Agony proves one hell of an experience

If you believe there is a heaven and hell and you’ve ever wondered what it might look like - but don’t want to chance your arm that you will find out when you pop your clogs - then Agony paints a pretty vivid picture.

The first-person, survival horror sees gamers go on a journey as a tormented soul within the depths of hell without any memories about your past.

The special ability to control peopleonyourpath,andpossessdemons, gives you the tools and wherewithal to survive.

DevelopedbyMadMindsStudiofor PS4, XBox and PC, Agony use the UnrealEngine4andisaKickstartergame with an 18+ certificate game due to its extreme violence.

Tasked with meeting the Red Goddess, one of the creators of Hell, in an effort to escape and return to the land of the living you must possess both other Martyrs and, later in the game, lesserandhigherdemons,givingthem access to special abilities.

Using mechanics such as crouching and holding your breath you can avoid demons and must solve puzzles in order to unlock new areas. Hidden statues and paintings can also be collected along your journey.

It is easy to see why Agony had such a big take-up on Kickstarter because the premise of the game is brilliantly unique.

Theanticipationhasbeenbuilding for some time and the graphics, gore andsounddonotdisappointdelivering an atmospheric and haunting experience which I feel begs for VR.

Some of the demons will give you nightmares and Agony screams originality. The crowning achievement in Agony is the way it leaves your nerves frayed.

Ifyoudidn’tneedyourhandsonthe control pad you’d probably find yourself chewing your fingernails with knots in your stomach because there is a very real sense of danger and impending doom throughout.

Frustratingly, though, Agony is far from perfect. The gameplay mechanicsareclunkyattimes.Thereareahost ofannoyancesthemajoronebeingthe ridiculously restrictive timer during your time as a demon which sucks the fun out of the game in many ways.

Bugs and crashes are too frequent but patches are already on the way in a bid to fix much of that.

If this was a VR title we would be possiblybelookingatalandmarkgame in video game history.

Andperhapsthat’swhereitsfuture lies because there are too many good aspects to Agony to consign it to video game hell despite its flaws.