Agony isn’t the fastest moving game you will ever play, but that doesn’t make it easy, with loads of large sprites coming from all directions and spitting their version of death at you there is plenty of action going on all taking place over the top of a very colourful and sinister landscape. As is to be expected in a shoot em up, there are also power ups to be collected while trying to dodge bullets, spiders, skulls and the various other nasties, meaning you have to occasionally swoop down to pick up a potion or scroll between the killing beasties. All the while the landscape scrolls in layers behind making for a pseudo 3 dimensional look to the well detailed trees, shipwrecks and otherwordly scenery that you probably won’t have time to appreciate.
Agony is overall a fantastic looking, great sounding game with a bit of a challenge for the average player like me, offering an escape from the usual space based side scrollers and doing it with a unique style which at one time was Psygnosis’ signature look. This one is well worth a search for if you like a shooter but maybe with a slower pace than most.
