Agony Review: Worth to buy?

Today we're talking about Agony. This kick-started game has been highly anticipated from both its community that has cropped up around it and just gaming at large thanks to its really intense and gruesome vibe. Now does that hold the hump as a game once you get past the visuals?. We can say yes and no mostly. No we mean from a horror aspect and yeah from a gameplay aspect not so much.

Agony follows the story of a seemingly random tormented soul who is dropped right into hell. You don't have any of your memories and you're a martyr. You're just a sad decrepit weeks old destined to Shambala round for eternity. Basically you start out as kind of a background fighter you would run pass and other games with health sequences which is interesting. The only thing here is that you know to pursue this red goddess who in this lore is like one of the leaders or creators of this hell and to progress through.

This really terrible awful world you actually have the ability to possess other beings. The game is extremely gory and there's like lots of nudity *boobs everywhere*. For those of you that are wondering just how gross and edgy the game is there was supposed to be a patch that was going to make the game even worse to make it adults-only. There's been some controversy that patch isn't coming out but still if you're looking for a gross gory nasty game, we think you're still gonna get plenty of that here.

Anyway, what is the game exactly?. It's like a spooky game that is pretty much linear but with some fairly large sized environments to get lost in and basically you progress through environments finding keys or items to activate certain things or certain areas and solve some fairly interesting puzzles along the way. You're also gonna need to possess other martyrs or creatures to accomplish certain tasks but mostly really just to save your soul from being lost because in this game death is a regular occurrence. And then you have a limited time to float around as a ghost to try to inhabit another body before time runs out and it works fine.

This mechanic did have more potential to be used for actual gameplay purpose other than death but it doesn't really go much further than that except for a couple of occasions. The game is difficult because you were limited as a character in most possessions. Environments are very dark and often hard to see and the game doesn't give you much guidance other than an extremely simple HUD and a limited path.

We’ve seen some people criticize that as a core issue with the games very design. It was frustrating at first the whole opening of the game is kind of frustrating until it finds its footing. But we think what you have here is just a challenging game that doesn't hold your hand and some people really want that. Progressing through and hiding from scary enemies it's just the name of the game here and it generally feels similar to something like Amnesia or Outlast.

The game goes for a feeling of like helplessness and despair and it certainly gives you that. The enemies can easily see you and there's not too much rhyme or reason to them other than just you creeping around hiding in hidey holes and a nice ability to, like hold your breath as they walk by so they don't hear you. It's not bad we just didn't find it very fun. It gets better once you start possessing lesser demons because then you can move a bit faster and you can kill some stuff.

But part of our brain had already checked out a bit between uneven checkpoints and the fact that there's just not much to do really. The stealth just kind of working only when it wants to. Feels like it was like concept first gameplay design. Second, we was hoping for something more than just a dull version of Outlast, but the game makes no attempts to do anything fun or really just engage  as a player. It sounds weird and counterproductive to say this, but we'd almost rather just be able to walk around and experience the weird gross, saw everything, and get spooked instead of just doing boring basic video game chores. If you are looking for progression elements, you can find these forbidden fruits that are literally just gross apples with actual v*ginas on them that give you points in which you can dump into getting better at, like stealth or possession or stuff.

Now as much as we didn't find the gameplay too compelling, where we did find value was just in the look of the game itself and the very enemies that you have to hide. From almost every environment design, an enemy concept here is just insane and kind of awesome and out of this world. We really can't say enough good about all that the lip-syncing for the NPC's is. Sometimes kind of off but every other creature design looks really damn great. A lot of them have weird boobs and v*ginas like that seems to be what they keep falling back on. But there are also scary baby things and things made out of limbs and they're all grossly designed and lit. And really fit in with the environment it especially works when you're in the dark and you just catch the silhouette of an enemy. This is where the game's graphical engine really works and kind of helps that scare factor which is there the game is tense and stressful the entire time and we think they succeed in their mission here.

You might not like the visual stuff though, it's obnoxiously edgy. We think it's interesting, it's different but we think it might be too much for some folks. The environments themselves are the same way. They're easy to get lost in and some may find that frustrating but we think that's a part of the feeling that developers were trying to convey. Whether you're lost or not though they're kind of awesome to check out. They're dark, they're drippy, they're creepy, they're bloody and generally unsettling.

There are some areas that are more brightly lit and more trippy and confusing. The game just pulls a lot of visual tricks overall everywhere to spook you and keep you on your toes. We will say we was pretty impressed. You saw like a new creepy thing in a hallway, like jump scare after backtracking through this hallway for like the third time and there was still that new scare, and like we said the game does provide that in spades. The jump scares aren't the scariest you've ever seen but they work in combination with just always being stressed and unsettled while playing.

The sound design is what really does it. The voice is kind of going everywhere in your head and screams in the distance and just weird, gross sounds that stuff works all that combined is where we do think the game is kind of worth experiencing if you're into this stuff. If you're into horror, the general gameplay like we said kind of bored. But experiencing the game itself is still worth a nice ride for horror fans. This shit is freaky and kind of well realized. The story doesn't give you much but it's interesting enough and there's a lot of creepy voice over and old pages to find and read along the way if you want to go deeper. Don't expect like actual Dante's Inferno or really much of a deep story at all, but expect to consistently see some new stuff.

There are even tongue-in-cheek dialog moments that we didn't expect the creativity is on display here whether you like that creativity or not. But we think if that's what you are coming in for, you'll be somewhat satisfied. We did experience a few glitches here and there, nothing game-breaking but otherwise the game ran fairly decent.

So we'll say overall the game is alright. It's not a full-price game, so if the aesthetic and the scares and the horror aspect interests you I'd say give it a shot. Just don't expect the most fun or amazing gameplay. And as always thanks for reading.