31 Days of Horror Games, Browser Edition
Before I get into my three browser-based horror games, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the mythical Hotel 626. For those of you who did not have an Internet connection back in 2009, Hotel 626 is lauded as the best browser-based horror Flash game of all time, not only because it was shit-your-pants scary, but also because it was wildly innovative. The game was only accessible between the hours of 6 AM and 6 PM, required no download, and involved several technologically advanced interactions for the time. It utilized your laptop’s camera, microphone, and even your phone line to fully immerse you in its horror. It was scary. It was intrusive. It was legendary.
I say it fits the category of Legendary primarily because it, sadly, no longer exists. There are several theories as to why Hotel 626 shut down, but the truth is that the game was just one giant marketing stunt for Doritos. Must not have sold enough chips.
Hotel626.com is now an empty shell of its former glory. According to a quick Google search, a few people have attempted to salvage the game by re-hosting it through their own flash game websites, but I imagine it is difficult to host a game when you’re being served lawsuits from all sides.
It’s especially unfortunate because browser games are arguably the most democratic type of games: all you need is a computer and an Internet connection and you’re good to go. The games themselves are usually free and accessible, but, as we all know, free and accessible things are usually not that great. A well-produced game like Hotel 626 was a rarity in the realm of browser games. Thankfully we live in 2018, which means there are now plenty of browser-based horror games worth playing. This is the Internet though, so it does take some digging around to find something worthwhile. Lucky for you I’ve gone ahead and done all the Google searching and listicle-reading. Here are my top 3 most notable browser-based horror games this Halloween.
The Outbreak
Available on: Survivetheoutbreak.com
Played: ~25 minutes
Release Date: 2008
Game Trailer: YouTube
I’ll preface this by mentioning I didn’t know what to expect out of any of these games. The landing page of The Outbreak describes it as an interactive movie, which kinda counts as a game, right? I’ve always enjoyed choose-your-own-adventure formats, regardless of story, but it’s also not that hard to guess what a game with a title like The Outbreak is about.
If you don’t like zombies, we can’t be friends. If you don’t like decision trees, we can’t be friends, either. This game is great if you like both in bite-sized scale. The opening scene is typical for a zombie movie; you start out as a small group of survivors breaking into a house. Let’s meet our new coworkers:
At some point a fight breaks out between Kelly and Seth on whether or not to save Dave, who may or may not have been bitten, and is bleeding out pretty badly. Kelly believes he is not infected and deserves to live, but Seth believes he’s infected and needs to be “taken care of.” It is up to you, James, to make a choice: do you intervene and save Dave, or let Seth do his thing?
I’ve fantasized enough about the zombiepocalypse to know exactly what my decision would be– see, if Dave was infected, he’s a threat. If he wasn’t infected, he’s injured enough to be a liability. The name of the game is survival. I let Seth do his thing.
Kelly looks devastated. Alex does nothing. Maybe we should’ve shot Alex instead. You need initiative if you’re to survive the zombie apocalypse, and so far all Alex has managed to do is brood next to the window. Seth has a lot of initiative; he finds some keys in the kitchen and urges the group to leave with him. Kelly thinks we should bunker down and wait for help, but I like Seth, he makes me feel safe. I decide to leave with him and promise to send help if we find any. Good luck getting Alex to do anything, Kelly.
We’re ambushed by a few zombies in the garage, and an even larger horde as we drive off. They’re all over the car, and in an attempt to shake one off we swerve off road, hitting a tree head-on.
Despite all the logical steps I’d taken to ensure my survival, all I’d managed to prove is that I’m a big asshole. Maybe I’m not the best person to have in a zombiepocalypse team– or maybe the game simply isn’t realistic. How did those zombies even get in the garage? Were they hanging out in the car when they got infected? We totally could have survived that car crash, the hood is barely even damaged.
Regardless, that’s the way the game worked, and I lost spectacularly. Luckily The Outbreak is very generous with its decision trees, and offers you the chance to go back in chapters to see how different decisions play out. I won’t get into them any further because spoilers, but let’s just say I was impressed by how the smallest of decisions could significantly impact the outcome of the game. The scenes are very well thought out, and the acting is decent for a project of this size. I was even impressed by the diversity of the zombies. You could tell that they were having a lot of fun filming this thing.
As someone who loves zombiepocalypses, this is a fun game. It’s perfect if you want to spend your Halloween proving to your friends that you make good decisions, dammit. Is it scary? If you haven’t already been overdosed with zombie movies and videogames, sure. But not if you spend a significant chunk of your life drawing out your game plan for the zombie apocalypse. Which I do. One word: Alaska.
Exmortis
Available on: newgrounds.com/portal/view/189227
Played: ~1 hour
Release Date: 2004
Game Trailer: n/a
Throughout my Googling, Exmortis was one of the most consistently mentioned games, so I thought I’d give it a try. According to some, it’s the BEST flash horror game, but it also may be the oldest looking browser game I’ve tried so far. The loading screen starts off with a couple of jump scares that all seem to be made with low-res photoshopped stock footage. As someone with a career in creating visual assets, I am already terrified.
Let’s jump in. You’re a person (and let’s face it, most likely a dude) in the woods. You’ve just woken up with a concussion. It’s cold, and you can’t remember how you got there. Conveniently, you see a house not too far away from you. Shelter! You decide to check it out. It’s creepy, yes. But when has that ever stopped you from living your best life?
You enter through the front door and are presented with two options, the hallway to your left, or the stairs leading up to the second floor. I like reading everything from left to right because it culturally makes sense, so I head into the hallway.
In the hallway are two more options, a door to your left and a door further down the hallway in the center of the screen. I go into the door to my left and find myself in the cellar. There’s a door in here that doesn’t open when I click it. Instead, a disembodied voice whispers some gibberish and the word “remember” several times. Most days I can’t even remember what happened yesterday, so I mentally tell the cellar to go remember itself, and head down the hallway.
There are two doors at the end of the hallway with a grandfather clock sitting in between. The left door is locked, so I check out the clock. Clicking the face reveals that this is not your grandpa’s grandfather clock, as it doesn’t seem to fulfill its primary function of telling time.
What the grandfather clock is really telling me though, is that this is one of those games where everything is a clue and everything needs to be remembered. Crap. This brings me back to my 12 years of studying Chinese characters without any understanding or context– memories that haunt my nightmares to this day. I dealt with the grandfather clock the same way I dealt with my old Chinese teacher; I ignored it and turned my attention towards the infinitely more interesting door to the right.
Turns out the door leads to the kitchen. There is blood dripping from the microwave, which tells me that this house probably isn’t that old. I hope the blood is from something yummy, but am disappointed to find a freshly severed head inside the microwave instead. The head has a symbol etched into the forehead, which I promptly ignore for the same reasons I ignored the symbols on the grandfather clock. I click around the rest of the kitchen, only to find one more object of interest. There’s a dangerous-looking knife in the cabinet and the game tells me that I deserve something bigger.
While I appreciate the validation of my self-worth, a small weapon is better than no weapon, thanks. Unfortunately that’s not how the game works, and I leave without the option of taking it with me. I click on the door to the left of the microwave and am surprised to find myself in the Lounge room. I am surprised because:
- Naming something a Lounge room is redundant.
- Everyone knows the kitchen is supposed to lead into the laundry room.
As I walk in, I can’t help but feel like the people who were murdered here were just the unfortunate victims of bad feng shui. I pick up the book on the table, and find my first piece of context: a diary. Long story short, someone wandered into the house and slowly succumbed to insanity as powerful beings took over his mind, particularly an entity named Lord Vlaew. I know from experience that a name like Lord Vlaew indicates that someone took great pains in creating a lore for this game, so I go off in search for the source material upstairs.
The second floor is pretty much the same story as the hallway; blood on the ground, a bunch of dismembered body parts, symbols that I ignore and finally, a safe behind a painting. A clue in the attic grants me access to the safe (the only puzzle I managed to solve by myself), which contains a book with the lore I’ve been waiting for. I don’t want to get into it because of my personal feelings toward character names that can’t be pronounced, but here’s a little preview:
This is a pretty long point-and-click game, so I’m not gonna bore you by walking you through my entire adventure, but I have to admit that I got stuck and needed to replay the game all over again, this time in the right order. At some point I finally find myself past that cellar door and underneath the house in a series of tunnels. Look, an axe! Finally, the weapon I deserve. The feeling of security that comes with wielding a weapon runs out as I move through the tunnels, largely due to the silence. Silence is never a good sign. Suddenly a dude emerges from the darkness and runs toward me at full speed. In a panic I use the axe, killing the guy, because what else would you do in that situation?
I click around the tunnels further and end up in a room with the puzzle to end all puzzles, that also spells the difference between one ending and the next. The puzzle has something to do with the symbols I encountered earlier, and I know there is a very slim chance that I’ll successfully solve it… maybe if you had paid attention in class, Meggy, you wouldn’t be in this mess. Thankfully I’d acquired a special set of skills to help me out of the situation. If you’re not a cheater like me, however, I’ll let you in on a tip: the game operates on visual manipulation.
I won’t spoil the endings, but there are, apparently, three different endings you can achieve in the game depending on how you complete the last puzzle bit. I didn’t bother trying to get all of them, but there are plenty of Let’s Plays on YouTube that will take you through the endings with zero effort on your part. The game itself is incredibly immersive due to the story crafting and attention to detail. The sound design, mostly atmospheric, is appropriately creepy, setting you up for some great jump scares sprinkled in between the pointing and clicking.
It’s biggest, unforgivable downfall? Weirdly, the fade transitions between areas. This game is so immersive that you’ll want to keep clicking around for more story elements, which means constantly going back to previous rooms for hidden clues. The slow picture fade transitions (and I mean, sloooooooooow), while I understand may add to the creepiness, only makes me frustrated at how long it takes to travel around. But if you’ve got time and a penchant for crafted lore, Exmortis might just be your thing. All hail Vlaew.
Lomando
Available on: lomando.com
Played: ~20 minutes
Release Date: 2007
Game Trailer: n/a
I’d personally never heard of this site, but apparently there is a large part of the Internet population that’s obsessed with it. I didn’t know what to expect, but I certainly did not expect this.
The site looked like it was full of potential security risks. Maybe this was a giant troll, and not in fact a horror game but a scam or virus? I looked around carefully for anything that may lead me to a game of any sort: not an easy thing to do since everything is in Japanese. I clicked the character in the middle to check, and I’m immediately transported to the land of The Ring.
I love Japanese horror, so this shit is my jam. See those dots on the lower left hand corner? You can click on those dots. You can click on that lady too. Each dot leads you to a different piece of random horror, like a puzzle, a video or a static image, which then leads you further into more horrific surprises.
And hoo boy. If you like jumpscares and Japanese horror, HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS. This site is creepy in a way that only the Japanese can imagine, like Junji Ito stories or Funky Forest. Prepare yourselves for some sweet sweet imagery.
That’s not even half of it! I’d strongly recommend checking the site out if only for all the fun visuals, which is admittedly all terribly confusing. What’s going on here? It is times like these when I regret not caring enough to learn a language, because I feel like I’m missing out due to translation issues. Sure, the site itself is creepy, and you get some decent jump scares off it, but is this really a game or an anthology of randomness?
Turns out, it is actually a coherent game. Just not one that I understand. The good news is that there are people out there who have “beaten” the game. Some of these guys don’t seem like they understand a lick of Japanese either, so maybe all it takes is a proper sit-down with it to figure it out. Either way, each individual part of the game is thoroughly fascinating, so it’s a win-win.
Final Thoughts
Admittedly, none of these games can truly match Hotel 626 in terms of production quality. Maybe that needs to be left to console games, but the browser medium has proven itself many times over to be the platform of choice for art and experimentation, which many of these games are. There are so many ways to reach audiences through social media that I’m surprised browser-based horror games are not more popular. The Internet’s unique features are constantly being utilised in new and creative ways, and what better way to contribute to this growth than to push it to such extremes? Is there any better way to test intensity than the horror genre? I’m optimistic that we’ll be seeing more browser-based horror games reach popular culture in the future, but in the meantime I’ll need to click through the biggest horror game of them all: life.
