AGONY | Abandon All Hope Those Who Enter Here

Dismal, bleak, and dark is this Nintendo Switch port of Agony. A hopeless endeavor for those hoping it to be otherwise. Taking with it all the controversial material including full-on nudity, and hellish gore from MadMind Studios' original PS4, and PC debut this abysmal tale of a tormented soul cast into the fiery pits of Hell makes it's second coming appearance on the Switch more broken than it was before. The first-person survival horror that it is comes to life, or rather the afterlife in a laggy, and muddied presentation of visuals that do no favors for the creator's intended vision. Through puzzle solving, platforming, and mild combat you'll face the story of a tormented soul known as Amraphel whose pact with the devil in life served as his damnation, and beckoning call to the Red Queen. A succubus who holds the secrets to the only way of escape from the torture Amraphel faces. You'll be forced to trek through miles upon miles of blood, guts, and gore as you meet other damned souls, and make your way to the Red Queen in hopes for some semblance of relief, and remembrance. Along the way enhancing your skills, and abilities as you face the puzzles of the Labyrinth of the Mind, and other key locales.

The Hell of a playthrough that is Agony comes in three initially available modes. You'll find a a story mode where you play as the fallen Amraphel as he journeys deeper in to Hell in search of the Red Queen. His memories lost to him, and his only recollection coming from other fallen souls of people he knew in life that he meets along the way. Through puzzle solving, platforming, and skill based combat that utilizes a skill tree and skill points you must, as Amraphel, make your way to the Red Queen. Utilizing save point mirrors as checkpoints as well as limited guiding lights while dodging untimely deaths in the form of pitfalls, environmental hazards, and encounters with demons, and damned denizens that will have you respawning at the last activated mirror. All while collecting hidden collectibles that unlock additional story mode content, and a gallery full of art, videos, notes, comic book panels, and other things tied to the creative direction of the game.

Replay value comes in the form of two other modes of play that, unfortunately themselves, harbor the same glitchy, and muddied presentation as the story mode. In Agony Mode you'll encounter a procedurally generated challenge in the form of a survival and time attack. Each game type taking you through different variations of the main story environments as you try to outrank other players through a list of feats including depth achieved, demons killed, and other things tied to the mechanics involving the skill tree, and base functions in regards to features. One mode being all about surviving as deep as you can go, and the other about surviving for as long as you can. Beyond Story, and Agony Modes lies Succubus Mode where you get to control a succubus with some sort of X-ray vision, and alternate abilities or skills. This particular mode seems to be a perspective change to the main story mode where you fight for your very soul as the fallen human, Amraphel.

The Verdict ...

As you can probably tell by the short nature of the review, and the accusations about it's poorly ported presentation I did not find my time with the game pleasant at all. Not because it pushed the mature envelope through swearing, nudity, or gore, but because it was a broken experience. It was very glitchy, and laggy times with noticeable frame rate drops. The platforming felt loose, and not refined. I felt more often than not that I was stumbling through the janky environment trying to get to places that should have been made more clearly accessible. Overall it was not a good port, and even in 1080p on the docked mode it looked, and played horribly. I cannot recommend this game at all. It's got an interesting premise that was, unfortunately, poorly crafted and executed.