Agonising Succubus

 Oh, the depths to which I'll stride whenever I see 'Free Download'

Ya'll remember the game Agony? I didn't, because for a very long time all the title consisted of was teaser footage of snippets of gameplay so anaemic that I always wondered off for a snack halfway through them. Yeah, I don't think I completed a single video of theirs when they were in their marketing stage, because I was just interested in the final product. "Ah" you may say "But you were interested!" And sure I was, I'd seen the cover demon and read the concept and that sounded interesting enough. It promised to be a journey into the pits of hell, which leaned close to what it's contemporary, Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice, was offering. It was going to be entirely first person with horror elements attached to it, thus invoking another contemporary, Prey, to mind. And it had a really interesting looking design to it's demons that teased some warped artistic ingenuity in the mix, almost like a less extreme version of what Scorn is tempting. (Honestly, I think a lot of my memories of early Agony footage is mixed up with early Scorn teases in my head.)

So you might notice that for me at least, there was nothing wholly unique about what Agony had to offer in order to draw me in. With the amount of other games on the market, I just didn't have the brain space to contain watching out for this game alongside others, no matter how much I thought it looked genuinely cool in places. The only thing that seemed promising was the fact that game was said to be a decently high quality horror-adjacent experience, but with my history involving horror as a genre you best know I wouldn't find that as a selling point. And so the game has faded from my mind and only really come up again when I started seeing reviews saying that the game was pretty broken. Or boring. Or broken and boring. Yeah, this game shifted from my consciousness so much that I can't even remember what people didn't like about it. So ends the legacy of Agony in my mind, until...

Yeah, Youtube recommendations have been wild lately, no? It's either throwing videos at you from 12 years ago which saw next to no views at the time, or wildly picking at topics you might possibly be even slightly interested in. I've come across so many new games just from off-the-cuff Youtube suggestions alone, thus it makes sense that I'd see a new game being posted on Agony's official Youtube, only this game was called 'Succubus'? So this is a real game that you can look up right now, but rather than the survival horror vibe that the first game rocked, this title seems to be an action adventure slash-em-up about a Succubus, within the Agony world, that is... fighting her way out of hell? I think? (Zagreus called, he wants his MO back) I don't know, I was just surprised and kind of interested to see that this studio were doubling down on their design and not shifting gears after that lukewarm initial release. I thought it was an opportunity not to let promising content lie unused.

And when I said 'it seems' I was being a little facetious, because as it turns out this 'Succubus' game has a demo and have I played it because I'll play any free thing if it's shoved in front of me. Despite not having had a chance to try Agony, I thought there might be some cool things here and as much as I hate to acknowledge it and try to pretend like I don't like it, some masochistic part of me is a sucker for horror. (Not that the demo I played really displayed any horror, but I went in expecting and ready for it.) From the otherside I can say that the demo is certainly indicative of some roughness, this game is still being developed, but there's definite promise and I actually do want to keep an eye on things. (Maybe not as closely as some other games, but I'll glance this game's way a couple times a year maybe.) Yes, I actually did enjoy the little snippet of this game that I played. Although that isn't to say I didn't have my gripes.

For example, the design; What happened? When you look to even the title character of Agony you'll be struck by the sheer horrific creativity of it. (That creature actually returns for Succubus, actually.) I expected more of that, but the Succubus herself is the most generic goat-legged design I've seen. I wanted something horrific, something that would make me glad the game is in first person, but instead they're practically identical to The Witcher's Succubus'. On the flipside-however, I will say that the team have certainly put themselves up against quite the wall at tackling first person melee combat. (Traditionally that can go awry very easily) And from what I've seen they've got a decent basis with different weapons relating to different styles of fighting and decent manoeuvrability in the dodges. Xeno Clash this is not, but I can see a decently fun game coming out of this.

What really impressed me, however, was the animations; because it is evident that some genuine talent went into this. Doom style finishers come into play for weakened enemies and even when applied with the slow-down effect this game uses to show them off, these finisher animations look clean. I was genuinely impressed. Of course, some of the actual movement of enemies is a little clunky, but given how this is early development I can really look past that and assume that's the sort of stuff that's just awaiting some back-end work. They definitely have the talent on staff. As for the scope of gameplay; well that's something you really need more than a little demo to pick through. What I played was almost embarrassingly easy to get through, but then I acknowledge that the point of this demo was to give you a feel for what the game is, rather than challenge you. So I suppose that means difficulty isn't exactly a pillar of their design philosophy, which I sort of bemoan given my penchant for self punishment, but there it is. 

So is there any thing else to talk about? Hmm, can't really think... oh yeah- the sexual content! Yeah, considering the game is literally called 'Succubus' you'd be able to guess there would be a little bit of eroticism in there, but I'm glad to report that the soul of the project seems to be in making a decent combat-based game rather than a porn game. But that isn't to say there isn't some fetishism, such to the point, in fact, that I was practically crying with laughter for one point. Okay, so don't judge me, (Actually do, I don't care) but I couldn't stop laughing with how over-the-top this game treats 'health packs'. So, near the back end of this demo you come across a pregnant woman hanging on a wall and are instructed to beat her stomach for health. (I kid you not.) And the grand finale is literally reaching in there and pulling out the foetus to drink it's blood. It's so ludicrously demented that I just couldn't stop giggling. But safe to say; maybe not a game for everyone.

Though not traditionally my bag of game, (fighting games don't exactly rule my digital games shelf) I can certainly see Succubus appealing to some folk out there if it comes around; and I'm certainly glad that the artistic talent that went into creating Agony isn't being wasted. (Although I do wonder if it's maybe going a tad underutilised.) All I would say that could be improved this very moment about the game is that A. it could perhaps use with a 'censored' mode if it wants to take full advantage of grass-routes marketing and B. it could use a stronger name. Succubus just sounds pretty plain and lame, I think they'd be better suited using another melodramatic synonym to pain that riffs off of 'Agony'. Or just another one-word title that's vague, but indicative. I don't know, I just think that with a name like 'Succubus' they're risking putting people off that haven't played it yet. But aside from that, I'm morbidly curious about how much more twisted the world these developers have made can get. Hey, what else can I say? I'm a glutton.