More than just a simple restoration of the content that was cut in order to avoid the dreaded AO 18+ rating, this “Unrated” rerelease is actually a full Cyberpunk 2077: 2.0 Update style overhaul of Madmind Studios’ critically-panned 2018 debut title. I’m not going to lie and say every problem has been fixed here. Flaws remain in the form of enemy AI that ranges from unimpressive to downright clueless, horribly designed segments like the optional Baphomet boss fight, and the fact that you need to disconnect from your internet to keep the thing from crashing before you can ever even reach the gameplay. That being said, the wide variety of QoL improvements, which run the gamut from minor alterations to the level design to a complete reworking of the skill tree so that it actually provides you with meaningful upgrades, do elevate what was previously a notoriously busted mess into something that is entirely playable. You know, offline at least…

By far the most significant changes are the ones that were made to the lighting alongside the addition of a mini-map. I remember the biggest grievance basically every reviewer had with vanilla Agony (outside of the plethora of bugs that appear to have all been squashed) was the frustration that arose from constantly getting lost in the overly dark, maze-like environments. Well, that issue has been totally resolved now thanks to those aforementioned fixes allowing players to both know and legitimately be able to see where they’re at in the nightmarish labyrinths, altogether making navigation much more palatable. The latter of the two even shows the locations of the hundreds of collectibles that can be used to unlock bonus goodies like artwork and a prequel comic from the main menu.

Honestly, about the only major shortcoming that didn’t get addressed in some form or fashion is the frustrating lack of direction you’re given whenever the game expects you to do anything other than stealthily sneak your way through a stage, flip an inconveniently and unnecessarily well-hidden switch to shutdown traps blocking your path, or locate the correct sigil written on a wall somewhere that’s required to open up the way forward. For the most part, you’re never asked to do anything terribly elaborate in your time condemned to the fiery depths, but I tended to find myself pretty confused and needing to consult a guide the relatively few instances you are. That’s because there’s little indication that you’ll all of the sudden need to do certain stuff in order to progress—such as possess a flying fire devil and crash it into a very specific section of a massive ice wall, or carry a torch across a bunch of logs floating in a lake of blood and burn the bramble inside a cave on the other side with it to wound the unholy beast residing within.

Things like that are why this unique survival-horror experience still won’t click with many even in this more refined state. At the end of the day and despite the devs’ best efforts, Agony Unrated is essentially a jankier, far less polished Amnesia: The Dark Descent with some creative ideas that don’t always live up to their full potential. Take the possession mechanic for example, which is a neat spin on a traditional lives system where you have a limited amount of time to take over the body of any nearby fellow tormented soul upon death (provided you’ve removed the bags covering their faces) before you’re kicked back to the last checkpoint. The attempt to expand upon it by granting players the option to also hijack demons later on in the story sadly falls short, as doing so ultimately proves disorienting rather than empowering due to how you’re stripped of all the tools that are essential for helping you figure out where to go next when running around as a vile abomination.

Nevertheless, I personally found the gameplay competent enough to keep me engaged, if only to witness the full scope of Madmind’s UNFORGETTABLE depiction of Hell. Yes, the infernal landscapes you’ll traverse and the horrific sights contained therein are the real stars of the show. Let me be perfectly clear, this isn’t an experience for the faint of heart. Nearly every direction you turn there’s an incredibly graphic portrayal of torture, suffering, or some other type of obscenity that, while never outright scary, did leave me repulsed and disturbed in a way nothing else in the medium outside of the first Postal has to date. Well, nothing that isn’t straight pornography, that is…

Despite the extremely explicit displays of shocking, grotesque imagery that will undoubtedly carry an appeal to people who are sick in the head for all the wrong reasons, I think merely labeling the game as “edgy” in the manner so many have is plainly reductive. I never felt that it was attempting to be provocative solely for the sake of being provocative. Each moment no matter the degree in which it pushed the boundaries of good taste came off to me as having been placed there with genuine artistic intent, and as thematically appropriate given the subject matter. Of course, it certainly helps that a lot of the previously censored material that was returned here makes the overall vision and narrative markedly clearer and easier to understand than they previously were.

Consequently, I can recommend this to those who have strong stomachs and can tolerate a hearty dose of eurojank. It may not exactly be enjoyable in the traditional sense, yet I can’t help but seriously appreciate the package’s now uncompromised imagination, originality, and plot which features an interesting expansion on a character and tale from Judeo-Christian lore. There’s also a ton of replay value thanks to the multiple different endings, secrets that only become available on subsequent playthroughs, a randomized roguelike challenge mode, and a shorter secondary “Succubus” campaign that introduces its own mechanics and cutscenes.

While the general critical reception likely still wouldn’t have been great, I can’t help but wonder if things would have turned out differently for the team at Madmind Studio had this been the version of Agony they originally released. As of this writing, the controversial Polish company is currently on its last leg. They essentially started off 2026 with the announcement that they would no longer be developing their own projects, their CEO had jumped ship, they’ve reduced their workforce to a mere two employees, and would be attempting to shift exclusively into the role of a publisher for outside talent (source). All signs they probably won’t be around for too much longer, and stuff that naturally makes for a strange, almost bittersweet feeling to have finally tried (and dare I say, LIKED) one of their works in the very same year those revelations were brought to light. Regardless, as someone who’s had fun digging through the catalogues of similarly unhinged creatives such as Running with Scissors, I look forward to checking out the rest of the entries in the interconnected “World of Agony” as my introduction to it, albeit highly imperfect, wasn’t terrible and has me curious to discover the rest of the transgressive routes it explored.

7/10