortis 2 relied much more on the feeling that at any moment something could come out and kill you.  While Exmortis 3 has a brilliant atmosphere, painting the end of the world in such a chaotic manner, I really only felt uneasy in the game’s third chapter.  While the game makes up for it by having a genuinely well created world, it is still a bit of a disappointment.

The game begins by giving you “powers.”  Following your death, you learn that Hannay traveled throughout the underworld, only to absorb the powers of Vlaew’s brother, Azrael.  These powers boil down to ways to make the game easier, and for a chance to add in more combat to the fray.  For example, at the very beginning of the game you can choose to either solve a simple puzzle to pull yourself out of a pit, or use the newly acquired Telekinesis power to drop a crane to lower a cable to pull yourself out.  Using your powers will usually be a simpler task, however you will also receive fewer points for doing so.

At its core, Exmortis 3 is still very much a point and click game.  You will click on objects, add them to your inventory, combine items and then use them to solve puzzles.  It’s hard to really expand upon these concepts, but Exmortis 3 tries hard to make itself stand out.  The puzzles are not especially difficult, however there are a few moments where you will most likely be scratching your head.

The first way that it does this is by having more combat than the average point and click game.  The second half of the game has a many moments where the game borders on FPS lines.  I say borders, however, as the “FPS” sections boil down to more pointing and clicking.  Rather than having a full 3D world to roam around in, Exmortis 3 is very 2D in its nature.  What this means is that you will enter into an area and then point at the 2-Dimensional background and shoot at painted on enemies that appear on screen.  There are also times that you will have to use a scoped weapon to take out snipers.  This boils down to the screen being zoomed in a bit and then proceeding to point and click your enemy to death.  It can get a bit tired, but thankfully it’s never too heavy in the game to be a huge distraction.

You will also engage in minimal combat using your powers.  This, primarily, is found at the end of the game, when you begin to fight supernatural beings.  This, oddly enough, seems to be a much more appropriate fit to the game.  You will select your powers from a menu, click on the enemy and then wait for a meter to line up correctly.  While it can be a bit more taxing, from a personal standpoint, I would have liked to see this much more than gun combat.

It should also be noted that this is not the “Monkey Island” type of point and click.  There are plenty of chances for your character to die.  There are moments where it’s almost a necessity to die in order to know what not to do.  For example, one time I went into a small bathroom and opened one of the stall doors.  I was immediately shot with three arrows and died as a result.  I figured out that it was a trap and I needed to carefully snap a cord at the top of the stall in order to not die.

Exmortis 3 also adds in something that every game, it seems, must now have: a morality system.  There are a few moments where you can choose to torture people, kill them for your own amusement or let them live.  Later in the game, this will factor into having some different dialog options, however it doesn’t really change the ending of the game.  It’s a bit disappointing because, while the ending is satisfying, it is also left completely open.

The game’s user interface should also be noted.  Unlike previous games in the series, there are now menus that have your inventory, powers and “vitals,” which detail your power level (which determines how much you can use your powers), health and your mercy level.   The menus felt a bit clunky and unresponsive as I played, however it never caused a ton of issues during my play.

Being that the game is primarily a 2D game, art style is a very important thing and thankfully, Exmortis 3 does not disappoint.  The world has a grimy look to it and everything feels like it’s been devastated by the war being waged by the demonic hordes.  The sound design is fairly well done, as well, however there are too many moments where the soundtrack feels like something should be jumping at you, yet nothing does.  I noticed this a lot when I was in the inventory screen.  There is voice acting and while not being especially good, it’s also somewhat above average.  It works for what it is.

In total, my game time with Exmortis (minus time that I had my laptop simply on while the game was running) was around 2 hours.  This is the big issue that I see with the game.  The game ends somewhat abruptly, leaving me wondering if there will be an Exmortis 4.  While the game has a lot more content than previous titles, it also has a much higher asking cost, being that this is a $20 game.

You do get a few benefits by purchasing the game, however.  The game has a built-in walkthrough system, which basically boils down to simply having the walkthrough available whenever you play.  It’s a nice touch for anyone who might get confused by any of the puzzles.  Using this, however, will have you lose some points, but these are not a necessity to playing the game.  Fizzy.com, the game’s hosting site, also has a built-in achievement system, so if you are looking for a meta-game, you can search for the achievements hidden throughout the game.

With a game like this, it’s somewhat hard to tell you, the consumer, to purchase it or not.  Twenty dollars is a fairly high asking price, but if you like to support smaller developers, you could do worse.  The game itself is well designed, but I think it could have been served much better if it concentrated more on puzzle solving and less on combat.  There’s not a ton of content, and being a point-and-click, you probably will not play it a lot.  While this may not be the peak of the series (I believe that place is still reserved for Exmortis 2), it’s certainly a solid addition to the franchise.