Yes. No ads, no purchase, no account. Masks and buildings unlock by playing, never by paying.

Does it play offline?

Yes. Once the page has loaded, the browser keeps the game and it starts without a connection. On a phone you can add it to your home screen (on iPhone: Share, then Add to Home Screen); it then opens full screen.

Yes. It is an action game about fighting your way out, and since version 1.2 the violence is explicit: blood sprays on every lethal hit and splashes the walls, pools spread under the bodies, a close shotgun kill leaves pieces, and you bleed too. A finish takes one to four blows, depending on the mask and the weapon. There is no torture, no begging and no civilian: everyone inside the three buildings is an armed member of the Velours gang. Guard dogs are never touched or harmed: threatened, they run away. Settings › Gore › Reduced brings back small dark splats and a single finishing blow. Explicit pixel-art violence. Not recommended under 16.

Can I play with a keyboard?

Yes, with keyboard and mouse or with the keyboard alone: W A S D, Z Q S D or the arrows to move, the mouse to aim, left click to attack, right click to throw. Without a mouse, J, K and L (or X, C and V with the arrows) attack, throw and use the power, and you aim where you walk. Gamepads are not supported yet.

Each mask changes one way of playing and has a weakness: crawl through vents, take a fatal hit, pounce, roll, breathe fire, keep enemies down, charge, headbutt through a door, steal weapons, slow time, smell enemies through walls, rewind a fatal hit or howl. They are the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac plus the Wolf, drawn as European carnival half-masks; each animal also has a story in La Fontaine's fables or, for the tiger, in the medieval bestiaries.

Where is my progress?

In your browser, on this device only: unlocked masks and buildings, records per difficulty, your last 20 runs and your settings. There is no account and no sync between devices. If you close the page during a run, CONTINUE on the title screen takes you back to the start of that floor for 24 hours. Settings › Data › ERASE MY PROGRESS wipes everything.

SORTIEfree browser game · made in Luxembourg

SORTIE, a free top-down action game

SORTIE is a free top-down action game where one hit is enough, for you and for them. Thirteen animal masks, three gang-held buildings of five floors each, one way out. Die, retry in an instant, and find the way through.

It plays in the browser, on a phone held upright or on a computer with keyboard and mouse, in French or English. Once loaded it plays offline, with no ads and no account.

Explicit pixel-art violence. Not recommended under 16.

Play SORTIE ↗

Free, no ads, no account. Phone, tablet or computer; offline once loaded.

Fig. 1. Title screen, a fight in the Casino and the masks screen, on a phone held upright (version 1.0).

The story

Port-Minuit, 3:12 a.m. The deal went wrong. The Velours, the gang that owns the tallest tower in town, lured you to its roof, knocked you out and locked the rest of your crew's carnival masks in glass cases, one on each floor. You wake up with only the Rat on your face: fight down five floors, take the masks back and walk out onto the street.

Tonight the tower is closed: only the Velours are inside.

Get out, and Pierre Noire Investment opens: the Velours' front, where at night only their armed men are inside. Get out of it, and SITRAKA opens: the Velours' private stronghold at the end of the pier. Nobody has ever walked out.

How to play

One hit is enough, both ways. A punch knocks an enemy down: hit again to finish them before they get up. A knife, a bat or a gun takes them out in one hit.

Move: TouchLeft thumb: a stick appears under it; Keyboard and mouseW A S D (Z Q S D on an AZERTY keyboard) or the arrows
Attack: TouchTap with your right thumb: the attack aims itself; Keyboard and mouseLeft click, or J, X, Enter
Aim and fire: TouchDrag your right thumb to aim, release to fire; slide back to the centre to cancel; Keyboard and mouseAim with the mouse, left click to fire
Throw: TouchTHROW button; Keyboard and mouseRight click, or K, C
Mask power (Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Horse, Goat, Wolf): TouchPOWER button; Keyboard and mouseF, L or V, or middle click
Pick up, swap: TouchWalk over the weapon; SWAP button to trade; Keyboard and mouseE or Space
Restart the floor: TouchFrom the menu; Keyboard and mouseHold R
Menu: TouchButton at the top right; Keyboard and mouseEsc or P

Every enemy warns you before it attacks: a gunman shows a dotted aim line, a thug a strike arc on the ground, a dog a leap line. Nobody hits you from off screen.
Doors are weapons: charge through one and whoever is behind it goes down.
Guns hold a few bullets and never reload, and a gunshot is heard from afar. Empty? Throw the gun: it knocks people down.
Dogs are never hurt: threaten one and it runs away. A floor is cleared by taking out the humans only.
Death costs a moment: tap the screen, or press R, Space or click, and the floor starts again.
No mouse? J attacks, K throws and L uses the power (or X, C and V with the arrows), and you aim where you walk. Hold Shift to look further toward the mouse.
Gamepads are not supported yet; they are planned for a later update.

The thirteen masks

Thirteen masks: the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac, in the order of the cycle, then the Wolf as a bonus. Each changes one way of playing and has a real weakness, and each finishes a downed enemy in its own number of blows. The Rat is yours from the start; the others are recovered by clearing floors, by getting out of a building, or by a feat. You can wear a new mask from the next floor, or change mask from the menu (the floor restarts). Masks unlock by playing, never by paying.

All thirteen are painted wooden carnival half-masks in the same frame: they cover the forehead and the nose and leave the mouth free, like the Colombina of the Venice carnival, a half-mask over the eyes, the nose and the upper cheeks. In Venice the sumptuary laws were suspended during carnival, so people could dress as they liked rather than as their rank required. In the Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht, wooden masks replaced clay and paper ones in the Baroque period, and animal figures are part of it.

Each animal also has an older European story: twelve of them in Jean de La Fontaine's Fables, the tiger in the medieval bestiaries.

Sources: Chinese zodiac (Wikipedia) · Venetian masks (Wikipedia) · Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht (Wikipedia)

01The RatSqueeze
Crawls through vent grates: one shortcut per floor. Small, so harder to hit.
Weakness:

it hits softer.
Finish:

medium, 2 blows, 3 bare-handed.
How to get it:

yours from the start.
In La Fontaine's “Le Lion et le Rat” (Fables, book II), a small rat gnaws through the net that holds a lion: one often needs someone smaller than oneself.
Le Lion et le Rat (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
02The OxThick hide
Takes one fatal hit per attempt, then nothing touches it for 0.75 s.
Weakness:

heavy: you walk at 72 instead of 88, and thugs nearly catch you.
Finish:

strong, 1 blow.
How to get it:

get out of Pierre Noire.
In “La Grenouille qui se veut faire aussi grosse que le Bœuf” (book I), a frog puffs itself up to match an ox, and bursts.
La Grenouille qui se veut faire aussi grosse que le bœuf (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
03The TigerPounce
POWER: a 3-tile pounce. The first one hit goes down and you finish them; a heavy only goes down. 4 s recharge.
Weakness:

heavy step: running is heard.
Finish:

strong, 1 blow.
How to get it:

clear the Roof, floor 1 of the tower.
Medieval bestiaries say the tiger takes its name from the Median and Persian word for an arrow, for its speed.
Tiger, The Medieval Bestiary ↗
04The RabbitRoll
POWER: a 2.5-tile roll; nothing touches you in the middle of it. 1.25 s recharge. Fast.
Weakness:

your bare hands only shove.
Finish:

weak, 3 blows, 4 bare-handed.
How to get it:

clear the Vault, floor 4 of Pierre Noire.
In “Le Chat, la Belette et le Petit Lapin” (book VII), a weasel moves into a young rabbit's burrow while he is out; the cat they ask to settle it eats them both.
Le Chat, la Belette et le Petit Lapin (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
05The DragonBreath
POWER: a breath of fire 3.5 tiles ahead. Every enemy caught in it goes down, a heavy loses his vest, dogs flee without a burn.
Weakness:

10 s recharge, and the whole floor hears it.
Finish:

strong, 1 blow.
How to get it:

get out of SITRAKA.
In “Le Dragon à plusieurs têtes et le Dragon à plusieurs queues” (book I), the dragon with many heads gets stuck in a hedge, while the one with a single head and many tails slips through.
Le Dragon à plusieurs têtes et le Dragon à plusieurs queues (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
06The SnakeVenom
Anyone you knock down stays down until you finish them. Your throws floor the heavy.
Weakness:

you walk slower.
Finish:

medium, 2 blows, 3 bare-handed.
How to get it:

clear the Casino, floor 3 of the tower.
In “L'Homme et la Couleuvre” (book X), the snake argues that man, not the snake, is the ungrateful one, and the cow, the ox and the tree agree. SORTIE's Snake is about patience: floor them all, then finish them.
L'Homme et la Couleuvre (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
07The HorseGallop
POWER: a 5-tile charge that floors the first one it hits, heavies included; you finish them. Fast.
Weakness:

your hooves clatter: they hear you running from afar.
Finish:

medium, 2 blows, 3 bare-handed.
How to get it:

clear the Helipad, floor 1 of Pierre Noire.
In “Le Cheval et le Loup” (book V), a wolf poses as a healer to get close to a horse, and the horse answers with a kick.
Le Cheval et le Loup (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
08The GoatHeadbutt
POWER: a headbutt that floors the first one it hits; against a closed door it floors everyone standing 2 tiles behind it.
Weakness:

stubborn: she never touches a gun.
Finish:

strong, 1 blow.
How to get it:

clear the Gallery, floor 3 of Pierre Noire.
In “Le Loup, la Chèvre et le Chevreau” (book IV), a goat leaves her kid a password; the wolf overhears it, but the kid also asks to see a white paw and keeps the door shut.
Le Loup, la Chèvre et le Chevreau (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
09The MonkeyLight fingers
Flooring an enemy bare-handed puts his weapon in your hands, loaded pistol included.
Weakness:

you are fragile: a near miss hits you.
Finish:

weak, 3 blows, 4 bare-handed.
How to get it:

clear the Private Lounge, floor 2 of Pierre Noire.
In “Le Singe et le Dauphin” (book IV), a dolphin carries a monkey away from a shipwreck until the monkey's boasting gives him away, and the dolphin drops him back in the sea.
Le Singe et le Dauphin (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
10The RoosterVigil
When someone is about to strike or shoot you, time slows for a moment. 6 s recharge.
Weakness:

score ×0.9.
Finish:

medium, 2 blows, 3 bare-handed.
How to get it:

clear the Club, floor 2 of the tower, or fail 15 times on one floor.
In “Le Coq et le Renard” (book II), an old rooster on watch on a branch sees through the fox's offer of peace.
Le Coq et le Renard (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
11The DogScent
You smell enemies through walls up to 14 tiles away, on every difficulty, and guard dogs take you for one of their own.
Weakness:

you are slow to finish.
Finish:

weak, 3 blows, 4 bare-handed.
How to get it:

chase off 10 guard dogs, counted when you take the stairs.
In “Le Chien qui lâche sa proie pour l'ombre” (book VI), a dog drops its prey for its reflection in the water and nearly drowns.
Le Chien qui lâche sa proie pour l'ombre (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
12The PigLucky
Each attempt, the first fatal hit sends you back 1.5 to 2 s.
Weakness:

you lose your combo. Score ×0.9.
Finish:

medium, 2 blows, 3 bare-handed.
How to get it:

clear the Suites, floor 4 of the tower.
In “Le Cochon, la Chèvre et le Mouton” (book VIII), the pig is the only one on the cart who sees what is coming. SORTIE's Pig, painted with a gold trim, gets one chance per attempt to undo it.
Le Cochon, la Chèvre et le Mouton (Wikipedia, in French) ↗
BONUSThe WolfHowl
POWER: enemies within 6 tiles flinch for 1 s and lose their aim. One charge per attempt, refilled at every x4 combo.
Weakness:

the howl carries far.
Finish:

strong, 1 blow.
How to get it:

get out of the tower.
Not a sign of the zodiac: the Wolf is the bonus mask. In “Le Loup et le Chien” (book I), the wolf turns down the well-fed dog's life when he sees the mark of the collar. Wolves are back in Luxembourg too: DNA from sheep bite wounds confirmed them in 2017 and 2020, the first records since 1893, and the Nature and Forest Agency confirmed another near Wincrange in January 2022.
Le Loup et le Chien (Wikipedia, in French) ↗ · Wolves back in Luxembourg (De Gruyter) ↗ · Wolf near Wincrange, 2022 (gouvernement.lu, in German) ↗

Three buildings

Each building is a run of five floors, and each one is harder than the last. You pick an open building on the title screen; masks, settings and sound are shared between them, and each keeps its own records.

1/3The Velours tower
The tallest tower in Port-Minuit, closed for the night: only the Velours are inside. One new idea per floor, and no gun before floor 2.
Opens:

from the start.
Floors:

1. The Roof · 2. The Club · 3. The Casino · 4. The Suites · 5. The Lobby
Masks:

the glass cases hold the Tiger, the Rooster, the Snake and the Pig; getting out earns the Wolf.
2/3Pierre Noire Investment
The Velours' front company, in another tower of Port-Minuit. At night only their armed men are inside. Gunmen from the first floor, and apart from two bottles, every weapon comes from an enemy.
Opens:

once you get out of the Velours tower.
Floors:

1. The Helipad · 2. The Private Lounge · 3. The Gallery · 4. The Vault · 5. The Atrium
Masks:

its floors earn the Horse, the Monkey, the Goat and the Rabbit; getting out earns the Ox.
3/3SITRAKA
The Velours' private stronghold at the end of the pier: a roof terrace with a pool, a glasshouse, a wine cellar, a hammam and the boathouse on the water. Nobody has ever walked out. The hardest: 15 to 16 enemies per floor on Normal, enemies who hear more and flank you, and music of its own.
Opens:

once you get out of Pierre Noire.
Floors:

1. The Terrace · 2. The Glasshouse · 3. The Cellar · 4. The Baths · 5. The Boathouse
Masks:

getting out earns the Dragon.

The Velours tower, floor by floor

One new idea per floor, and no gun before floor 2. A floor is cleared once every human on it is out of the fight and you reach the stairs; the floor card then shows your time, KOs, best combo, deaths, score and a grade from S to D, with bonuses for speed, for no gunfire and for a first try.

1/5The Roof: Hit to knock down, hit again to finish.; Mask in the casethe Tiger
2/5The Club: Charge through a door: whoever is behind it goes down.; Mask in the casethe Rooster
3/5The Casino: Guns are heard from afar. Bullets go through glass.; Mask in the casethe Snake
4/5The Suites: Threaten a dog and it runs. The heavy: a door or a bullet.; Mask in the casethe Pig
5/5The Lobby: Last floor. The street is past the doors.; Mask in the casethe Wolf

SORTIE on a phone, floor 1, the Roof: a thug marked with a red exclamation point winds up a strike on the player, who wears the Rat mask and holds a bat; the dotted arc on the ground shows where the blow will land. The pool is on the right. — Fig. 2. The Roof, as the Rat.

SORTIE on a phone, floor 2, the Club: two thugs marked with red exclamation points close in on the player in the Tiger mask, on the dance floor; the nearer one winds up a strike, shown by a dotted arc. — Fig. 3. The Club, as the Tiger.

SORTIE on a phone, floor 5, the Lobby: a gunman aims at the player in the Pig mask, his aim line drawn just before the shot; two thugs are already down. — Fig. 4. The Lobby, as the Pig.

Each run ends on the street, on a screen with your time, the five floors and a short text to share. Nothing is posted for you.

Difficulty and violence

Four difficulties, picked on the title screen before every run or in Settings; changing it during a run restarts the floor. Records and grades are kept per difficulty.

Easy: Score ×0.7. Enemies react slower.
Normal: Score ×1. The floor as built.
Hard: Score ×1.4. Two more enemies per floor, quicker and more accurate, fewer weapons lying around; no threat arrows, no markers for the last enemies.
Extreme: Score ×1.8. Four more enemies per floor, killer reflexes, sharp aim, half the weapons; no arrows, no markers. Attacks are still telegraphed.

On Hard and Extreme enemies also hear more of what you do and pass the alarm to each other.
The music follows: on Hard and Extreme it plays faster, more distorted and more dissonant, and never drops back to its quietest layers.

Violence

Since version 1.2 the violence is explicit: blood sprays on every lethal hit and every finishing blow and splashes the walls, pools spread under the bodies, a shotgun kill at close range leaves pieces, and you bleed too. Nothing flashes.

A finish takes blows by the mask's strength: 1 with a strong mask, 2 with a medium one (3 bare-handed), 3 with a weak one (4 bare-handed). Each mask above shows its own.

Settings › Gore › Reduced: small dark splats and a single finishing blow. A finish lasts just as long, and scores and records do not change.

Explicit pixel-art violence. Not recommended under 16.

Accessibility and comfort

Everything is in Settings and can be changed at any time; changing the difficulty, the speed or the aim assist during a run restarts the floor.

Difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, Extreme; Score ×0.7 to ×1.8; see Difficulty and violence above.
Game speed: 100 %, 85 %, 70 %; The whole game runs slower; below 100 % the score is marked “assisted”.
Aim assist: Strong, Normal, Off; For touch and keyboard-only aim. The mouse always aims unassisted.
Gore: Full, Reduced; Reduced: small dark splats and a single finishing blow.
Effects: Full, Reduced; Reduced: no screen shake, no muzzle flash, no blinking. Reduced by default when your system asks for reduced motion.
Text size: Normal, Large; Larger text on every screen and in the HUD.
Handedness: Right-handed, Left-handed; Left-handed: move on the right, attack on the left.
Vibration: On, Off; On phones that support it.
Sound: Volume off, low, medium, high; music on or off; Every sound is made live by the game.

No full-screen flash, ever: muzzle and kill flashes are small and capped at three per second.
Keys follow their place on the keyboard: on an AZERTY keyboard you move with Z Q S D, without a setting.

Privacy

SORTIE needs no account, sets no cookies, shows no ads and embeds no third-party trackers. Your progress, records and settings stay in your browser's local storage, on this device only. Settings › Data › ERASE MY PROGRESS wipes them, and a private window keeps nothing.

Visits are counted by Vercel Web Analytics, without cookies, and the game sends at most 8 anonymous markers a day, plus 3 for escapes (a floor cleared, the kind of enemy behind a death): no score, no time, no identifier. Open the game with ?optout=1 to exclude your device.

Sharing your result is a text you send or paste yourself: nothing is posted for you.

The game's privacy page ↗

Credits

A game by Sitraka Forler, part of Sitraka Labs.

Fonts: Jersey 10 by Sarah Cadigan-Fried (The Soft Type Project) and Pixelify Sans by Stefie Justprince, both under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Everything else is drawn and synthesised in code: the sprites, the lighting, every sound and the music, original darksynth loops. The game ships no audio file.

Play SORTIE ↗

Questions

Is SORTIE free?: Yes. No ads, no purchase, no account. Masks and buildings unlock by playing, never by paying.
Does it play offline?: Yes. Once the page has loaded, the browser keeps the game and it starts without a connection. On a phone you can add it to your home screen (on iPhone: Share, then Add to Home Screen); it then opens full screen.
Is it violent?: Yes. It is an action game about fighting your way out, and since version 1.2 the violence is explicit: blood sprays on every lethal hit and splashes the walls, pools spread under the bodies, a close shotgun kill leaves pieces, and you bleed too. A finish takes one to four blows, depending on the mask and the weapon. There is no torture, no begging and no civilian: everyone inside the three buildings is an armed member of the Velours gang. Guard dogs are never touched or harmed: threatened, they run away. Settings › Gore › Reduced brings back small dark splats and a single finishing blow. Explicit pixel-art violence. Not recommended under 16.
Can I play with a keyboard?: Yes, with keyboard and mouse or with the keyboard alone: W A S D, Z Q S D or the arrows to move, the mouse to aim, left click to attack, right click to throw. Without a mouse, J, K and L (or X, C and V with the arrows) attack, throw and use the power, and you aim where you walk. Gamepads are not supported yet.
Why masks?: Each mask changes one way of playing and has a weakness: crawl through vents, take a fatal hit, pounce, roll, breathe fire, keep enemies down, charge, headbutt through a door, steal weapons, slow time, smell enemies through walls, rewind a fatal hit or howl. They are the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac plus the Wolf, drawn as European carnival half-masks; each animal also has a story in La Fontaine's fables or, for the tiger, in the medieval bestiaries.
Where is my progress?: In your browser, on this device only: unlocked masks and buildings, records per difficulty, your last 20 runs and your settings. There is no account and no sync between devices. If you close the page during a run, CONTINUE on the title screen takes you back to the start of that floor for 24 hours. Settings › Data › ERASE MY PROGRESS wipes everything.

SORTIE is a personal project by Sitraka Forler, part of Sitraka Labs. Port-Minuit, the Velours, their tower, Pierre Noire Investment and the SITRAKA stronghold are fictional.

SORTIE, a free top-down action game

The story

How to play

The thirteen masks

01The RatSqueeze

02The OxThick hide

03The TigerPounce

04The RabbitRoll

05The DragonBreath

06The SnakeVenom

07The HorseGallop

08The GoatHeadbutt

09The MonkeyLight fingers

10The RoosterVigil

11The DogScent

12The PigLucky

BONUSThe WolfHowl