amok: the problem with Agony is that is just not a good game.... I have played it, and it is not fun to play at all, and it is also refelcted in consitently bad reviews. I can understand why gOg did not want to sell it to begin with. Succubus is a much better game from Madmind, but Agony.... is better left to the pile of very forgetable games that need not be remembered.
Steamisbetter: Nobody would force the people who don't like some games, to play them. And lots of people were -and still are- willing to buy said games. Isn't it a bit unfair for those thousands of people that voted for it, to not enjoy the game, at their preferred online distributing service, just because a number of people don't like it and think it is of bad quality? As well as dumb for said service, to lose all the income from the people genuinely interested in buying it?
Besides, in this specific matter, the vocal minority yelling in the forums against its release, completely made up the "bad quality game" argument on spot; and they used to take issue for its content/rating. If memory serves, the thing going back then had been: "This game is too niche for gog-store". Its developers were genuinely interested in a gog release, which isn't exactly commonplace if you know what i mean and bothered not only to reach gog thrice proposing that, but even to reply to random people, asking them to consider a DRM-Free release. Please!
no, the "bad game" argument was mostly made by people that played the game... The thing is - Agony looks good, and it is clear that it is on the visuals the developers have spent most time / resources, but in the process they forgot about the gameplay. If you see it as a piece of interactive fiction or short horror movie? why not? but as a game it is just too repetetive and boring (and still a bit buggy). But even as a graphical marvel, the pacing is wrong. They are so eager to show everything from the starts, so that about the halfway point you have seen it all, and there is nothing new. The enemies have also very little variation, there are only about four or five different enemies through out the game. And while it sounds good, the voice acting is horrible.
The posession mecahinc feels (still) a bit bugged, and needs much more flagging and explaining, The checkpoint system (yes, it uses checkpoints) is very random, and you can find yourself playing the same 1/2 hour over and over again, just becuase there is no checkpoints, while other places they are minutes between. Linked to this is that if a mob get you, they kill you with one or two hits. This makes the game unfair, and again boring. And, as most levels are mazes.... it is just not fun. And it makes the game feel very slow.
All these points are not about the content, if you read the actual reviews it is the content you think of that gets praise. i.e. the visualisation of Hell, the graphic design of the demons etc. What gets a lot of negative critisism is that while it looks good, as a game it just don't play well. A judgement I agree with. I have nothing against a bit of horror or gore and the odd titilation, but I would never recomend someone Agony as a
game to play.
