Agony is a dark and gory survival horror based on the popular imagining of what hell is like. The dark and scary underworld is full of tortured human souls and deformed beasts who have turned into demons.

A different take on survival horror

The first thing you will notice about Agony is the art style. The graphics are outstanding due to the various art styles in place. It seems obvious that different teams created different areas, and their idea worked a treat because no one place is the same as the other. There are colourful and bright areas of fire, and there are dark and charcoal coloured areas where only shadows pick out textures and details. You are trying to find a way out of hell, and you must avoid danger while using other human souls and even using demons to do your bidding. The gore is extreme, and the brilliant graphics and crushingly realistic sound effects make it all the more unsettling. Even the voice acting for things such as groans and cries are piercing and gruesome.

Darkness and horror done correctly

Agony is not about jump scares, it is about a constant feeling of horror and dread. There is no place you can go to run and hide, and there are no safe areas to take a little rest. Each step takes you to yet another area of beautifully crafted horror. Plus, the developers have a far better understanding about how to use light than any of the Silent hill or Resident Evil developers. There are some areas where darkness is almost fluid. This game is not for the faint hearted because it presents you with a very convincing version of what hell may look like.