Review for Agony. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 29/05/2018
Agony is an independent video game, developed by Madmind Studio as a result of a successful Kickstarter collection: the title, initially conceived exclusively on PC, has also seen versions programmed for home consoles. Unfortunately, the joy of the players did not last long, due to the news about the censorships suffered by the title, which have removed videos and game sections and which only recently it seems they will be reinstated in the version Agony: Unrated (currently official only on the Steam platform) and as a DLC for owners of the standard title.
Regardless of what the censorship and the postponement of Agony may have made, cuts and delays are the lesser evil of a product that, starting from a tested concept and many good ideas, he managed to corrupt everything that could be right and fascinating in a survival horror set in hell, especially in the console versions.
On PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Agony shows its worst: the initial footage is uncomfortably compressed, to the point of having the black scale compromised into a tragic low-bitrate grid; the framerate fluctuates dangerously, complete with occasional mini freezes and is accompanied by a dramatic and almost constant tearing, limited only in part by the v-sync option added with a post day one patch.
If all this were not enough to make even the most diehard fan of products inspired by religious places and iconographies desist, Agony torments players even with a chaotic level design, not very reasoned and which easily causes confusion and bewilderment due to the (justifiable, but avoidable) monotony of environments, NPCs, enemies and puzzles. The developers themselves have realized the problem and have promised simplifications of the puzzles and a reduction in the number of hostile creatures, precisely because of the high level of frustration that the game induces during the match.
Accomplice of an unbalanced aggression and field of vision of the enemy entities is also there'unfortunate lighting of many areas, the absence of precise hitboxes, which make movements difficult and prone to death, and last but not least, a unintuitive checkpoint system, which pushes the player back after a set number of deaths; the latter mechanic is fortunately deactivated and allows you to advance in the already cumbersome structure of the map without the fear of losing your progress.
Agony also features beautiful ideas, both of gameplay and design: the possession of the creatures encountered during the exploration diversifies the approach based on the skills of each and offers a different game experience according to their choices and personalized thanks to the unlockable abilities as your soul strengthens; even the aesthetics of NPCs and settings and also the plot, even if presented in bits and pieces, offer "pleasant" surprises.
It is not known whether it was neglect, inexperience or the choice was deliberate, the fact is that Agony presents several conceptual problems, in addition to the technicians already mentioned: the title was born with the intention of showing the horror and disgust of hell in a very physical and not very spiritual incarnation, with marked relevance to the carnal and lustful component (the Gigerian quotes are therefore not accidental) and the fury, violence and pain that the monsters and the damned inside feel without ever a moment of peace or simple oblivion. The survival and puzzle game components of the game should help convey a feeling of oppression, anguish, almost panic, in turn transforming the player into a frightened beast ready for anything just to make your way to freedom.
All this is almost entirely lacking in Agony, or rather, it is presented in an awkward way and, paradoxically as it may sound, almost childish: the spoken texts (with a decent dubbing) and writings scattered throughout history are a hodgepodge of heavy platitudes and truculent images that are not at all original, a gore as intense as it is lobotomizing; the horror that Agony should make to feel is reduced to confusion due to the bad lighting of the maps and their chaos; the puzzles are repetitive, unclear and otherwise difficult for the wrong reasons; the explicit content of the game (present in a massive way despite the complaints) results at times comical, however gratuitous and vulgar, without causing real horror, let alone excitement.
Agony on PlayStation 4 is an impossible purchase to recommend, as it offers a game already plagued by countless shortcomings, but mercilessly rips even that thin aesthetic crust present in the PC version, which granted a limp and suggestive atmosphere. It cannot be ruled out a priori that future patches will improve many aspects of the title, but the imprecise and sometimes clumsy management of the Kickstarter process (with some backers still waiting for a key for the console version) certainly does not give hope for the best.
► Agony is a Horror-Survival game developed by Madmind Studio and published by PlayWay SA for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 29/05/2018
