AGONY
Hell is where the (still beating) heart is
Ladies and gentledemons, please keep all hands, feet, and horns to yourselves for the duration of this tour. If you look to your right you’ll see a staircase made of human flesh. On your left there’s the doorway made of gummy teeth (and we’d advise you not to stare at the skittering shadow lurking beside it). We cordially invite you to direct any enquiries about finding a way out to the Red Goddess. Ahem. So there’s not a tour guide in Agony’s survival-horror world. However, imagining a softly polite voice talking us through what we’re seeing helps us deal with the hellish landscape of, er, Hell. As a wandering soul we’re somehow able to possess simple-minded demons and human Martyrs on our way to the Red Goddess – the only thing (we hesitate to call her a ‘person’) who knows how to escape. Oh, and she’s also rumoured to have created Hell. No biggie, then.
PREY FOR YOUR SOUL
Simple, crushable Martyrs litter Agony’s fleshy hallways and disturbingly organic gardens. These sufferers can’t fight the demons prowling around, but they can hide from them. As the weakest of the bunch, we’re not content to possess one for long – so we set our sights on a demon with a toothy slit splitting its face in half. This is more like it. Flicking our claw sends the pathetic Martyrs flying, clenching a fist makes their insides burst into flames; almost as excruciating as shoving a hand through their chest, which we can also do. Worryingly, despite our new host we’re still far from invincible. Hulking demons roar when we get too close, trying to smash us to smithereens. Slightly shaken by this, we blow a smaller demon to bits. It makes us feel a bit better.
Back to finding the Red Goddess. She’s holed up at the Tree Of Life, and a mysterious blonde-haired demon is helping us out (to be honest, we’d rather not know why). Getting to the carmine monarch won’t be easy. Puzzles for us to solve are scattered through each winding location: gnarled gardens, or a mansion made of every body part imaginable (and some we didn’t even know existed). Gaps in the floor lead to the galactic netherrealm lying beneath, dotted with oddly beautiful stars. Agony sways between terror and intrigue as we try to guess why we’re here. There’s only one way to find the answer. We’re off to see the Goddess…
“FLICKING OUR CLAW SENDS THE PATHETIC MARTYRS FLYING.”