Agony is out right now ( first impresions Thread )

Being looking forward to this weird body horror take on hell game. Sadly they coudn't release a uncensored version because of steam policy's but i am ok with that, we all know every lady looks like a Barbie doll down there wink wink. ( fuck i am bad at jokes ).

Game looks cool. But isn't Penumbra: Black Plague on Steam? That game features a monster with a full on swinging dong. Just odd that they allow gore and violence but certain female anatomy is a no-no.

@boonsong: things that are still in the game according to the dev . So i guess Dong are ok?

• Gore
• Brutal Sex Scenes
• Lesbian and Gay Sex Scenes
• Genital Physics
• Eye Gouging
• Heart Plucking
• Children Heads Exploding
• Setting Fire to Martyrs and Demons
• Intense Violence
• Strong Language
• Drugs

@boonsong: Genital Jousting is still very much available on Steam as well...

Apparently there's a few seconds from 2 of the 7 endings that they had to cut? They said they'd release a video comparison tomorrow, so I guess we'll be able to see what all the fuss is about wrt Steam's policy.

Been curious about this thing for a while. Appreciate stuff that's willing to dive deep into uncomfortably hellish territory without crossing into sensationalism (not that this is gonna deliver on that, but here's to hoping), but the gameplay I saw a few months back didn't do much for me. Seemed a bit too simple, which I guess is fine if they're going for more of an Amnesia-style thing. Just the combat I did see looked a little goofy and out of place for what otherwise seems like a self-serious horror game.

Looking at this list though, I'm a bit wary of their intentions for showing all that stuff. I guess in the context of a discussion of censorship it makes sense to list everything out like that, but it does come off as a bit pretentiously edgy. Hopefully in the context of the game it's less goofy-sounding and more reverently unsettling, buuuuut I'm not so sure.

The feeding frenzy of people pissed for censorship is...a bit much. I wanted to read the steam forums, because most reviews seem ultra negative(discounting censorship issues).; it went poorly for me. If something has to be censored judge it by it's release. The criticisms seem hollow when someone goes "well in such and such scene in a demo there was like, more body meat hanging around the enemy!". I get it, if something is going all the way I want it to go there too, but that's like complaining about development changes and graphic changes and all that shit. At a certain point things are just going to be different and if it still stands on it's own after the change, that's what matters.

That said, the ultra gross, skin warped version of it's Hell is tantalizing. I don't think I'm interested in playing it for what it doesn't seem to do right, but even if it did...however watching it would atleast be a lot of fun. Remember Dante's Inferno? Yeah, I do, I think about it a lot and how most of it's circles of hell were just not good enough. It didn't need to be this sadistic all the time, and it has moments, but I really wanted something with a more unique vision. This seems to have it but like I said it doesn't sound like a fun game for me to actually play.

Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, I 100% forgot that this game existed. Very curious to play it, although the reviews make it sound like it might need some serious patching, regardless of censorship. Speaking of which, eh, whatever. Gotta do what you gotta do, and it sounds about as minimal as one could ask.

Being playing it for 1.30 hours main thing that jumps out are the badly detailed heads like some dudes look like they come straight out of TES:Morrowind. Also play this on easy the harder difficultys arn't worth the hastle imo, Especially when you need to restart the level after three deaths. I am liking the story so far and the weird notes somebody wrote making the journey to the red goddess. Also i seen some dongs so Steam is ok with dongs i guess.

This whole censorship steam drama reminded me of hearts of iron 4 and German costumers getting mad that the 3 reich flag didn't include a swastika cause the symbol is banned in Germany. People not getting that videogame company's still have to obeit to country laws

Okay, just played for a while. Thankfully, a review gave me the heads-up beforehand that the game should be played on easy due to some frustrating mechanics that I would have hated, so my first impressions are pretty positive given my tempered expectations. The atmosphere is fantastically oppressive, almost disorienting in the sheer amount of visual noise and chaos (normally a bad thing, but this being Hell, it's perfect). Graphically, it's not amazing or even particularly good, but it gets the job done. What's with the grape jelly blood, though?

The gameplay is... average, I'd say. It's a blend of any number of hide n' seek horror games, which is fine. Honestly, I'm just here for the atmosphere.

The story is too early on to judge, but I do like what I've seen so far. The acting ranges from corny to unnerving (the off-kilter way some of the damned speak is truly creepy at first).

The subtitles feel like they were written in a hurry. Very inaccurate and typo-heavy.

All in all, not bad so far. I'm very forgiving to subpar gameplay and production value if the game makes up for it elsewhere, and that's exactly what this does. We'll see how I feel about it when I've finished it, but I do adore a good creepy hellscape.

Edit: Another hour-ish in, and while I still like it more than the reviews, I'm starting to see the cracks appear bit by bit. I'd have a very hard time recommending this game to most people.

Judging from the trailer on steam looks like some sensationalist bullshit using hell as an excuse to show a bunch of disgusting shit. "Go on a fun adventure and meet interesting npcs!" fuck out of here lmao.

I watched a 15-minute gameplay trailer last month or so and thought it looked terrible. As if it was an alpha product. I was surprised to see it released so soon because it sure as hell didn't look anywhere close to being finished.

After playing 4 hours of this game. Here's my recommendation DON'T BUY IT! Reasons? The game mechanics get old real fast, assets feel unfinished, weird bugs, feels like it's missing some gameplay elements weird UI. My Recombination buy this on a sale a year from now and get a better experience.

Shame to hear (and see) it's a let down. Here's hoping that Scorn will be a much better game, which it already looks like more of a game than walking simulator.

They finally released that uncensored video showing what they cut and oof, it was largely cringey. While I'm not a fan of alterations such as these being forced upon creators and their work, this is one of those times where you just have to step back and go "oh, okay, nothing of value was lost..."

Played the Alpha and enjoyed that for what it was. Really looking forward to the finished product.

The scenes they cut brought nothing of value or anything crucial to the table.

The cut scenes give more insight into the developer's attitudes to women and childbirth-related things than anything to do with what hell might be like, in my opinion.

I completed it a few days back. It has a nice twist in the end. But it's not worth the 9 hours of boring walking and bad stealth sequences.

I saw the apples with the core replaced with genitalia and I was like nope.

Oof, I fell off hard and fast on this. Just too many better games to play right now. Damn shame, I really liked it at first, but I can't overlook the flaws any longer. Maybe I'll come back to it when I've got nothing else to play, or I'll just watch it on Youtube.

I came across the deleted scenes over on Motherboard I believe. It just looked like a bunch of disturbing stuff mixed with weirdo sex. In the end, perhaps having a somewhat inaccurate view of the game, it seemed exploitive. In one segment you 'rape' a succubus somewhat graphically with a penis that looks rot-awful. The pregnant lady inspection I skipped.

Guess I should know why I would be doing all this, but no real drive to find out.

Is this a "reimagining" of the old Amiga game?

Game has some interesting visuals but overall it just looks annoying to play. I got a heavy vibe of that just watching someone play for a bit, too. I'll probably be skipping this one.

Yeah this looks like a game where the devs wanted to make everything EXTREME!!!!

I finished this and like it quite a bit. It manages to be both graphically gorgeous but also at times dated. I was most impressed with the environments and sheer variety of assets. I found it engaging, with vast levels and a stack of collectables but equally frustrating due to its sometimes questionable AI and check pointing.

This feels like a low-key gem coated in a big dollop of janky shit. They've been pretty good at rolling out patches so hopefully soon enough you might be able to realistically recommend it to somebody without suffixing it with a bunch of caveats.

I played on PC. I understand the console versions were released in a less than stellar shape. The damage is done. The reviews are pretty nasty.

Haven't played yet, but popular youtuber Patrick Klepek wrote a review.

Sounds like it's mediocre gameplay put on top of misogynist torture porn. Too bad. The initial pitch seemed cool.

So his site talks about why they aren't talking about Kingdom Come, but they spurt out this click bait review on a game that was made for the specific reason of trying to grab attention? Got it.

@breq: Did you listen to why they didn't cover it and/or read this review? Nothing in either contradicts the other.

@breq: DodoBasse is correct.

@shivermetimbers said:

I read through Patrick's review at Waypoint, and the vaginapples gif in the review was prettttttty fucking stupid.

To the people that have played the game, is it just like a poor man's Outlast? "Here's a bunch of exploitative gore and stuff, and then we'll make you hide from invincible bad men a bunch, and there's going to be some lame story told mostly through journal entries along the way"? Like, if you set aside whether the violence/torture is more targeted at one gender than the other, and set aside what sounds like garbage AI and bugs, does the game have anything noteworthy going for it other than some pretty Hell graphics and demon designs?

I saw the uncensored footage that was cut of the game. I felt it was unnecessary and gross. I also read Patrick Klepek's review. My take away from is that it's another game trying to be controversial for the sake of controversy. It seems nobody learned from the game marketing mess that was Dante's Inferno. If people want to play it on their own time, that is their business.

I don't object if a game wants to go to for a Hieronymus Bosch or H.R Giger aesthetic. The juxtaposition of the beautiful and the grotesque. Torture porn is where I draw the line. Ultimately if a game does not have a good story or have decent game play. It's not worth playing.

To be honest modern feminist would probably like this game. Female charters are empowered they seem to rule hell and most men are angry demons following set mistresses or just dark souls husks. So i don't really get the critueq, but that just might be my dumb brain. Also almost all the "sex scene's" end with you getting murder by women it's pretty dumb. ( Don't take this thing to serious it's even got some dumb premature ejaculation joke in there.)

@soulcake: If you think it is feminist to portray women as either murderous succubii or victims of assault, I don't know where to start.

@dodobasse: that's the thing they arn't victims of assault there dealing out the assault. (in-game)

@soulcake: I am not sure how to respond, because you are not addressing any of what I said in my post.

@bisonhero: When you strip Outlast to the core like that then I suppose they are similar as all of those points are in part true. I never really directly associated the two while playing though.

The Agony possession mechanic is moderately interesting, as the martyrs that you discover around the level effectively become your lives. You are able to possess demons later on which creates a risk/reward scenario where you can clear the path of other demons but to maintain that form for any significant period of time you to have execute martyrs, effectively draining your own lives. You are unable to pick up items or progress past certain level points so you will ultimately always need to return to the martyr form. It honestly sounds more interesting on paper than its execution in game as you can always fall back to the checkpoints which they've now patched to be persistent on the standard difficulty, as before you could only use them three times before they deactivated.

Looking past the visuals and the theme, I suppose the main enjoyment I found was the secrets and collectables. Quite a number of the levels feel large and aren't particularly linear in the way you approach many parts of them. This exploration and discovery element of the game felt quite old school in nature, which I mean in a good way.

I don't remember much about the story beyond trying to find the red goddess although my memory is awful. She has quite a few voice-over parts which reminded me of Jennifer Beals' character in Vampire's Kiss (which I mean as a really campy positive). I didn't take it seriously at all so really cannot relate to any of the points Patrick is surfacing in his review.

I would have been perfectly satisfied with this as a walking simulator, as the best part really is the environments and graphics. I'd recommend it to anybody (on PC) who is intrigued by the visual design and is adept at tolerating some jank. I spent my first hour dying repeatedly in a dark maze (that they've since patched in some lighting changes to) so even I'm somewhat surprised that I came around on it. I perfectly understand people who have written this off as total shite though.

So I'm going though Steam looking for horror games to play, 'cause you know, it's October, and Halloween is kinda relevant to my interests thanks to that one song by The Black Dahlia Murder. I eventually run into Agony again; used to have it on my wishlist three years ago, but I removed it when most people seemed unimpressed with the initial release, so I payed it no mind. Back to present day, and it finally clicks that Agony isn't exactly in the same vein as Amnesia or SOMA, it more resides in the the after hours part of Steam, and that I learned about Agony though this website.

Soooo... anyone around here play Succubus?