We had so much fun watching this video that we decided to share it with all of you. Note that you're doing it on your own responsibility as it contains spoilers, but if you'd like to know why PewDiePie wouldn't actually mind going to Hell, check out the first part of his playthrough:
Agony is a survival stealth game set in hell. It's a Clive Barker-esque version of hell, which means it's like being trapped in a dragon's poop chute where everything is either on fire or covered in dubious slick. As you wander gooey mazes looking for artifacts blind demons roam the corridors, ready to run at you and break your neck at the gentlest creak of shoe-leather.
At first Agony was as gross and atmospheric as I hoped it would be. The first few areas treat you to a lovely fleshy cliff face and plenty of bony orifices. The catacombs are an unsettling mess of turns. You hear creatures scuttling around, and the occasional scream. It has a video nasty B-movie quality. It's hammy, but disturbing, in an 'oh look a spider made of human hands' way.
I wonder what's through there. More hell, probably.
You play as a spirit on a mission to find 'The Red Goddess'. You inhabit the bodies of lesser souls and walk them around the dungeon. Crouching keeps your footsteps quiet. Alt holds your breath (this doesn't seem to help at all) and there are glowing blue alcoves to hide in. It's a loose take on Alien Isolation, but without the detailed environments, and the intelligent AI that made the Alien a menace.
The demons I have encountered in the first couple of hours are humanoids with giant vertical mouths for faces. They are not smart. Instead of actively hunting you they plod their routes through the maze and charge the moment they hear your steps nearby. Getting caught often feels arbitrary, and dying can be extremely inconvenient thanks to Agony's odd respawn system.
Interacting with weird mirrors scattered around the environment gives you a limited set of respawn charges. When you die you float around looking for cowering NPCs to possess before time runs out and you're set back to the start of the dungeon. If you run out of charges you just die straight away and have to repeat the section. You can find these NPCs ranting to themselves near warped shrines, but if you are lucky enough to find and possess one, you are likely to be totally lost.
Your chiropractor will see you now.
To add to the frustration, hell is so dark it's frequently impossible to see where the walls are, or where the dark grey enemies are, or really where anything is. You can carry torches, but they attract demons, so you don't want to use them. You can turn the gamma up, which helps, but the game takes on that artificial oversaturated night-vision look. The darkness feels like a deliberate choice to try and keep you disoriented, but squinting at a monitor isn't a great survival horror experience.
I like the idea of Agony. It's fun to see an old-school heavy metal album cover hellscape presented with a 2018 level of detail, but it's a painful reminder that stealth games are difficult to get right. After a few levels I found it easier to just run for my objectives, demons be damned, because it was less frustrating to chance it than to crouch-walk through pitch darkness for ten minutes at a time. I'd happily put up with the cheesy dialogue to see more of the underworld, but trial and error stealth sections are a form of gaming hell I can't endure.
We’re coming back with the good news! The first patch is already uploaded so that you can continue your adventure in a new version of the Hell right away! Here is the list of changes:
The Maze of Madness puzzle is optional now.
Amount of enemies in The Pit is reduced.
Amount of skulls needed to solve Ishtar's Room puzzle is reduced.
Small tweaks for Dark Forest enemies encounters.
Added Torch to Onoskelis Cave area.
Amount of enemies in the Fractal Forest is reduced.
Amount of enemies in the Mushroom Mind is reduced.
Problematic sigils in Ice Caves are changed into easier puzzles.
Added a checkpoint after the first scene in Chart Chase (You no longer need to rewatch the first scene)
Painting in Chart Chase area changed place, so it's more obvious where to look for it.
Ifrit soul apple is now gained faster, and puzzle in this area got streamlined.
Added a checkpoint in the last chapter just before meeting with the beast (you no longer need to walk long path again)
Changed difficulty options - Easy Possession is now activated on both difficulties, and Checkpoint Destruction is off in both as well.
Stamina got a big buff and a small rework while swimming.
Have fun and keep bringing your awesome reports, so we would know exactly what to change next!
The long-awaited video showing all these nasty parts of the game we had to change just before Agony launched is here for you to watch. Please keep in mind that it involves massive spoilers, so you’re watching it at your own responsibility. Scene no. 2 was added only a week ago, and we will upload this "feature" for different characters, in a normal patch, very soon. Now, sit down comfortably and prepare for some disturbing things to watch:
Still here after watching the video? Good, we’ve got some fresh news for you.
As we already mentioned a couple of times, we are working hard solving issues with the game that you have reported to us. We are very close to releasing the first two patches, one for Steam, and one for the consoles.
We are currently testing the PC patch and if everything goes fine, you should expect to see it tomorrow.
The patch for consoles has been sent to Microsoft and Sony for approval so it’s now up to them when it is going to be released.
These updates differ a bit. We are going to post a changelog for PC as soon as the update goes live. Regarding the patches for Agony on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, here are some improvements you can expect:
PS4 - fixed problem with screen-tearing/v-sync, improved framerate and lots of small bugs related to collisions, hang-up, etc. Xbox - improved framerate, bug related to sounds and a lot of small bugs related to collisions, hangs-up, etc.
Once these first patches go live, we will continue improving Agony and fixing the most important and urgent issues that you’ve told us about. Your feedback is invaluable to us so thanks a ton for communicating with our team, just please understand that we cannot implement all changes at once.
On that note, we also want to apologize if your question or problem hasn’t been addressed by us yet. We understand that it may be frustrating to wait for your answer even for a minute longer than you are used to. Please try to understand us though as we are fighting against the time without any rest whatsoever, trying to keep you informed at all times. If you are wondering what the source of delays is, let the pictures speak for themselves:
Since we are not physically able to address every single concern of yours regarding the alleged censorship not related to ending or post-ending content in the game, we decided to create a Q&A on Reddit.
We will continue doing our best to address all of your questions and concerns. There is nothing more valuable to us than you!
PS We also read your comments regarding the date of publication of the video showing off censored elements in the game. We don't want you to wait till Friday anymore, thus we are now aiming to release it tomorrow. Stay tuned!
Since a small number of players have finished the game, and the video with cutscenes contains some huge spoilers, we decided that you will be able to see them only when Kinga Spyra - the girl who won the Agony Box competition, will find a disc with cut-out content in the chest.
Live stream from this event should be available in few days. We can not wait for your reaction to the contents of the chest! Kinga has promised live-stream with unboxing, which we will inform you through our Facebook profile!
UPDATE:
We are just finishing work on the patch on all platforms. Thanks to your feedback we have been able to detect many technical issues in Agony. Most of them are fixed and waiting for the patch to be released.
Based on your suggestions, we are making the game a bit easier and less frustrating for you.
The update will appear as soon as it is ready - we do not sleep, and we improve the game for you!
Thank you for feedback and support! /Madmind Studio
After years of waiting, you finally get the chance to run away from the Hell! As a dessert, we prepared a launch trailer for you. Yes, all those scenes are there in the final game! Enjoy watching and be brave!
Agony, based on what we've seen of it so far, isn't so much a horror game as we've come to know them—dark corridors and jump scares—as it is straight-up horrific. Everything seems wet and sticky (and not in a good way), there are naked naughty bits all over the place (also not in a good way), and in case you missed it earlier this month, babies get eaten. Lovely stuff.
It's the sort of in-your-face visual content that sets a regulatory agent's teeth on edge, and sure enough, developer Madmind Studio said today that it has had to tone things down in order to get a rating from PEGI (Pan European Game Information) and other agencies—but only very slightly, as it turns out.
"The censorship now affects only several seconds from two endings (out of seven) and some scenes that may be unlocked only after the end of the game," Madmind wrote. "None of the scenes you have seen in the trailers and other promotional materials have been censored at all, and the game will feature those on all platforms."
The studio even posted a helpful list of features you can look forward to in the game:
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
Those are definitely not the kinds of back-of-the-box bullet points you see every day.
Because of unspecified "legal issues," however, Madmind has dropped its plan to release a patch that would remove the censorship from the PC version of the game. Instead, it will publish a "comparison video" on May 30, "so you will not miss out [on] anything," a statement that, intentional or not, really highlights where much of the interest in Agony really lies.
"Please bear in mind that leaving this content uncensored would result in the game being banned and us, Madmind Studio, being sued," the message says. "That would simply lead to the studio being closed. Obviously, we don’t want this to happen and we hope that you understand it."
After many consultations and hard work full of trials and errors, we have two pieces of news for you.
Firstly, we have managed to include a lot of things that we originally wanted to provide in the patch in the final game. It has been accepted by PEGI and other rating companies. The censorship now affects only several seconds from two endings (out of seven) and some scenes that may be unlocked only after the end of the game. We will be able to show them to you in a video that we are planning to release soon.
None of the scenes you have seen in the trailers and other promotional materials have been censored at all, and the game will feature those on all platforms:
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
Secondly, due to legal issues, we are not going to be able to release the Adult Only patch. However, that content does not affect the game in any significant way because the deleted material that was supposed to be added in the latest version of the patch is from two endings (out of seven) and some scenes that may be unlocked only after the end of the game. We are going to publish a comparison video on May 30th, 2018 so you will not miss out anything.
Please bear in mind that leaving this content uncensored would result in the game being banned and us, Madmind Studio, being sued. That would simply lead to the studio being closed. Obviously, we don’t want this to happen and we hope that you understand it.
Agony is still the game we have planned all along and we are very proud of what we have achieved.
Enjoy pursuing the Red Goddess in Hell! Madmind Studio
