Agony (Amiga) Playthrough / Stunning, but incomplete to become a legend. Psygnosis owl in action.
5Agony (1992) by Art & Magic is a shmup game with spectacular audiovisual design for a game consisting of just 3 floppy disks. The graphics are truly impressive and are undoubtedly the main element that sold this game at the time. The animation and multiple layers of parallax scrolling make it definitely a feast for the eyes. During the experience we will be accompanied by fantastic music that literally pumps adrenaline into our veins. To be honest, I have no idea what this game is about, as nothing is really conveyed to us in the gameplay itself, other than the fact that some Alestes has undergone metamorphosis into an owl and that it's time to fight some Mentor. I guess the rest of this “Epic” storyline is just spelled out in the manual. Personally, I can't understand this move..... When you create such a work of art you rather want it to be as complete as possible.... and here it looks as if the game itself was created with care and everything else was thrown in by force. Agony is kind of like a Bentley in the lowest standard with upholstery based on cardboard Beautiful and prestigious but poor at the same time. It's really a shame that there is no impressive introduction and ending, as it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste after such a tasty morsel, which Agony undoubtedly is. As for the gameplay, I must admit that at first the game did not appeal to me, it seemed very clumsy and not very innovative. Even compared to older titles in the same genre. However, with the passage of time and subsequent approaches to pass this game from beginning to end, it cast its charm on me....began to appeal to me, and more than I would have expected.The entire gameplay consists of a basic attack called “wave”, which can be upgraded 2 times, thus increasing its deadly area.In addition, our defense as well as attack can be enriched with Two Swords, levitating above and below our hero, destroying everything in its path.The last variety of gameplay are magical spells in the form of scrolls, falling quite rarely from enemies.By pressing the spacebar we can open a separate menu, which shows us the spells available for use....their balance has not been very well thought out, because with their help boss fights are simply a joke.Bosses are generally the weakest element of the game, for the fact that skirmishes with them have not been programmed very well and most of them can be quickly finished off without much effort.They don't have any special attacks to surprise us or make us have to memorize their behavior....they just do the same thing over and over again until we kill them, which can effectively cool down the influx of positive gameplay experience. But as they say “you can't have it all”.
In conclusion, Agony is a truly exceptional game in many ways, but also in many ways it is not polished enough to become a legendary game.It is very good by Amiga standards, but it definitely could have been something more.I highly recommend checking this game out for both genre fans and weekend gamers.
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"Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"