Agony has officially been announced as of Gamescom 2016 and is slated for a Quarter 2 release in 2018. It’s an upcoming first-person survival horror game being developed by Madmind Studio, a studio comprised of AAA developers. The game will be taking players through a horror-filled survival where they must fight their way through the inner circles of Hell. It is a place that is comprised of bone, sinew, sin, and demonic amalgamations made of human flesh.
Hell is a place where players will be learning to possess demons, solve puzzles, and crawl about in the dark while fighting for survival. This take on Hell is much different than ones we’ve seen previously.
What Horrors Reside in Hell Itself?
Hell is a place that carries quite a bit symbolism that spans multiple beliefs as a home for evildoers, tormented souls, and the devious. It is also a place that games such as id Software’s DOOM, Visceral’s Dante’s Inferno, and even Blizzard Entertainment’s franchise Diablo have all given us a taste of what they believe Hell to be like. From twisted and scorched Earth-like appearances to places that seem abysmal, Hell has been a place of controversy in gaming. It’ll be joining the ranks of horror titles that’ll help pass your time starting next year.
Agony is an ode to the survival genre, one that is desperately needed.
This is a place where the upcoming game by Madmind Studio is not shy of showing off with their scrupulous choices in design, setting, and storytelling. Agony is an ode to the survival genre, one that it has desperately needed. While most survival games bring a taste of Hell to our own relatable reality, we’ll now get to see exactly what horror will look like from within Hell itself.
The synopsis of their game? It’s a perfect remedy for what could very well be one of the most frightening games of all time. So let us take a gander at that before we continue.
“You will begin your journey as tormented soul within the depths of hell, without any memories about your past. The special ability to control people on your path, and even possess simple minded demons, gives you the necessary measures to survive in the extreme conditions you are in.
By exploring the hostile environment and interacting with other weary souls of the hellscape, the hero will soon understand that there is only one way to escape from Hell, and it will require meeting the mystical Red Goddess.”
Agony Will be One to Help Define the Horror Genre
As questionable as it is within the realm of spiritual morality goes, we’ve played with the possibilities of life and death in Konami’s Silent Hill, we’ve toyed with what it means to fight for survival with Tango Gameworks’ The Evil Within, and we’ve run like Hell to survive in darkened rooms lit by barely a flashlight in some of the best horror games that you need to play with games such as Outlast.
What’s different about Agony from the others isn’t the fact the game leads us as a character through Hell, one that is fighting to escape, and find a better ending to their spiritual afterlife – it could potentially be one to drive people mad. It won’t be whether or not the scenery, the creatures, and or our decisions will be profitable as a form of the outcome, but rather or not we can keep a level minded demeanor in doing so.
It will feed upon the fears we have as our days tick away with each passing moment, but it will also be one to force players to possess demons, it will force them to solve puzzles that may be harder than they are prepared for, and it will break every form of spiritual comfort they know. Controversially, the game will be one approached with a heavy hand by many due to its themes, and it will be one – because of that – to succeed in scaring the pants off anyone that plays it.
It’ll be Unsettling Due to Hell and That’s Why You’ll Want It
The thought of Hell is already nightmare fuel for many. The idea of decrepit creatures roaming fiery pits, bodies sticking from walls crying for help, souls laying upon piles of bones and sinew while endlessly being tortured, it’s all things horror is known for – it’s something that Agony will succeed in. From time to time, we get the idea of what Hell could be like, we get the idea from our imagination when laying within the dark confines of our rooms. We get it from our games, our movies, our books, but never have we truly gotten to experience crawling among dark dusty floors, ones made of bone, stone, living tissue, and fallen souls of others.
Agony is showing that the horror genre hasn’t ever seen a game quite like it.
Never have we gotten to see one that will require us to steel ourselves for the things we will see, the things we will do, and the fact the very environment could be made of things that will make us fight for survival. From bodies sticking out of walls, demonic statues that are or could be alive, to weeping souls on the floor, to walls made of deadly jaw tissue, it is all visceral, it is all dark, and it is those things we will fear as we are left with the environment around us.
It’ll be because of that very environment that Agony is showing that the horror genre hasn’t ever seen a game quite like it. That the horror genre has only been in its infancy until it releases. With games such as Alien: Isolation merely providing jump scares and paranoia, we will see what it is to truly be scared from haunting voices, bones cracking under feet, to the painful calls of demons rattling through our headsets next year. Agony is set to be quite possibly one of the most unparalleled games within the genre itself, but for now? We will wait to see what horrors lie in wait for us.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter or Facebook.